<![CDATA[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.]]>
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