Traditional Cultural ‘Matas’ Leadership of Púgeben Buná Wala-Tilomar Post Administrative in Covalima District Administration Timor-Lestean Ethnography Research and Narrative Story

Traditional Cultural ‘Matas’ Leadership of Púgeben Buná Wala-Tilomar Post Administrative in Covalima District Administration Timor-Lestean Ethnography Research and Narrative Story

¹João da Silva., ²Ali Imron Arifin.,  ³Juhariyanto

¹State University of Malang, Universidade Oriental Timor-Lorosa’e

^2,3State University of Malang

DOI: https://doi.org/10.51584/IJRIAS.2025.100500029

Received: 20 May 2025; Accepted: 24 May 2025; Published: 04 June 2025

ABSTRACT

This research refers to the “traditional cultural ‘Matas’ leadership of Púgeben Buná Wala-Tilomar Post Administrative of Covalima district administration, Timor-Leste. it is an ethnography research and scientific narrative story. The objective of this literature review research analysis is to discover and identify the hidden story that sticks with the people of Buná in the traditional leadership of ‘Matas’ as the highest leader in the tribal family and the followers. The ‘Matas’ leadership is controlling and monitoring, safe, and secure the condition of his followers as part of his role and functions. The result or finding this scientific analysis on this traditional doctrine of ‘Matas’ leadership and his followers believes in three entities: God-Nature-Ancestors to empower the lives of the people of Bunak or Buná in general society. The doctrine of traditional ‘Matas’ leadership is descended by the Beimil-Tatamil to continue their steps and generated to the young generation from time to time. For this reason, no one can fracture and violate the roles and functions of the ritual activities and depend on them until the end. The role and functions of ‘Matas’ leadership can be held until he dies and replaced by his young brother or nephews or his own sisters if the young brother or nephew does not exist in the family. The ritual ceremony is a tradition in which they show their belief and love to the God- Nature- Ancestors to protect, secure, safe and give them benefit until the end of their lives. The method of this investigation collected some information from the 5 responders from the total population 750 villagers from three sub villages, Wala, Fatuk Metan and Nikir part of Foholulik Suco of Tilomar sub district post administration.

Key words: ‘Matas’, traditional leadership, believe, ritual, the tribal followers

INTRODUCTION

Leader or leadership is principal job for a person who is naturally and chosen by a group of people to lead his group for the working management. Natural leader is a leader who naturally led such family group based aristocrat leadership. (Smith, 2004) Leader is a person who leads or commands a group of people, organization of country. Leader is, to Collin (Collin,2004: 181) a person who is in charge of an organization such as a political party.

Gary Yukl (Yukl, 2010) argues that, “the term leadership is a word taken from the common vocabulary and incorporated into the technical vocabulary of a scientific discipline without being precisely redefined.”Leadership is, most fundamentally, about changes. What leaders do is create the systems and organizations that managers need, and, eventually, elevate them up to a whole new level or. . .change in some basic ways to take advantage of new opportunities. —John P. Kotter. (Yukl ibid., 2010:3).

While  Yukl  (Yukl, 2006: 8) defines leadership as “the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how to do it, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives.” (Peter Northouse, 2010: 3) defines leadership as “a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal.” These definitions suggest several components central to the phenomenon of leadership. Some of them are as follows: (a) Leadership is a process, (b) leadership involves influencing others, (c) leadership happens within the context of a group, (d) leadership involves goal attainment, and (e) these goals are shared by leaders and their followers. The very act of defining leadership as a process suggests that leadership is not a characteristic or trait with which only a few certain people are endowed at birth. Defining leadership as a process means that leadership is a transactional event that happens between leaders and their followers.

Fig.01: Foto Holsa, receber o fresco dos aliados. 2005.(Sousa, 2010:207)

Aristocrat leadership is a leadership that is descended to the generation in the same family as called ‘guk kede’ to Buná  (Silva, 2023). And the king’s leadership is generated to a son or daughter in general kingdom traditional but the power of Buná tribal leadership is descended to a young brother or a nephew or can be a girl if without a man in the relative, when an old brother who hold the position died, according to the traditional habits of Buná, every kind of tribe they have own leadership in the group, if there is no young brothers, nephews, it can be downed to the an old lady if exist in a same family as called deu guk kede or lisan kede (a same relative or tribe). This habits is generated from tata and bei, the ancestors’ ancestors. Guk is a tribe or tribal in a same sacred house generation and kede is one or same line of a family. They are inherited and following the matrilineal systems, follow the mother lines wedding systems, all properties are belong to the girl’s side, even hard (Silva, 2023) work result plentiful in his family that a man who forms together with his wife and his children.  This is known with a word called as ‘tutu tama’, wedding in  system. This systems are adopted by the people of Buná or Bunak in general of east Timor public societal and some ethnic group also follow this descendent rules of wedding in matrilineal systems, while the wedding out adopted by some district regions such as Baucau, Viqueque, Kemak (Bobonaro, Atsabe of Ermera, mambae of Ainaro, Aileu, Manufahi, etc.).

Buná Traditional ‘Matas’ Leadership

The Traditional leadership is following the ancestry way of life since the bygone be bygone, and it is called ‘beigua’ in Buná. The rule of a man who use to called him ‘‘Matas’ deu gomo’, landlord of Uma Lulik, he is a man who leads the tribal house called sacred house or deu pó in Buná terms. He is only a man who knows the way and trace the ancestors’ footsteps from time to time and changed each other from an old generation and descended to a new generation. The following pictures are showing a leader of sacred house (photo: 29 of Sousa, 2010:207) giving a blessing to the followers of a Sacred house called Lokal Giral Deupo. And an old man is freshening the hand of the followers  of deu guk (a tribal) namely Lokal Giral, at Holsa, Maliana, Bobonaro District of Timor-Leste.

Fig.02:  Foto  Holsa, deslocação à Casa. aliada. 2005.Em Holsa, (Sousa, 2010: 207) todos foram recebidos pela Casa de onde tinha saído a mulher que ajudou a constituir a Casa Lokal Giral, tendo-se novamente procedido ao sacrifício de outro frango na Casa situada no tas, agora abandonado, e na Casa situada no povoado actual, onde foram recebidos pela família aliada (fig. 01 Foto Holsa) e receberam a bênção hu – “soprar”, dos descendentes desta Casa (Fig. 02 Foto Holsa).“They were all received by the House from which the woman who helped a sacred house of Lokal Giral at Holsa which had been left, with another chicken being sacrificed again in the house located in Tas Holsa, now abandoned, and in the house located in the current village, where they were received by the allied family (Fig.1: Photo Holsa) and received the blessing ‘don hú-blew in the palm of the hand’ from the descendants of this House.” All the participants raise the glasses (Fig.: 2 Photo Holsa) show the relationship amongst them cannot be ended forever.

When a ‘Matas’ blows the hand of everyone, the followers must give $.50 cents until one dollar to him for strengthening the blessing in a house just being built with some ritual that referred to respecting the Tatamil – beimil – the ancestors’ ancestors. After getting the blessing from ‘Matas’ then they drink and consume the food together for respecting that from the beginning until recent times, the group has been continually strong from generations to generations, always green, fresh, and fertile. No fade appears in the future of their life in the group. Tatamil – beimil (Silva, ibid, 2023)  are their ancestors since, from the beginning until today, their generations have increased and developed forever and ever. After hu, the hand of the relative spitting juice puts a cross on the forehead for every family member to be fresh forever during their lives in the future, with no challenges and no negative impacts. The pictures (fig. 1 and fig. 2) show that a leader of a tribal Sacred house only has the power to give green, fresh, and fertility to the family members, giving and blessing, huruk o bulas to the participants in a tribe relative family.

