A very rare ethnographical account of Seiçal, a tiny section within the admittedly small Timor-Leste. Eduardo António Pinto Crisostomo, about whom next to nothing is known, appears to have been a member of Timor-Leste’s civil service.
This document was produced in the mid-nineteen sixties and illustrated thoughout with original photographs (all captioned), the leaves are numbered in manuscript and the author has signed the preamble on page 10. It commences with the telling of the tale of the foundation of Baucau, Timor-Leste’s second largest city, but the focus is on the people living in Seiçal, which is bordered by the Seiçal river running northerly from the Timor mountains into the Wetar Strait. A history of the original inhabitants, and the settlements and jurisdictions along with their populations precede chapters on food, narcotics, housing, clothing, childrens games, ceremonial dances, and a handy vocabulary.
Crisostomo’s ethnography records valuable information, and real insight, into a people who are otherwise barely noticed in the world’s press.
The trouble taken with production, not least the printed red wrappers suggests this work was printed in more than a single copy, but it’s not located on OCLC, Libraryhub, or KVK.
