3. People and Culture:

There are many local cultures and languages in East Timor. The population is highly heterogeneous and aside from East Timorese includes a small fraction of people who are not ethnically East Timorese: including Chinese merchants, descendants of Arab migrants and Indonesians who married East Timorese. Very few of the indigenous cultures have been anthropologically documented: Tetum of Viqueque district, Ema of Marobo in Bobonaro district, and Mambai in Aileu district (See Hicks 1976, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1997; Renard-Clamagirand 1971, 1972, 1975, 1980, 1982; Traube 1980; 1986).

a. Ethno-linguistic groups

b. Features of indigenous cultures

c. Religion: Catholicism and ancestral cults

d. Samples of ancestral myths: oral history