Symbology of Plants in Traditional Healing in Timor-Leste and its Desacralization on Social Media
Afonso de Almeida and Karin N. R. Indart
Abstract
This paper addresses traditional and ancestral healing techniques in Timor-Leste and their symbolisms. First, we present data from an ethnography conducted in a village in Timor Leste, Mota Ulun, a village in the Bazartete administrative post of Liquiçá, in East Timor. We then provide extended data on the nomenclature of plants provided to us by our eight informants. Following this, we discuss with the informants their rituals when healing the sick, and how these rituals accommodate their use and the symbolism of plants.
This study relates plants and their parts to the cure of certain diseases. We compare the plants cited in the study to the use of medicinal plants in the village of Mota Ulun, and describe how specific rituals are required for extracting and handling the plants for treatment. This demonstrates that the plant itself has limited healing powers without spiritual and ancestral powers and intervention when Lulik is invoked.
Keywords: Traditional healing techniques, Social media, Process of desacralization, linguistic anthropology