To this point, I have considered only societies with origin groups based on genitor lines. The Tetun of Wehali present the exceptionally interesting case of a society based on genetrix lines. With its genetrix lines, Wehali is distinguished from the majority of Tetun-speaking peoples who recognize genitor lines.

Wehali is a ritual centre on the south coast of central Timor whose population numbers approximately 40,000. The alluvial plain (fehan) on which Wehali is located stands in contrast to the mountains (foho) where most Tetun live. Wehali is considered rai feto, “female land”, as opposed to rai mane, “male land”, and is the traditional site of the Maromak Oan who is also described as the Nai Bot, “The Great Lord”, or Nai Kukun, “The Dark Lord”. To this Lord, tribute was paid by other Tetun for performance of the rituals of life. Two PhD dissertations have been written in the Department of Anthropology at The Australian National University on Wehali: G. Francillon’s Some Matriarchic Aspects of the Social Structure of the Southern Tetun of Middle Timor (1967) and G.T. Therik’s Wehali, The Four Corner Land: The Cosmology and Traditions of a Timorese Ritual Centre (1995). I have drawn this analysis from these two important studies.

Wehali is regarded by its population as the first dry land to have emerged from a primordial sea. This dry land first emerged in the form of an enormous banyan tree. Thus, as in other Timorese societies, “trunk” (hun) is conceived of, both literally and figuratively, as “origin”. Ideas of origin are critical and pervasive in all narratives of the past. The origin narratives of the “earth” (rai lian), as indeed other “true narratives” (lia tebes), are all recited in a form of parallel language which is in fact known as “trunk” or “origin” language (lia hun).

In the first narrative of the earth, the “Only Woman on Earth” gave birth to a daughter whose umbilical cord was intertwined in the roots of the banyan. As she grew, so did the banyan to become dry land. As “trunk”, she produced both sons (“fruit”: klaut) and daughters (“flowers”: funan) shaded by an evergrowing banyan. In local conceptions, Wehali is thus the first-born centre of the earth, its navel and “trunk land” (rai hun) (see Therik 1995:73-76). Settlement is localized and hamlets are classified ritually as either “male” or “female” depending on their ritual functions in relation to the central “female” settlement of the Maromak Oan. By recourse to folk etymology, the shade of the banyan (leon) and the male and female hamlets of Wehali (leo) are symbolically equated.

Conceived of as a female centre, Wehali is regarded as having sent forth its male progeny and to have shed all that is associated with male attributes, including wealth and power. According to a local saying, having given away the “sword”, Wehali retains only its “sheath” (Fox 1983:25). This image provides the model for Wehali social life: men are sent forth while women remain to continue the flow of life from the first woman. All order in Wehali is therefore based on genetrix relations.

Wehali’s origin groups resemble those of the other societies we have so far considered. Such groups are based on uma, “houses”. An “uma group” consists of a “group formed by one house and its offshoots” (Francillon 1967: 331).

These named “uma groups” are the matrilineages that comprise matriclans known as fukun. Fukun may refer to the group as well as the head of this group, but it also designates “the knot, joint or node” of a stalk of bamboo. Relations within uma-groups (and within fukun) are considered as relations between “elder/younger” sisters (bin/alin), even when, as is often the case, exact genealogical relations between members of the group are unclear. A house or house group can be referred to as inan feton, “mother/sister” and a larger group as ina bin alin, “mother/elder-younger sister”. The youngest sister (feto ikun) generally retains occupancy of her mother’s house which continues to be the focus of ritual performance. In a large origin group, ritual functions may be divided and coordinated among constituent houses. In relative terms, one’s natal house (or “birth place house”: uma moris fatik) is regarded as one’s origin house (uma hun), and this house serves as the point of reference in the arrangement of marriages.

Houses are exogamous and exchange males among each other. Residence is strictly uxorilocal. From this one might expect that houses would have progenitor relations with one another similar to the other societies that we have so far considered. However, this is not the case. The mane foun, the “new male”, simply takes up residence with his wife. The gift of a male is not significant. What is significant is that for every male given to another house, a child, invariably a woman, must be returned. Thus every house receives a share of its own female progeny and engenders differentiation within itself. Every house is also its own progenitor via an intermediate genetrix-house.

The exchange of wealth at the time of marriage is not significant. What is important are subsequent exchanges that begin with the return of “source seed” (mata musan) following immediately on the death of the “new male”. A person, either man or woman, can be designated as “source seed” to be returned to the husband-giving house. If the “source seed” is male, he is expected to marry his FZD (talain feto); if female, she is expected to marry her FZS (talain mane).

In practice, “source seed” is invariably a woman. The husband-giving group can delay mortuary ceremonies until their demands for a woman are granted and if no woman is available, then the return of “source seed” may be delayed a generation. The woman eventually given as “source seed” may in fact marry some other in-marrying male rather than her cross-cousin but in whatever way she marries, she and her daughters initiate a new line within the house (Therik 1995:127-130).

This exchange obligation between the two houses continues for a further generation. One of the daughters of the “source seed”, preferably the eldest daughter, must be given back to the house from which her mother came.^[4] This daughter is referred to as “banana head” (hudi ulun).

Thus each in-marrying male initiates an exchange that entwines two female-centred houses for at least two generations: “like storage baskets tied together or like wax candles that have melted into one” (see Therik 1995:124).

One implication is that progenitor lines in each generation replant new genetrix lines. The exchange of wealth to mark a distinction between genitor and progenitor, as among the Rotinese, does not occur nor is it considered necessary. However, as in Roti, a progenitor line is recognized for three generations back to an initiating “origin house” (uma hun). This line comes to the fore during mortuary ceremonies, particularly in negotiations over “source seed” before burial can take place, and this progenitor line continues for yet another generation to “entwine” the two exchanging houses.

To consider further the implication of this system, it is useful to consider another society like the southern Tetun with origin groups exclusively organized in terms of genetrix lines. This society is that of the Ata Tana ’Ai.