Paper short abstract:

This paper explores what it means to 'live with the sea' on Atauro Island, East Timor, utilising perceptions of danger and belief to show different understandings of human - marine environment relations.

Paper long abstract:

By their own account, Humangili people who live in Makili on the south coast of the island of Ataúro in East Timor, 'live with the sea' (moris ho tasi). As with inhabitants of other small islands, the sea is a key domain in which people make a living and a pathway to other islands in their vicinity. Humangili people hold particular embodied knowledge and skill based on their long-term engagement with the sea. While somewhat differentiated by Christian beliefs, this relationship is also mediated by what Paige West has called a 'transactive dialectical relationship' (2005: 632) between human and non-human beings in that exist in this environment. In this context, as per Peter Sloterdijk, the sea is particular 'space of co-existence' in which particular things about being human are revealed. Drawing on the particular ways that Humangili people perceive and engage with the sea, this paper explores how perceptions of danger (death) and belief (life), particularly through actions and speech, mitigate people's relationship with the sea, and things within it. Highlighting different understandings of what it means to be able to master the skills and knowledge necessary to engage with this domain. In doing so, this paper seeks to contribute to broader understandings of what it means for people to 'live with the sea' and human - environment relations