The ‘Matas’, an old man who was selected as a single leader for a tribal generation in a relative group. The above ritual activities show that a ‘Matas’ has his own power descended from him, the power of war, and also power in a relative structure. He is almost as same as a god in their generation, the ghost of the ancestors is with him, and he has the power to make decisions. No one opposes his leadership, even in lack of capacity or condition, but the spirit of the ancestors always with him whenever he lives wherever he goes. Photo in fig.1 shows that the followers in receiving the huruk o bulas –cool or fresh in fertility to make them always healthy, safe and always in good condition, and ever green.  Tribal leaderships decide based on the descended tradition.

All rituals are done based on the habits of the descended tradition as a chieftain of the habits to respect an invisible things that were left by the ancestors, who gave and transferred the power down to the new generation. This is a traditional kingdom leadership that was released by the ancestors to the generation for following in their footsteps from time to time.  Silva (ibid., 2023:53) in his conclusion argues that, “the people of Timor who live and occupy the  land of Timor (including west Timor) they thought that the invisible things are highest strengths than the living people, therefore they respect the ancestors and nature as un seen things that a highest invisible things which dominating the life of human as they called spirits, or  Spiritu as in Tetun and Mugen o Beimil-Tata mil (in Bunak) – the spirits of the ancestors and nature has its own spirits, Muk gomo, phan Gomo, hot Gomo, hul Gomo, (the owners of land, the owners of heaven, the owners of sun, the owner of moon, or God as we call today etc.

The unseen things have huge powers than the living people. It is the habit of believe of the people of Timor-Leste since the periods of ancient time until present day.”  They thought that, naturally, everything, including non-living things, has its own ownership that we don’t see, they have the power to help and to cure the human life. For this, the Bunak (Schapper, ibid., 2016)  to respect the places toward the unseen things, people also used to tell the history of ancestry folktales and literature orally to the young people, what they called sapal or zapal, an oral story, at night and were forbidden from telling the folktales to the young kids in the day. Unless the negative consequences occur for both the storyteller and the children, That means that the story known by someone in transferring the skill and knowledge from the dark that referred to the old generation that was already left or dead.  In relation with this the people of Bunak very carefully tell the history that belonged to the ancients in the daytime to a researcher or an investigator (Schapper, 2016: 235).

Why is animal sacrifice done?

Fig. 03. From the right to left, Beilesu III is a leader for tribal Pugeben, G. Sarmento and his vice leader, Matas of Deu Sulí gol of Pugeben, Bei Loe. This picture shows the Matas and his followers are preparing the ritual for sacrificing animal (pig) by lok in using betel nut leave & areca nut. Photo was taken by the writer in 2011, at Wala Tuan village.

The aims of sacrificing the animal, especially a pig or chicken, depend on the on the rate of the problem. When the spirits come through a live person by dream called Mugen sa’e , the spirit gives some information to the live person who is being sick. Clear information is revealed by the spirit, and the spirit expresses the orders to all the tribal followers for preparing and readiness to do such house building as called deu pó, or fixing the funeral belonging to the death of Bei Mil-tata Mil many years ago for reminding them. ‘Matas’ mil bei gua tuil (adoration words to trace the ancestors), “ei Mugen o beimil tatamil, nei ei olo nona mele, ei uanona mele, bai hotu nei nege loi nina man, huruk o bulas hik ni liol hik ni nola, nei nimil zapok minak nei nege guel ni man nei nege loi ni na man, nei nita nipel gomo gasai, nei nege hik los ni na man, man los onal los, nei nita tuek kasu, libú ni na man guel ni na man, nei ei asoru, ei alok, molo o pú, hau na bare, funu na í eseka í ini tese, í alahun, nei nie solat ba’is ní (de Sousa (2010:20)  …………”

“Old men say mantra to trace ancestors ways of life: You all grandpa and grandma’s ancestors’ ancestors, we are in the places of you, we are walking on your footsteps, everything has given us the good life, given us the fresh, cold, given us the large ways for endless of our life, we are in incredible thinking, given us the bright and wellness, please take all kinds of diseases from us, go well and back well, release all the heavy bad things from us, given us the light and bright, we are meeting you, we respect you by providing these lok (gift or tribute) with betel nuts, areca nuts, lime, the war had destroyed us,  dispersed us, made us suffered, our power is less or not strong enough………….. .”

The information is gathered by ‘Matas’ Hima Bul, a principal leader who continuously monitors and controls the activities and matters in the tribe that happened against the relative in the tribal sacred house, and then the followers endlessly need him to sit and settle the matters jointly with other neighborhoods’ ‘Matas’ from Deu Kau (young brother’s house) and Deu Ka’a (older brother’s house) to say sorry together to Grandpa and grandma, who had left the house in hundred thousand years ago and returned spiritually, then gave the information as an order and warning to all tribal group participants. Because of the war conflict situation in areas wherever and the forgotten  dead people in the previous periods from time to time, so force the living people to do the worship in needing the sacrifice necessities for say pardon to the deceased who had left the Deu Pó (Sacred House) many years ago and are passing away in the recent periods. Deu Pó is a sacral or sacred house. The followers are needed to respect and obey their ways of life, which were decided by ‘Matas’ to respect all descended by the ancestors in the past continually until today, from the beginning to the end.

The animal sacrificed to say sorry for the forgotten things that had not been done yet, apologizing for respecting them and providing adoration to them to continue to respect them (the unseen spirits of Tatamil-Beimil). (Silva, 2023:38). On the other hand, the followers are ordered by the ‘Matas’ Deu Pó to see the bula to know the result—is it a healthy or unhealthy effect? If the bula is showing scratches, bruises, or puffing, it is a sign that family in dangerous conditions. The ‘Matas’ ask them to follow the orders of their relatives.

‘Matas’ is a leader of a tribe group as the highest leadership of the entire suco or an ethnic tribal, and he decides to check bula, which is the liver of an animal is being slaughtered, such as a pig, a young hen, or a young cock. All these facts were done to search for and know clearly about the condition of the tribal group of deu guk (uma lisan in Tetun term). When an animal is killed, the bula indicates whether it was negative, bad, or good. The bula is showing no scratch injury, and no negative mark indicates the family is in good condition. If bula is showing a negative mark like scratch injures and full of blood on the bula sides, it shows a negative impact on the relative of the deu guk. The efforts of ‘Matas’ can lead to a decision to do an additional ritual for apologizing by using sal ho’on and adore by meeting with a traditional cloth called tais and tumel belis or bule’en (silver and gold) under a sacred pole called hima or directly to the dead funeral.

The animal is sacrificed to see the ‘bula’, an intestine part of stomach is checked for identifying the injure or healthy, if the intestine part is showing injured it signed that there are lots of matter are unsolved or can be solved after this animal sacrifice. The part of intestine is shown healthy means the family is well or nothing in negative impact will occur in the family in the next time (Silva, 2023). This is a traditional custom prior the ‘Matas’ as a leader in a family can solve rigorously the matter to answer the negative sign.

Ritual animal sacrifice is a practice found in many cultures and religions throughout history.  Often performed as a means to appease deities, seek favor, or ensure blessings (e.g., harvests, fertility). Serves as a communal ritual that strengthens group identity and cohesion. Ancient Religions: Such as those in Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome. Indigenous Practices: Many indigenous cultures perform sacrifices as part of spiritual ceremonies. Ritual animal sacrifice is a complex practice rooted in cultural, religious, and social contexts. It reflects deep beliefs about life, death, and the relationship between humans and the divine. A ritual ceremony is a structured and often symbolic event that follows specific procedures and traditions (Dorothy Noyes, 2003); (Esquinas, Carretero. (2005).

