The distribution of the chapters in Part One, provides the contrasting views and practices of a “Governor” (Alfonso de Castro, in function 1859-1863) the foreign “Naturalist”, H. The first half dealing with non-professional ethnographers, mostly Portuguese colonial officers, a Catholic missionary, besides an English/Scottish naturalist, while the second half showcases academically trained ethnographers, from the early 1960s to 1975. His field survey was s (.)ģThe core of the book is divided in two neat, complementary, parts, ch. 1 to 6 and ch. 7 to 10. Forbes (1851-1932) arrived in Dili with his wife Annabella in 1882. However, it takes on the articulation of these topics, following the historical developments that unfolded on the island, the most remote Portuguese settlement in Asia. As the title and subtitle of the book indicate, the main topic is concerned with the anthropology of religion and identity-or “spiritual realm” as Doug Kammen (National University of Singapore) writes in the foreword (xvi)-rather than ethnography, colonial rule and politics per se. In doing so, he unwraps subjective motivations and biases in an epistemological discovery of ethnographical approaches of the island’s indigenous societies, based on more than a century of research.ĢThe book takes on an original format, based on storytelling and narrative, with a focus on Timorese animism in the prism of colonial and post-colonial interpretations that runs through the ten chapters, while the conclusion considers rather theoretical issues and approaches in the study of animism, specifically in connection to East Timor. Ethnographic locations of anthropologists are considered in the line of Clifford and Marcus seminal work, Writing Culture (1986) informing his textual analyses (17-19, 272-275). In a ground-breaking “anthology” of ethnographic writing and practice, Shepherd provides a discursive analysis of fieldwork’s methodology and background on the Eastern region of the island. 1 The book addresses the period from the second half of the 19 th century to 1975. Shepherd, an anthropologist, has an experience of fieldwork in East Timor. 1 Shepherd first visited East Timor in 2002, then he enrolled in Anthropology at the Australian Natio (.)ġThe author of this intellectually stimulating book, Christopher J.
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