This book considers the contribution of custom and its inter-generational legacies to the development of sustainable social and environmental policies of governance in Timor-Leste. This book examines the dynamics of a 'return to custom’ in post-independence Timor-Leste; a set of practices connecting ancestral house communities with the complex spirit ecologies upon which people's livelihoods and well-being depend. Drawing on detailed comparative studies, it considers the contribution of custom and its inter-generational legacies to the development of sustainable social and environmental policies of governance in Southeast Asia’s newest nation-state. The book is both a timely study of social renewal in post-conflict societies, and a creative contribution to the possibilities of sustainable environmental and cultural resource management in Timor-Leste and the wider region. This book examines the dynamics of a 'return to custom’ in post-independence Timor-Leste; a set of practices connecting ancestral house communities with the complex spirit ecologies upon which people's livelihoods and well-being depend. Drawing on detailed comparative studies, it considers the contribution of custom and its inter-generational legacies to the development of sustainable social and environmental policies of governance in Southeast Asia’s newest nation-state. The book is both a timely study of social renewal in post-conflict societies, and a creative contribution to the possibilities of sustainable environmental and cultural resource management in Timor-Leste and the wider region. Table of Contents; List of Figures; Contributors; Chapter 1. Spirit Ecologies of the House: Customary Governance in Post-Independence Timor-Leste; Chapter 2. Fataluku Ritual Houses: Status, relation and renewal; Chapter 3. Waima’a House Cultures: Emergence, connection, reconstruction; Chapter 4. Mambai Houses and Ritual Centres; Chapter 5. [Re]-constituting the ritual domain of Ina Ama Beli Daralai Babulu Mane Hitu; Chapter 6. Houses of Koba Lima: Unity and Division; Chapter 7. Tara Bandu and Customary Governance in post-Independence Timor-Leste; Chapter 8. Ambivalent ‘Indigeneities’ in Timor-Leste: between the customary and national governance of resources; Afterword: Negotiating tradition and modernity