Fig.04: A pig is being stabbed and collecting the bloods for checking up to see the negative and positive marks of bula. Photo by the writer in Dili, 2019.

‘Matas’ leadership holds the position until the end of his whole life

At the beginning, humans from the same family—the generation of Prophet Noah and his generations after Adam and Eve—produced humans from periods to periods continually; therefore, they married each other in the same family. Then the group of living people in a same family, consisting of the three sons of Noah and their wives, gave birth to the children’s generation from time to time after the incidents of deluge water. The humans all around the world are from the same ancestor’s family, Noah’s family.

Genesis (Gen. 1:26) “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

According to Alqur’an (As Ashaffat:77), “all the mankind of the world, the various kinds of ethnicities and states, are from three sons of Prophet Noah, they are: Shem, Ham, and Japheth, together with their wives, were saved from the Deluge to repopulate the Earth. These are the descendants of Ham, living in their different tribes and countries, each group speaking its own language. (Gen.10:20).

In the beginning of the history of human life, Adam and Eve had two sons and two sisters. According to the history of the Old Testament Bible (Genesis 5:4) in Pastor Bevans Welder (Welder, 2011), after Cain killed his brother, Abel, Cain married his own sister, no one else. The jealousy of Cain is very serious against his own brother, Abel, who had married Jumella, Cain’s twin sister.

Therefore, in the early periods of human history, it was necessary for close relatives to marry. We can presume that close relatives continued to marry because Abram [around 2,000 BC] married his half-sister (the daughter of his father’s different wife).  Terah is Sarai’s father-in-law according to Genesis (Gen.11:3)  and yet he is also her father according to Genesis (Gen. 20:12).  She and Abram had different mothers but the same father, therefore, Abram was Sarai’s half-brother.

When Abraham sent his servant to find a wife for Isaac, God directed him back to Abraham’s family.  Isaac married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, who was Nahor and Milcah’s son (Gen. 24:15).  Thus, Isaac married his first cousin, who was removed.  Put another way, he married his aunt’s granddaughter.

Jacob married even closer relatives.  He married his uncle’s daughters, who were his first cousins.  Jacob’s mother was Rebekah.  Rebekah’s brother was Laban (Gen. 29:10), and Laban’s daughters were Leah and Rachel. Today, state laws prohibit marriage to a child, grandchild, parent, grandparent, uncle, aunt, niece, nephew, or relative of half-blood, such as a half-brother or a half-sister. Several states also prohibit marriage to a first cousin and even to a more distant relative. And moreover, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife (Gen. 20:12).

In Muslim tradition, (Wikipedia, 2023) Cain was born with a twin sister named Aclima, and Abel with a twin sister named Jumella. Adam wished Cain to marry Abel’s twin sister, Jumella, and Abel to marry Cain’s twin sister, Aclima. Cain did not consent (agree) to this arrangement, and Adam proposed to refer the question to God by means of a sacrifice. God rejected Cain’s sacrifice to signify his disapproval of his marriage to Aclima, his twin sister, and Cain slew (killed) his brother in a fit of jealousy.

This issue is described in the Qur’an (QS.al-Nisa’/4: 23). “It is haram if you marry with your mothers; your daughters; your own sisters; your father’s sisters; your mother’s sisters; your brother’s daughters; your own sisters’ daughters…. In the Bible of Yobel (160–150BC), the names of Noah’s, Shem’s, Ham’s, and Yafet’s consist of:

The wives of Noah –Emzara, a daughter of Rake’el, and the son of Methuselah

• The wife of Shem – Sedeqetelebab
• The wife of Ham – Na’eltama’uk
• The wife of Yafet – ‘Adataneses

But Noah’s wife is still his own relative. For these logical reasons, the Bunak people share and divide their clans into various parts of clans or tribal groups of the people who live in the common society, and they are able to marry each other in different tribal clan groups and, hard-forbid, marry each other in the same family and in the same tribal or clan, (Silva, 2023). When a boy or girl has had a practical sexual intercourse, the spiritual punishment will be reachable in a very soon situation, and the clan group shall be killed by the spirit in a mostly violent way. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh (Gen. 2:240).

‘Matas’ is a word of Bunak or Buná origin that means an old man who leads the sacred house of a tribal group. A tribal or tribe group that the writer takes into account in this writing is a tribal relative called ‘Pugeben’, under the shade of a Banyan tree. It is a sacred group of tribal relatives who live under the shade of a Banyan tree. There are various kinds of tribal groups, and each tribal group has its own ‘Matas’ deugomo, who leads his own followers. The tribal differences are as follows:

[i] Pugeben; [ii] Aitula; [iii] Ma-kés; [iv] Ati-gatal; [v] Lau-katal; [vi] Xili-Gatal; [vii] Se’o-Gatal; [viii] Motul-Bul; [ix] Manu-gatal; [x] Bele-gatal; [xi] Tala-gatal; [xii] Lolo-gatal; [xiii] Lelo Bele; [xiv] Leowalu; [xv] Dasilae; [xvi] Mot gol; [xvii] Bele Bau; [xviii] Manunut; [xix] Pú Rapil; ]xx] Púgeben wa etc.

All these relatives’ tribal group houses are descended from Bobonaro, and those were dispersed from Bobonaro at the beginning of the periods, according to pre-history. Bobonaro, also called Mujuk Gibis, is the central part of the land of Timor. Various types are not mentioned above because they are in different places or locations in Timor, including some groups of Tetun speakers, Kemak speakers are similar tribal people descended from the same origin of Bobonaro, a navel area in the central of Timor.

A ‘Matas’ leader must hold his leadership until he dies, because his position is very sacred and only he can organize and lead the whole tribal group in a living community. The Buná are differently tribal, but they are from the same ancestors according to the pre-history of the Buná or Bunak. They are dispersed and divided from the center in Bobonaro Muk Gibis, a central part of the land of Timor.  The 20 tribal groups are listed above, they are divided by the ancestors, and they had their own ‘‘Matas’’ differently for leading their own ‘deu guk’ or deu lisan (tribal clan). And various of ‘deu guk’ or deu lisan are not mentioned; they are also spread out into Tetun, Kemak, and Mambae ethnic groups, and many relatives are in west Timor, like Lamak neen, Lakmaras, Kiwal, Wedomo, etc., part of Atambua, Belu (East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia). Even though they are different in blending races with other ethnic groups, their custom and Lisan tradition are similar, and they don’t let it be hidden and forgotten because it is dangerous and spiritual condemnation will occur suddenly to the tribal followers in uncertain times.

Fig. 07:  The pig meats are ready to be shared based on the rules of bones.  Photo was taken by the writer at a former village called Wala, Walan means naked since the ancestors hundreds years ago before and after the Portuguese occupations

Ethnography

Ethnography is a qualitative research method used primarily in the social sciences, particularly anthropology and sociology. It involves the systematic study of people and cultures through direct observation, interviews, and participation in their daily lives. Ethnography is a research study on the cultural perspective and its ritual activities.  It is the scientific description of peoples and cultures with reference to their particular customs and characteristics (Smith, 2004; Soanes and Stevenson, 2003). Ethnography literally means to ‘write (or represent) a culture’. Ethnography is a research approach that has traditionally been used to understand different cultures.” (Tacchi, Slater, and Hern, 2003: p. ii).  in (Silva, 2023).

Stuart Hall (2011:7) ‘Cultural studies is concerned with all those practices, institutions, and systems of classification through which particular values, beliefs, competencies, routines of life, and habitual forms of conduct are inculcated in a population’ (Bennett, 1998:28)  in (Hall 2011:7).

