This article examines today’s perception among Indonesians of the Portuguese presence in Eastern Indonesia during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Despite evidence of the often violent pursuit of supremacy and material benefit by European navigators, the local population has different understandings of the past. An assessment of these from an anthropological perspective is guided by twin concepts such as emics and etics, and memory and history. Our case study combines documentary research and fieldwork, focusing on a colonial fort in Amurang, on the island of Sulawesi. The present-day accounts of the local population and of some official organizations attribute a Portuguese origin to this fort, and narratives about the Portuguese abound in folk memory, often contradicting the findings of scientific research. Significant is the positive image of the Portuguese prevalent among the population. The article includes historical data on the Portuguese and Spanish presence in Indonesia and ethnographic data of Amurang, as well as architectural and archaeological details of the fort.

In the nineteenth century, diverse geological, biological and anthropological features of the Island of Timor were explored and interpreted. Those explorations were often the by-product of travels with quite different goals, such as reconnaissance voyages to Australia, research in other parts of Southeast Asia, whale-hunting, or the administrative concerns of Dutch and Portuguese civil servants. In this text, which deals in particular with ethnographic details found during expeditions in Timor, three quite different study travels are outlined: the first the French multidisciplinary expedition led by Nicolas Baudin, at the beginning of the century; the second the round trips by the Scottish naturalist Henry Forbes and his wife Anna, in the 1880s; and in the third place the digressions of the Dutch civil servant J.G.F. Riedel, during the final decades of the century. Recurring characteristics of these expeditions are the interests in the physical side of anthropology and the capacity or willingness of an explorer to adapt to customs and respect beliefs of the local population.

Entre os habitantes da Minahasa, no nordeste da Indonésia, é comum indicar certos fenómenos como “portugueses”, ou “de origem portuguesa”. Trata-se de nomes, palavras, expressões musicais ou coreográficas, objetos móveis e imóveis, que, segundo a população, comprovam uma prolongada presença de portugueses na sua região. Esta interpretação contrasta com aquela de historiadores académicos, que encontraram nas suas fontes apenas referências a algumas breves visitas por portugueses, no século XVI. Neste artigo apresentam-se algumas explicações possíveis deste fenómeno.

In May 2002, when its independence was formally established, Timor-Leste became the latest of the former Portuguese colonies that had to come to terms with its colonial heritage. But this was not its only challenge, as this territory had been occupied by its neighbour Indonesia in the period 1975-1999, entailing misery for the population and an ‘Indonesiazation’ of their cultural expressions and institutions. The new state of Timor-Leste needed to conquer respect on the world stage – on the map it is a dwarf between the giants of Indonesia and Australia – and also legitimacy among its citizens, where problems triggered in particular by the Indonesian occupation still lingered. Therefore, the closely-connected processes of state-building, nation-building and identity-building have been going on until now. The state and several linked organizations such as the educational institutions are highly involved in the promotion of the ‘feeling of belonging’ to Timor-Leste among the citizens. Factors which complicate this identity-construction include internal rivalries, the cultural influence of Indonesia, and the great heterogeneity of the population, which counts about twenty ethnolinguistic groups. In the paper several dimensions and symbolic objects and events that are created and activated for the construction of a national identity are examined. These are the flag and anthem, language, religion, monuments, the cult of national heroes, and national celebrations. In most of these dimensions elements of perceived national culture as well as of Portuguese legacy are interwoven. The paper is based on documental research and interviews and observations in Timor-Leste during November 2016. PowerPoint, not the written texto, available.

Preface to the book Pretty women by Dewi Nusantari, referring the cultural variety of the ideal of female beauty, and indicating how patriarchy is a major factor in inciting women to make sacrifices to correspond to the beauty norms of their culture.

Powerpoint presentation displaying images to illustrate a talk on culture and colonial politics in 19th-century Minahasa (northern Sulawesi) at the Studium Generale, Universitas Sam Ratulangi, Manado. Special attention is given to the words and works of Eduard Douwes Dekker, secretary of the Residency Manado and later the author of the iconic piece of Dutch literature, Max Havelaar.