Article Per Year (5 Year)
p-Index From 2021 - 2026
0.23
P-Index
This Author published in this journals
All Journal Jurnal Sosiologi Dialektika
Agnes Mnane
Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social and Political Science, University of Nusa Cendana
Social Sciences

Published : 1 Documents Claim Missing Document
Claim Missing Document
Check
Articles

Found 1 Documents
Search

 1 
Customary-based land conflict resolution and its limits: Administrative exit, kinship, and the Lotas–Nai’usu border dispute in Timor, Indonesia Agnes Mnane; Lenny Sofia Bire Manoe
Jurnal Sosiologi Dialektika Vol. 21 No. 2 (2026): Jurnal Sosiologi Dialektika
Publisher : Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Airlangga

Show Abstract | Download Original | Original Source | Check in Google Scholar | DOI: 10.20473/jsd.v21i2.2026.243-258

Abstract

In rural Indonesia, administrative boundaries are frequently demarcated with little regard for indigenous territorial epistemologies. When customary resolution falters, scholarship often attributes this to eroding traditional authority. This study interrogates that assumption, proposing a jurisdictional alternative. Three questions guide the research: the conflict’s genesis, its customary management, and the impediments to lasting resolution. A descriptive qualitative design draws on semi-structured interviews with ten informants, field observation, and documentary analysis in Lotas (Kokbaun Sub-district, South Central Timor Regency) and Nai’usu (Rinhat Sub district, Malaka Regency), East Nusa Tenggara. This study finds that the dispute stems not from inter-community hostility, but rather from unequal public services. Part of a single lineage transferred its administrative affiliation to secure better services, yet its ancestral land remained anchored in the original territory. A 1969 decree formalized this bifurcation, while unreconciled colonial agreements of 1917 and 1929 entrenched the ambiguity. This study concludes that customary mechanisms defuse confrontation without resolving the boundary issue. The conflict persists within a dual jurisdictional void. Although the state-facing dimension was closed by Minister of Home Affairs Regulation No. 45 of 2022, the customary dimension remains open. In this regard, a legal closure is not a social resolution.
Co-Authors Lenny Sofia Bire Manoe