Ethnography is the work of describing a culture. The central aim of ethnography is to understand another way of life from the native point of view. The goal of ethnography, as (Malinowski,1922:25).  Puts it is “to grasp the native points of view, (James. Spradley, 1979), his relation to life, and to realize his vision of his world.” Field work then involves the disciplined study of what the world is like for people who have learned to see, hear, speak, think, and act in ways that are different. Rather than studying people, ethnography means learning from people.

As  (Schapper, 2016:233) argues in her article, “ hull topol – fall of the moon” argues that, “the more recent arrival of electricity and television in Bunak villages has further seen the traditional night-time form for telling Zapal lost. As a result, Bunak children know little of their oral traditions and literature; only elderly community members and some adults have knowledge of more than a few individual narratives from the vast canon of zapal that the Bunak once had. Encapsulating and elucidating aspects of the Bunak worldview, zapal, as with other forms of oral literature, is of undeniable ethnographic interest.”

The zapal or sapal must not be told during the dayntime; it’s allowed to be told at night, according to the doctrine of the Beimil-Tatamil (the ancestors). Or forbidden to tell it during the day time. The ‘zapal’ is to discover or to know and trace the ways of life of ancestors through oral literature. Their lives must not be told to anyone at any time or in the daytime. The ‘‘Matas’’ can only expresses and define the ancestors’ history through the night.

The rules of the division of the sacred bones, or Sesal Pó né 

The division of bones ritual was done by ancestries use to kill rats and quail birds, then use their bones to be distributed among the tribe groups in the same family, according to pre-history. The bones were shared to represent the tribe that was involved in the same tribal families by the ancestors of Buná, centralized in Bobonaro. Those kinds of animals, like rats and quail birds, lived during the civil war confrontations in that time, and there were no other kinds of animals. A house called ‘Deu Momen’ was descended firstly at the beginning of time. Deu Momen means old house or old clan. This clan, according to history, was decided to form firstly to build their own group clan called ‘Púgeben’, under the shade of the Banyan tree as known today. Their ancestors were from Papua from 70.000 to 60. 000 BC according to Antoinette Schapper (Schapper, ibid.,2016).

The sacred bones are shared based on the structure of the tribal relatives who had integrated into a tribal group since a long time ago. It was descended by the ancestors to the young generation to be followed and imitated in recent times. For example, Púgeben Deu Momen, the followers of this tribal clan has an especial habits in the group as same as other tribal clans. Deu momen means old house, an old clan that stands amongst other before new clans live together.  

For these reasons, many of the relatives of the tribal group refuse these rules because they think about their dignity and their position in the family group as being discriminated against by the clan leaders. That is the historical background of the people of Buná or Bunak sometimes called Bunaq, and it was caused by the civil war that happened a thousand years ago for those periods that were unknown by someone. Only the ‘Matas’ can be a history teller from the ancient times to the recent generation. No one can violate the rules of bone divisions; if not, it can cause a negative consequence, and the tribal group will be threatened by the mistake. We can have some victims, or death will arrive soon.

To settle this gap ‘Matas’ can say some apology statements or say sorry in a mantra as a regretting of the violation of the rules, or very often, it is even said to apologize to the ancestors’ rules and norms that were passed down to the generation. All these sesal or bones are not allowed to be eaten by the women, because it is forbidden unless the woman can be provoked by a mad or crazy illness or cannot give birth. The reasons are that only the men’s leadership can decide, or the men have the power to do everything, including the war conflict and the ‘khaluk’, amulet with them. All the hard things must not be done by women or forbidden to them.

The structures of Mata’s leadership and his roles and functions with his subordinates

The ‘Matas’ leadership has followed the ‘Beimil-Tata mil ways’ from the past until the recent generation. The ‘Matas’ always follows the ways of the ancestors’ ways of life. A ‘Matas’ is not selected, but the structural numbers of a family automatically indicate that the oldest male of a family can be replaced if that one is dead or has passed away. The following ‘Matas’ are the next following numbers of ‘Matas’. For example, if the oldest number has passed away, the following next brother (the first number is away, the following is the second number, then… continually) will be subsequently changeable to each other. If there is no male in the same tribal deu guk, he can be replaced by a ‘Momen’ (old lady), she is an old lady as a queen for the tribal family. ‘Matas’ is categorized as a king in a relative family group of tribes.

A ‘Matas’ leadership must not be given the position in the wrong way unless it can cause negative consequences, and it is based on the rules of bones that are shared on the structural ways of the duration that the tribal groups had accumulated with the new relative in the periods of beginning in the past. Because the grandpa and grandma’s ancestors’ ancestors left their generation as Lisan Beimil gon gua and Bai Pó, the holly tradition and doctrine of Bei and Tata, the ancestors’ ancestors, this is a tradition called beimil gie hik o gon gua.

The steps of the ancients were inherited by generations from era to era and continue forever. The tradition, which is a habit of following the ways and rules of the ancients that they generated for the young generation, will continue forever and the rules should be respected and accepted by the followers, ko’e o khaluk pó hi’il, the holly bags and holly boxes that are left by the grandpa and grandma’s’ ancestors from the beginning of the period, and show the obedience to them as a rule of the doctrines that they had created for the new generations.

Hima and Its functions

There are two types of Hima, Hima Pana and Hima Mone:

Hima Pana

Hima is a pole that was built in the house to raise a building to adore the ancestors. There are two sacred poles called ‘Hima’, Hima pana and Hima mone which stand up in the middle of a house building. These two poles are planted in the middle of the building with the objective of swearing to say mantras or swear words to the ancestors’ spirits, which are invisible things that are in the hidden places before, behind, and beside the followers.

When a ‘Matas’ expresses the words together with some other ‘Matas’ from other relative clans to say together means they are together, just as brotherhood to say some prays to ‘Hima pana’, female sacral poles to represent the female ancestors. This ‘Hima pana’ is adored to represent the all grandma who passed away many years ago. The order’s words meant to demand freshness and coolness from the female ancestors. Therefore, the girls who are giving birth to some babies are taking turns on nearly this ‘Hima pana’ sacred pole. Because the stove of the cooking place is also very close to this female pole, which means that a girl who was born just stays in the kitchen to serve her husband. The girls are forbidden to work hard outside the home. Because it is hard for them. The lady is a second family head in a house beside the husband. She can solve the family problem beside a husband, for example, by taking the children, cleaning the seeds, cooking foods, cleaning the house, getting the water somewhere, washing clothes, spinning the ‘tais’, traditional clothes, etc.

Hima Mone

‘Hima mone’, which is almost similar to the ‘Himan pana’ Sacred poles, are poles that stand up in the middle of the house to upright the house building located closely the entrance door. That means that a man can take and bring all heavy things into the family. ‘Hima mone’ is useful for men, the ‘Hima mone’, male holy pole to represent and respect the men’s ancestors and it is nearly the doorway into the room of women, which means the men can be a security force for protecting the family. Men can solve all the heavy matters in the family. A man is a security for protecting the family when a war has occurred. That’s why Hima mone poles inside the house and but another pole outside the house to represent the ‘Matas’ to lead and represent a clan relative in a family (see page: 21, fig. 09). When a group is in a tribal area, if any war conflict arises, the group must come and sit together in that family to get ‘kaba’ a sign cross (please see p. 4) on the forehead for getting the power and strength from the Kaluk and Baipó, a sacred amulet, and the spirits of Deupo and Beimil Tata Mil, from the ancestors. Everything is done based on the ways and signs of the ancients.  

