A Timorese house. According to local custom, the house is always inherited by the youngest brother.

Myths of origin

No social group on Timor exercises more influence over a person’s daily life than his clan, which in most regions consists of males and females who trace their ancestry exclusively through males.  A clan’s members consider themselves distinct from other clans because they each share the same family name, perform the same rituals, dance the same dances, sing the same songs, and heed the same taboos.  These proprietary rights were conferred on their earliest forefathers, as described in the clan’s myth of origin.  This unwritten constitution is recited by the clan’s lia na’in when its members come together to celebrate their genesis as a community, usually at a birth, marriage, or death.

Of the hundreds of clans on the island, the eel clan is among the most widespread and its myth one of the most typical.  As a charter defining their distinctive social identity, this narrative justifies those contemporary customs unique to the eel people: the taboo against consuming eel meat, the rituals and dances only they may perform, and the fact that whereas elder brothers are superior to their juniors in everyday affairs, younger brothers are ritually superordinate.  A younger brother, for example, will sit down to eat at feasts only after his elder brothers have seated themselves.  The youngest brother inherits his father’s house, however, for it is a temple where ritual sacrifices are offered to the ancestors.

The eel clan.  Once upon a time there was an old man who had a wife and seven sons.  The name of the youngest son was Ali, and the name of the eldest son was Lela.  One day the seven men were traveling in a territory new to them.  At midday, the elder brothers ordered Ali to fetch water from a nearby stream.  Taking a pitcher with him to the stream, Ali noticed an eel playing in the water and making it dirty.  So, instead of collecting any water, he returned to his brothers. When he told them why he had failed to collect water, they called him a liar.  They ordered him to go back and fill the pitcher.