Oematan

Oematan is the ancestral house of the active rulers who acted in the name of the sacred Sonba'i. Atoni sovereignty is characteristically split into a still, potent centre and a moving, governing arm: while the Great Sonba'i sits immobile as the source of order and fertility, it is the Oematan who speaks, judges, gathers tribute and leads the war-bands. The name, 'water-source', evokes the spring from which a settlement draws life. In the dual scheme the pair reproduces the cosmic contrast of a hidden, generative principle and its visible, effective expression, so that the earthly polity restates the order that Uis Neno holds above.

Domains

• executive rule
• war leadership

Powers

• wields active rule on behalf of the sacred lord

Relations

• ally: Sonba'iThe active executive ruler paired with the sacred immobile Sonba'i in a single dual sovereignty.Schulte Nordholt, H.G. (1971), The Political System of the Atoni of Timor (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff) (secondary)

Sources

• Oematan is the ancestral executive ruling house of the Sonbai realm, the active and mobile ruler who governs and leads in war as the complement of the sacred, immobile Sonba'i.: Schulte Nordholt, H.G. (1971), The Political System of the Atoni of Timor (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff), on the dual structure of the western Meto sovereignty (secondary)