The ‘Matas’ has his own assistant 1 or 2 or 3 they are chosen by a ‘Matas’ to represent bring an order to the followers in the clans families. Their role and functions is to bring the instruction to be followed by the tribal members. The role and functions can be seen in the following structural chart is an organization of ‘Matas’ leadership in a group of relatives, as shown in the following organizational chart:

Roles and Functions of a ‘Matas’

‘Matas’ is an old man who is being positioned as a highest leader in a tribal group. He is a king for the clan in the clan families. The essential roles and functions of a ‘Matas’ leadership in a tribal relatives are:

a. Settle down various problems in a same clan internally such as:

1. Live problems
2. Death problems

b. Assists and help the other clan matters

1. Live problems
2. Death problems

a. Settle down various problems in a same clan internally:

Live problems

A ‘Matas’ has his own leadership roles in the tribal group and very expected and respected by the followers in the high helping and assist the family who has some problematic in a family that is busy with the live people in a tribal family. The problem to be settled such as:

• Youth problems
• Husband and wife problems as in domestic violence issues
• General problems with the external clans
• Curing the sick persons in the tribal internally
• Harvest time issues internally and also externally with other clans
• Ritual ceremonies in internally and external clans to see the ‘bula’ etc.

Death problems

The presence of a ‘Matas’ is very expected and essential in a death problem. Even if he is in a distant place or far away, one of the followers of the same relative should be requested to pick him up at his residence. Because a ‘Matas’ and other clans’ ‘Matas’ sit together to see the cause of the disease, why did he or she die? If someone of the tribe has made a mistake before he or she gets a problem, all ‘Matas’ can see the matter together, which means it will not affect other relative members of the same tribe.

A ‘Matas’ cannot make any mistake, intentionally or unintentionally, in running his powers during his leadership positions. A ‘Matas’ conducts his tasks by making a mistake intentionally or if he does not appropriately conduct his job well, he is going to be killed suddenly by the hidden spirits. He cannot say sorry because the spirits know that whatever he has done. The spirits of Beimil-Tatamil’s’ ancestors are controlling and monitoring him and his leadership in hiding places (behind, beside, or in front of ‘Matas’). If a ‘Matas’ conducts his mistakes unintentionally in doing any kind of ritual by saying a mantra, he has to apologize to the ancestors’ spirit, which is beside, behind, or before him in a hiding place, for his mistake and regret his fault. The spirits give forgiveness to him, because they can see us, but we cannot see them in the hidden places.

b. Assists and help the other clans’ matters

Live problems

Without the presence of a ‘Matas’ for an external clan to assist in ceremonial activities, the activities must not be done because his presence is very important to the safety and help of the external family. They expect his presence to assist and save the lives of the living people in the external tribal relatives. He is coming and sitting together with the external ‘Matas’, Ai, or Malu to raise and settle the serious matter in the family of the external clan. They help each other, stay safe, and protect each other in a serious matter that threatens the family in an external clan. Even though they are different in the tribal group, they are one, from a same ancestor, united in diversity. With their own proverb slogan, ‘bai bon tuek ton toliton tane’, everything that is heavy can be raised together and become industriously.’

The ‘Matas’ from Ai and Malu tribal should need their presence to help and protect by solving the forgotten matters in the past to discover and settle for finding solutions. The presence of ‘Matas’ Ai and Malu to release and take away the heaviness of the serious matter from the family. Ai is a clan that was already different in the periods of Tatamil-Beimil, they can be called foreigners. They can marry each other with the internal tribal family because they were already dispersed millions of years ago, and Malu is a clan that has had a strong relative relationship since ancient times. They are still a strong relationship in many ways to save and help the lives of relatives. They must not marry each other, even though they are already different tribes. Malu means family or the same relative or a friend from the Tetun word ‘maluk’. If they marry each other in the wrong way or by mistake, it can threaten both clans’ families. Both ‘Matas’ from both sides can stand to solve the matter of either suspect, a boy or a girl; they must be separated, one must through out to another tribal relative if they continue to create the matter they belong to another clan; or they must not be paired anymore.  For example, the consequences appear or are threatened when both boys and girls have done illegal sexual intercourse.

Death Problems

The ‘Matas’ of Ai and Malu are important to see a death that is being lied about in a coffin; probably he or she has done a serious matter in the past. Therefore, they sit and see this matter together unless another problem occurs more in the future as a threat to the family’s side. If the internal tribal family does not do any matter, one of the spirits may represent dead people or, very often, the decease himself or herself informing an information through a live person who is being slept on suddenly, just as a dream on the matter that happened to the decease himself or herself or to a family. The spirit comes individually or in group through a live person in the clan’s family to say something is important. Then the bright way to solve the matter is with the final solution. The spirit of a dead person also informing the cause of death by black magic killing or he or she has done a serious matter in his or her own family, for example, he or she sells a sacred thing in the tribal house, etc.

Forbidden and dangerous

Very often, the followers had identified the origin of their ancestors’ ways of life in past periods of time. Many of them tried to return to their origins, where, in fact, they are from. They were condemned by the hidden spirit, which is an invisible power that comes and reaches the living  people to kill, and no one knows about the incident. It comes in a sudden situation, ‘Matas’ he is a leader. The leader does not reject them or chase them away, but they have their own ideas and are thinking to look for their unclear real relative, actually where they were from in the past. They are prohibited by the ‘Matas’ from going and finding their own relative one day because it is dangerous to their own lives in the future. If some of the followers do so, they are going to be killed in their lives by the unseen spirit that comes incidentally. Also, the ‘Matas’ might not discover anyone’s secret ways of life about past periods, the ‘Matas’ will also be killed by the hidden spirits if he discovers and opens all the secrets of the origins of some followers who try to return to their original family.

It is very dangerous, and they are going to be killed by the invisible spirit in a sudden situation if they discover it by themselves because they are influenced by someone. Because when they were integrated with a new tribal relative, they received a ritual called gosok ho’on and gabalas, accept and freshen. Before he or she entered a new tribal house, he or she must be accepted by an egg stirrup until the egg is broken, and also accepted with fresh water with green betel leaves, then splashed with the water before entering the building. This means that a new follower who is welcomed and can be integrated into this tribal relative will be one family and will never be back again to the previous tribal family or clan unless he or she can be punished spiritually by an ancestor or nature, as called bei gomo, (Sousa, et al., 2010) the landlord of ancestors.

Don Tomon or the Grill hand ritual before harvest time

This type of ritual ceremony is aimed to respect the ancestors and nature that give them the plentiful of foodstuff and fortune for the followers and not be hungry. Give the food reserve every year and continually. And the followers are going to be lack of starvation or less of food reserve if they forget to do the ritual of hand grilling.

This ritual doctrine demands the followers to continue do the ritual activities when reach the periods of the closer harvest time. Before this don tomon ritual, hand grill ritual activities is not yet done, somebody is prohibited to must not eat the fruits from trees, must not grilling the corn or cassava or pumpkin or relevant young foods are found in the farm that someone individually or in group has done it. It is forbidden for all the followers of the tribal just to mean can get sick easily and can give the way to wild animals to eat and destroy the crops in the farm at any time.

Fig. 9: The followers prepare the young corn for grilling preparation for the harvest time after few weeks following.

The instruments are prepared by their landlord’s children at a house called Deu Momen for this Don Tomon ritual ceremony. Historically, in preparing the betel leaf and lime powder, also areca nut fruits were put in an oba, it is a handmade box used for lok, which means to give and accept a new person as a visitor. Also, the prime tools are a machete, nut or crowbars, tudi gol or knives, besi or spear, lama or arrow, sola, and a bird or chicken slingshot. All these instruments are given corn seeds for working tools to use to help and assist human energy in working the farms. All these instruments are used for farm work, hunting bush animals, security tools, assistance, etc. During this period of harvest time ritual, the ‘Matas’ call all mone man, the men who have married the tribal relative and their wives; actually, they are from external clans, and pana man and their husbands.

