ABSTRACT

Marital exchange between origin ‘houses’ is central to Timorese narratives and has been a central concern of anthropological study of Portuguese Timor and independent Timor-Leste. This article challenges the notion of stable patterns of marital exchange between named houses across time. Drawing on data from the colonial census, this paper finds a severe imbalance in the sex ratio during the first half of the twentieth century. Starting from subsistence agriculture, demographic shocks, the head tax and the introduction of forced coffee cultivation, the paper identifies the neglect and mistreatment of females, inflationary pressures on the bride price, increasing polygamous marriage and significant maternal mortality as key causal mechanisms that led to a highly imbalanced sex ratio. These dynamics impacted the age of marriage for men and women, and resulted in a sharp increase in the number of men who were unable to marry.

摘要

起源“房屋”之间的婚姻交换是东帝汶叙事的核心，也是葡萄牙东帝汶和独立的东帝汶人类学研究的核心关注点。本文挑战了跨时间命名的房屋之间婚姻交换的稳定模式的概念。本文利用殖民地人口普查的数据，发现 20 世纪上半叶的性别比例严重失衡。该论文从自给农业、人口冲击、人头税和强制种植咖啡的引入开始，将女性的忽视和虐待、新娘价格的通货膨胀压力、一夫多妻婚姻增加和孕产妇死亡率显着提高作为关键的因果机制，导致性别比例极不平衡。这些动态影响了男性和女性的结婚年龄，