Clark Cunningham (1973) has described the Atoni house of the domain of Amarasi in west Timor in an important article of exceptional clarity. Since the Rotinese and Atoni are related populations, the question of the relation of their houses to one another is pertinent. Although the Amarasi house (ume) has a beehive-like roof, it is in fact a four-post structure and therefore directly comparable to the basic four-post Rotinese house (uma di hak). In the Atoni language, these four posts are referred to as the ‘mother posts’ (ni ainaf). Note that di and ni are cognate terms, as are numerous other terms for similar items in the two houses.

The Amarasi house is also oriented in a similar fashion to the Rotinese house. (Compare Figure 4, p.156, with Figure 9 below.) The equivalent of the east/west (dulu/muli) or head/tail (langa/iko) axis of the Rotinese house is, among the Atoni, the axis of the sunrise/sunset (neonsaen/neontes). Similarly, as on Roti, right for the Atoni is south (ne’u) and left is north (ali’). The door of the Rotinese house may open to the north or the south; the door of the Amarasi house should be oriented to the south. This orientation produces a system of four corners referred to in Timorese as the ‘great quarters’ (suku naek). The colours associated with these quarters are also the same as on Roti: east is white, south is red, west is black and north is (green-)yellow. To this point, therefore, there is a virtual one-to-one correspondence of the orientation coordinates and their associations from one house to the other.

There are, however, significant differences. Like the Rotinese, the Atoni make a distinction between ‘inside’ and ‘outside’. This distinction also implies a distinction between ‘female’ and ‘male’ especially since the term mone among the Atoni means both ‘male’ and ‘outside’. In relation to the Atoni house, the yard is referred to as mone while everything under the roof is the ‘inside of the house’ (ume nanan). There is, however, a further distinction made between the whole of this ume nanan and what is called simply the ‘inside’ (nanan). The ‘elbow’ (si’u) of the house under the roof has platforms for receiving affines and guests but is separated by a partition from the ‘inside’ (nanan) precinct of the house which is reserved exclusively for members of the house and close agnatic relatives. All of this is functionally equivalent to the Rotinese distinction between the ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ sections of the house. Although cognate terms occur, such as the word si’u for ‘elbow’ in both languages, correspondences are different because the symbolic location of key objects and structures among the Atoni is entirely within the ‘inside’ house rather than being divided between ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ sections of the house among the Rotinese.

Orientation within the ‘inside’ house is crucial. For the Amarasi house, the right/left distinction is variably applied absolutely and relatively. Thus, as a directional coordinate, the right/left axis sets the basic orientation of the house. Within the house, however, the right/left distinction is applied relative to a person looking out the door of the ‘inside’ house. The superimposition of this interior distinction on the basic orientation system produces a situation where internally ‘right’ is on the ‘sunset’ side of the house and ‘left’ on the ‘sunrise’ side. Key objects and structures are positioned according to this second relative right/left orientation which is associated with an opposition between ‘male’ and ‘female’. This produces a bifurcation through the house equivalent to the outer/male and inner/female opposition in the Rotinese house. Accordingly much of the right side of the house is taken up with a platform known as the ‘great platform’ (harak ko’u) on which tools, possessions, pounded corn and rice are kept. In the centre of the house — slightly to the left but never to the right — is the hearth (tunaf). The hearth may also be placed further back on the left side of the house near the ‘fixed water jar’ (nai oe teke) and what is called the ‘agreement platform’ (harak manba’at). This platform holds cooking utensils and cooked food, but it is also where a woman is placed when she gives birth and is later ‘cooked’ and bathed with hot water during a period of confinement. Also located on the left is a sleeping platform for the elder man and woman of the house.

Of the four principal posts of the Amarasi house, one post known as the ‘head’ (nakaf) is singled out for special ritual attention. This post has a flat stone altar at its base and sacred ancestral objects are tied to it. It is called the ‘head’ because there is a hatch next to it that leads up into the loft. In terms of the interior orientation of the house, this ‘head’ post is at the front and left, but in terms of the general orientation of the four quarters, this ‘head’ is at the south-east corner of the house and thus in exactly the same position as the ‘right’ post in a Rotinese house. From this perspective, the basic orientation of the two houses is retained; the difference is that the Rotinese house maintains a single systemic orientation, whereas the Atoni house has an internal orientation that overrides the ‘external’ Atoni orientation system. Access to the loft in the Atoni house is near the ‘head’ post whereas in the Rotinese house, it is at the ‘tail’.