Pana man refers to the women who have married the tribal men, these women are actually from different relative tribes or from external relative clans. To accumulate all the family members from the tribe by means of putting the seeds of corn into each of the places, such as tame animal places, chickens, pigs, the places we are working for, and the places we are walking, so that the spirit of nature and ancestors will not give any natural or spiritual sanctions. This activity is done in the months of February, March, or April every year when harvest time arrived. It depends on the corn, which is going to almost be harvested.

Fig. 10: a follower grilling corn show the ritual is  being  started.

There are some positive or negative impacts on the tribal sacred house that has been in place since ancient times. The positive and negative impacts are the following:

Positive impact

The ‘Matas’ and his followers follow and do in the correct way all the lessons that are inherited based on whatever the ancestors left for them. They are blessed by the spirits of nature and the ancestors so that they do not meet any negative impacts or challenges from the spirits. Also, there will be no spiritual sanctions from the tribal sacred house. Because it is a shade of live people and from generations to generations until the end of the life of tribal families.

Negative impacts

The negative impacts happen when the ‘Matas’ and the followers of the tribal are uncertainly doing the ritual ceremony in the clan families. The negative impacts are closer, and there will be some sanctions on the whole tribal family and the whole followers everywhere or at any time. Very often, during the war, confrontations made the followers forget to do the ritual events during conflict situations. The sanctions did not appear in the bad situations caused by the war and the loss of a family member. But very often, unless the war is ended, the followers are still in a traumatic and dilemmatic situation from the war and think about the loss of properties, family members, houses, etc. when the situation is back to normal as before the war and think about everything in the normal situation and calm and secure in so many years, but the followers still forget the ritual ceremonies to do so. This is the negative sanction that will occur against the living people in the tribal family.

Fg. 11: Beilesu IV- Daniel Tafuli is a Matas for Púgeben participants and he holds the Matas leadership after Beilesu III passed away on September 2017. Beilesu is doing a ritual ‘Bei galok’, share the betel leaf to the spirit of ancestors and divides the corn seeds based on the structure of the ancestors positions. Photo was taken by Narrator    Rosario Ximenes

‘Matas’ leadership own the position until his end of life

A ‘Matas’ leadership is at the end of his life, and his young brother or his nephew will replace him and take the position until he dies, just as same as his older brother did. When a decease is taken to the grave, the young brother or his nephew and the decease’ son use each stick of spear to move forward and backward three times, which means that even though he has left, the other comes to replace him (the dead person). Then the young brother, who is going to replace the deceased, mentions some statements in the mantra, such as the following:

Libusa, Libusa, Libusa (it is a mantra to addressing the name of an amulet)

Loea, loesina lolo gonion pous gonion, Majob o Walgomon gie Magaba Tsitci Bele Meta gie hobila Tabul na tal o no’ul tolo no (tatela hi goni’on).

Defining the meaning

Libusa (must be repeated 3 times) is an addressing word to the amulet or khaluk (which used as protector and safe of life in a tribal group), courageous, heroic, and patriotic in war.

Loea, Loe Sinaa, – an addressing word to a dead person whose name Loe or Loesina (the decease) who hold a leadership in the tribe called “Pugeben”, during he was alive under the shade of Banyan tree group (a name of a tribe).

Lolo goni’on fous goni’on – it is similarly mentioned to the three mountains or three hills-highlands that were crossed and passed by the ancestors.

Majob o Walgomon gie Magaba = the edges of the Majob and Walgomon bamboos tribes descended, it is the origin names of the places that they are born from before, Tsitci Bele Meta gie hobila = The heroic and patriotic person belong to a person whose name Tsitci bele Meta.

Tsitci Bele Meta is a name of the khaluk and the owner of khaluk or amulet for the first time.  Tabul na tal o no’ul tolo no = even has broken or destroyed the old one, a youngest leaf will arise again, even a leader person passed away he is replaced by a new one, a new generation (fill up the gap).

In relation to the above rules, normally the king’s leadership is downed to the son or his daughter, as in English called a crown of prince or princess, as (Nursaleh Hartaman, 2018:34) cited in her writing on the Aristocrats Power on Local Politics in The Regency of Bone (a place belong to Sulawesi province of Indonesia) as the rules of the descendent of the general kingdoms in a kingdom society. However, Buná societal has its own rules that is practiced by the ‘Matas’ as the highest leadership in the tribal relative as a clan group in the societies. From the beginning until today, it comes totally from the ancestors.

The ‘Matas’ leadership descended from the young brother or his nephew; if the young brother and his nephew were all dead at the same time, it could be descended to a sister or her daughter. But the leadership positions must not be transferred to a ‘Matas’ son as adopted by the general kingdom society around the world, the position of a king is descended to the son or daughter. It is hard forbidden for a ‘Matas’, the highest leadership in the tribal family, to over and transfer it to his son; the spirits will give a serious punishment to die in whatever situation before his end of life. If the followers agree to this action, they will be killed one by one at a time entirely.

The following poles represent the living four men who are from a tribal group called ‘Manugatal’, the generation of patriotic patriarchs since the beginning of the periods of time. The four poles are representing the live four men in a clan of ‘Manugatal’. According to history, there were two men named Laku and Manutae, brothers of the same father and mother from the same grandpa and grandma, who were very heroic men during a civil war, raised in their times, and descended to a new generation that has the tribal name ‘Manugatal’ today. In recent development, the generation whose last word, ‘gatal’ means grandchild, is from the same generation. They are descended from the same ancestor, they help each other, they respect each other, and they don’t marry each other, because they are inherited from the same ancestor.

The following poles are created after the house is built and inaugurated on October 2019.  The four living men represented by the four poles are:

1. Agustinho Ximenes
2. Graciano Ximenes
3. Yosep Barreto, and
4. Almeri Barreto (Silva, 2023).

Four of them are still alive, and they are the same as a tribal relative, and the people who have passed away must not be involved because there are no more activities for them. These four people have been brothers from the same grandmother and grandfather in the same ancestor tribal since the beginning. These four poles are called ‘Sirin’. Sirin is built after a new house is completely built, then there is an inauguration ceremony, and then the poles are built to represent a new ‘Matas’ leader. They are going to take turns and replace each other one after the other when a death arrives.

The inauguration is done during a ritual ceremony called mutun, in which hundreds of people were lost during the war. But for this ritual ceremony of this clan, the victims of the war for independence of Timor-Leste from 1975 until 2019, there are 105 people, including the babies, and some are not the victims of war; they died during the independence era from 2000 and on.

The internal and external relationship with other tribal groups

Internal relationships with the internal tribal group

As it is mentioned above, the ‘Matas’ leadership holds the highest position in the same chieftain collectively. He is also similar to a medic or a doctor among the followers. Because when a person is getting sick and has a health problem, he is able to cure them just by spitting juice on their forehead. All the followers in the tribe group must obey and show respect for him entirely. Sometimes if someone gets angry against him, he just says a bad word, saying that guy will soon face a serious disaster somewhere or can face a killing incident somewhere else. He just says some words about protecting the followers; it is a real thing that happens to the followers in the family clan. But it depends on the health of the person’s personality. Probably the ill person has done lots of things. For example, a man who has had problems hiding outside cannot be exactly cured.

External relationship

The relationship of ‘Matas’ externally with the other chieftains is one of brotherhood, even though they are from different tribal groups, they are all from the same ancestors, dating back millions of years. But after they were divided into other different clan relatives by the ancestors millions of years ago, they respected each other, what they called today ai and malu; they needed each other from one to another. ‘Ai’ they are able to marry each other, and Malu they are not allowed to marry each other. If whoever violates the rules of this norm, he or she is going to be killed by the spiritual ways and unknown by anyone else in the family. When a boy or a girl have some practical sexual intercourse with each other in a hiding situation, the negative consequences will come. There will be some punishments for both relatives, who will suddenly appear in immediate condition. But the ‘Matas’ usually gives warning if someone in these two tribal families has done any hiding sexual intercourse.

Consanguinities, or consanguineousness (Smith, 2004), happened because of the lack of control of the father and mother or their parents. This line of marriage is not allowed for every human. The doctrine of the Christian Church proposes that a wedding system with a same relative (generated from the same mother or father) is forbidden). Because that is still the same family blood. This act is hardly forbidden by Canonic Laws (Canonic:1091). It’s allowed to marry from one until four inclusive collateral lines; a person descended from the same ancestor as another but through a different line can marry each other (Archbishop, da Silva, 2017, in Silva, (2023).

According to Buná, it is not allowed to marry with the same ancestor even if they don’t know each other because of the war conflict situation. The ‘Matas’ will solve it with a good solution, which is for a boy or a girl to be separated and thrown out into another tribal relative family. And it is hard forbidden to marry in the same tribe of the same family. Because the condemnation is down to the tribe group, serious punishments like death and sickness happen to every family in the tribe itself.

Theory of Cultural Tradition Leadership

One of the earliest approaches to studying leadership was the trait approach. As (Gary Yukl, 2010:12) argues, “this approach emphasizes attributes of leaders such as personality, motives, values, and skills. Underlying this approach was the assumption that some people are natural leaders, endowed with certain traits not possessed by other people.” (Yukl, ibid.,2010:14) Another way to classify leadership theories is in terms of the “level of conceptualization” or type of constructs used to describe leaders and their influence on others. Leadership can be described as (1) an intra-individual process, (2) a dyadic process (two elements or parts of something), (3) a group process, or (4) an organizational process.

Some aspects of a leadership theory may be relevant for all cultures, but other aspects may apply only to a particular type of culture. The cross-cultural research on leadership was strongly influenced by the early study of cultural values by (Hofstede, 1980, 1993), but since then several different sets of cultural values have been proposed (e.g., House et al., 1997); (Javidan et al., 2006).; (Schwartz, 1992).; (Trompenaars, 1993) in ( ibid., 2010: 361)..

(Fry, 2003) (in Yukl, ibid., 2010) makes the point that religion usually involves spirituality, but spirituality does not need religion to be meaningful. Theories of spiritual leadership include values that can be found in several major religions (Kriger & Seng, 2005), but the theories do not explicitly include any other aspects of these religions. Confusion about the difference between spirituality and religion may be the major reason why earlier leadership theories did not include spirituality  (Fry, 2003). Theorists wanted to avoid any controversy about implied support for one religion or another.

(Demirtas, Ozgur, and Mustafa Karaca 2020:1) argue that “a leader can be defined as an individual who changes the paradigms of people, creates a vision, motivates followers with internal resources, engrains the idea that everyone has something to contribute to the shared goal, leads them, and directly affects the flow of events and results.”

The traditional cultural leaderships of Buná habitually in all situations and conditions are mostly to respect God, nature, and the spirits of ancestors or the spirits of the dead. They think that the spirits are higher than the living people. All the activities are blessed and depend on the invisible, such as the Spirits of God, Nature, and the ancestors were away from the living families.

According to Michael  (Michael, 2010) in Maria Vasilescu (Vasilescu, 2019: 48) pointed out that current leadership theories described leaders based on traits, behaviors, attributes and situations or how the influence and power are used to achieve objectives of the organization. Situations, contexts, culture, working environment, new laws and regulations, information overload, organizational complexities and psycho-socio developments remarkably impact the leadership concept thereby, making it commensurate to the changing organizational dynamics (Amabile, Schatzel, Moneta & Kramer, 2004, pp. 5-32).

Theory of Culture and socio-anthropology

The ancestors believed in three entities: God – Nature – and the ancestors. Their belief in God–Nature and Ancestors, can be realized in the three balls inside the circle showing that they represent: a. One yellow ball symbolizes an Impotent of GOD, humans who believe in GOD who surrounds Him and b. The spirits of the ancestors are symbolized by a black ball, meaning the death experienced by the ancestors due to illness and they suffered because they left their living family behind; and c. Nature is symbolized by a green ball, meaning that nature is always green because it provides water and food or other types of life. The yellow line represents the relationship between the three entities through trust or believe. The green lines surrounding the three balls mean that God is protecting them entirely while they are on earth, including the spirits of their ancestors. Vertical relationship with GOD and horizontal relationship amongst Humans, Nature and Ancestors. The round black ball of their ancestors means they suffered because they left their own family and were far from living relatives.

Humans exist therefore GOD exists, there are no humans, there is no GOD, or vice versa, because humans are the only creatures who know the existence of God and He is the one who created humans to know Him, humans trusts the GOD existence, serving to GOD no other living things can trust the GOD yet only the human can believe and trust of the existence of the GOD. The GOD creates all things in the earth, therefore human to continue to respect and shows their obedience to the GOD. The GOD love human (10 Commandment of GOD, love GOD more than everything and love other as same as love yourselves (Mathew, 22: 37-40).

The ball of God is yellow, which means serving and love creating everything on earth; the ball of humans is yellowish, almost red, almost red, which means the human has love in problematic situations, sins, suffers, death, and challenges that are being faced by themselves; the nature ball is green, which indicates that all living people are drinking water, food is growing on the land, and all living creations need all-natural resources, like all plants and animals are using the natural living sources and they need each other in the earth (chains of life).

Diagram 2: The human believe and worships toward the three entities, the God- nature -the Ancestors. This diagram is provided by the writer himself for his research on ethnography study at his village. Vertical and horizontal relatives.

Each people has its own characteristics, living on earth, its special constitution, its law, its morality, and its only economic organization, appropriate to itself, and any generalization is almost impossible. According to Emile Durkheim  (Durkheim, 1982) in his book ‘the Rules of Sociological Method’, on the other hand, all these special groupings, which are called tribes, cities, and nations, are only contingent and provisional aggregates (collections) without any individual reality.  Similarly, the believer has discovered from birth, ready-made, the beliefs and practices of his religious life; if they existed before he did, it follows that they exist outside of him  (Durkheim, Ibid., 1982:50,51).

According to Durkheim (Carls, Paul, 2024), “it is important to look at the starting point of Durkheim’s analysis, his definition of religion: “A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices that unite in one single moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them” The theory of culture encompasses various perspectives and frameworks that explain how culture shapes human behavior, beliefs, and social structures.

(Durkheim; 1995: 44)  in Carls (Carls, ibid.,2024). There are, thus, three fundamental elements to every religion, according to Durkheim: sacred objects, a set of beliefs and practices, and the existence of a moral community. Of the three, perhaps the most important would be the notion of the sacred, which is the point around which any religious system revolves. It is that which inspires great respect and admiration on the part of society and what is set apart and keeps believers at a distance. Durkheim contrasts the sacred with the notion of profane, or that which desecrates the sacred and from which the sacred must be protected, making the opposition between sacred and profane a central element of Durkheim’s theory.”

Durkheim adds in his collective conscience that, “the desires and self-interests of human beings can only be held in check by forces that originate outside of the individual. Durkheim characterizes this external force as a collective conscience, a common social bond that is expressed by the ideas, values, norms, beliefs, and ideologies of a culture (F. Elwell, ___) . While in religion, Durkheim also argues that while men are losing faith in the old religions, new religions will be born. All societies feel the need to express their collective sentiments, ideas, and ideologies in regular ceremonies. All societies need a set of common values and moral guidelines to inspire their members to transcend their selfishness.

The collective conscience refers to all things that are created by the human’s own ideas in the society through their own sentiment, such as some cultural tradition in the creation of rules of norms, religions, sitting together to solve and settle down some matters, the rules of wedding, the human having their own laws in the public societies, the human having a conscience that the God exists and that they are from the own God that is in believing or trusting in Him.

As he also argues on the moral values, he adds that, “the contained within this moral system is a set of moral values, beliefs, and truths that provide a framework for the rules. Morality is also a wholly social phenomenon, with morality not existing outside of the limits of society. As Durkheim claims, morality begins only when an individual pertains to a group.” (Carls, Paul, et al., 2024), Durkheim defines social facts as that “which is general over the whole of a given society whilst having an existence of its own, independent of its individual manifestations.” (Durkheim, 1893,  1964:49) (Wallace and Wolf, 1999:21) (in Keith, 2004), Durkheim’s examples of social facts:

• Laws
• Morals
• Beliefs
• Customs
• Fashions (Keith, 2004:15).

(Hallahan, 2001:2,3) describes that anthropologists and sociologists define culture more broadly:  culture is everything that goes on around individuals as part of everyday living. Culture is a property of a society or group of people who live together; a culture is shared by everyone and does not belong to any single individual. Within a society, there is often a general culture that binds based on everyone.  However, there can also be one or more sub-cultures, usually based on demographic or linguistic characteristics, which bind certain groups together within the general culture.”

It was often tainted by a belief in creatures on the boundary (Alan Barnard, 2004:16) between humanity and animality—monstrosities with eyes in their bellies or feet on their heads (see Mason, 1990). In order for anthropology to come into being, it was necessary that travelogue fantasies of this kind be overcome. Ironically, to modern eyes, what was needed was to set aside purported ethnographic ‘facts’ in favor of reason or theory.

The word ‘anthropology’ is ultimately from the Greek (anthropos, human’, plus logos, ‘discourse’ or ‘science’). Its first usage to define a scientific discipline was probably around the early sixteenth century (in its Latin form, anthropologium (Alan Bernard, Ibid.,2004:1).

Vision and Mission

Vision

The vision of this traditional leadership and its cultural doctrines is to develop and increase the traditional custom as a doctrine of the tribe to be spread out to the new generations from era to era, which must be respected and obeyed by the followers. And the followers should upright it and make it advance, from the old to the new generation forever. To continue and endure the habits of the traditional cultures of the followers into the future and forever.

Mission  

This tradition and its leadership will promote and make progress in relating the doctrines of the next generation as a continuation of the doctrines of the old generation to the future of the followers and their existence. The ‘Matas’ leadership is descended from the ancestors as the rule of orders downed to the generation to be related to the future generations in the clan group, also called the tribal family. The ‘Matas’ and his tribal followers just obey and respect the trace back to the old footsteps that had been left by the ancestors. Therefore, all the new generations accept or are given their names as the same as the ancestors’ names, e.g., a baby is given the name Lelo Mau because that baby is a male baby, and Dahu Mau is an ancestor’s name, Dahu Mau, and all the names are given to the generation based on the ancestors’ names. Sometimes the ancestors’ names are given to the animal, like buffaloes, but not all types of animals. The following names are the names of the children that were inherited from the grandpa and grandma:

This ethnic tribe is adopting the wedding in the matrilineal system  (Silva, 2023) they follow the wedding in marriage systems. The children and all the properties are stored and belong to the mother in a wedding system. The names sometimes follow the father’s last names or sometimes follow the mother’s last names, all the Buná ethnic groups are similar or the same because they adopt the wedding in systems and the wedding-out systems adopt the patrilineal systems (following the father line systems). In this wedding, out-of-father line systems are adopted by the ethnic groups of Kemak, (in Atsabe, Ermera, and Bobonaro districts, some parts); Mambae (Ainaro, Aileu, and Manufahi are some parts), Makasa’e: baucau and Viqueque. But it usually depends on the decision of the family. For example, if a family member has only one girl, even if they are from the ethnic group Mambae, their single daughter must follow the matrilineal system. They don’t want their daughter to be taken by a man to a faraway place. And just stay together with the girl’s family until the end of his life (until he dies).

The result or finding

The power of the spirits is highest than everything therefore the people of Buná respect their God – Nature and ancestors are the hiding powers that they do not see and touch. But only their believe and trust drag the Spirits be with them wherever and whenever they live. According to believes the unseen Spirits can solve their matters together with them and help them in their all situation without create any problem. In this way they respect their ancestors is their God because the God is the ancestors’ of their ancestors.

Believe in God: The God had given everything in their life. The God gives them free live, free families, free Sun like gives the sunny and lights in the daytime, free moon, it has light in the night times, free earth, it has its water, sea, winds, rain, all living things in the universe etc. Believe into the nature: The people live on the land which a place to live on and can farming the foods by planting the seeds in the farms, rice field, animal theme or husbandry, can build the house with the family for live, do the activities, has the good relationship with other family members as called community as their partners or neighborhood to help each other. The nature has the power alike the God therefore they respect the sacral places, big trees, big stones etc., as animism and dynamism (permanent believe and non-permanent believe). The believe to nature wherever they live the nature give them such power-friend-relative and give them benefit for their live.

The objective of ‘Matas’ leadership is to accumulate the followers through his management in a tribal or clan

that he leads to organize-control-supervise or monitor also has a skill to cure and safe the live of the clan group because the Spirits of ancestries with ‘Matas’. Likewise he manage his relationship with other clans as an external duty of himself to settle some matters with other different clans. Position that the ‘Matas’ has to lead the generations to continue raise and share the doctrines to the new young generations in the internal tribal clan forever.

Ritual ceremonies is done to respect the ancestors in representing as respect to their Spirits as invisible power which protect and condemn the human in their live. They think that the Spirit is protecting them in whatever situation. The Spirits always accompany them, work with them, go and come with the living people.

The Spirits is unseen or invisible strengths in their living activities therefore they have to respect and obey with all live. Respect the God is their ancestors’ ancestor that provide everything to them. Love God as highest invisible Spirit which has powerful to control and supervise the human. As being stated by Mark 12:30-31: ³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’^[a] 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[b] There is no commandment greater than these.”

Method of Research

The research method of this writing is a qualitative descriptive analysis for finding the result of the research through interview, observing, watching the ritual ceremony directly, collecting the data from the 5 informants as responders to represent all the total populations, took pictures the activities, then make an analysis for reviewing. The total populations on the field research are 750 people who live in the sub villages of Wala, Fatuk Metan and Nikir of Foho-Lulik Suco or village, and 20 of them are selected as their representative as informant in this research. The interviews was done through ‘Matas’ of Pugeben; Lelo Bele; Manugatal clan and two other young men from different tribes when the ceremonies was realized. The interview was done verbal questions to the responders in the field of research at the Wala sub village. The languages was used by the researcher Tetun as an official language and Buná dialect because the researcher is a Buná native speaker. The method that the writer uses in the research location interview, note making, recording uses mobile telephone, photo uses telephone, and writing uses pen, and repeat questions if met an unclear information then make the translation into English by the writer himself.  The writer himself faced some difficulties of lack of equipment such as camera photo, tape recording also some other items.

CONCLUSION

Matas leadership is a traditional customs that a leader of a tribal who are automatically leading to promote and develop the clan doctrines from old to the young generation to be followed by them from time to time. The ancestors are respected through this way of living people. Through the ritual ceremony the Spirits of ancestors which has power and strength in their presence into the family for giving the health and sanction the live people. The live of living people depended Spirits of the death people who have passed away from time to time. The doctrines teach that the Spirit of ancestors are always presence in the family to control-monitor- and safe the life of people continuity.

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