1. Ethnology – Timor Leste – History 2. Animism – Timor-Leste – History 3. Anthropologists – Timor-Leste - History This book presents a history of Western ethnography of animism in East Timor during the Portuguese period. It consists of ten chapters, each one a narrative of the work and experience of a particular ethnographer. Part 1 deals with colonial ethnography and Part 2 with professional anthropology. Covering a selection of seminal 19th- and 20th-century ethnographies, the author explores the relationship between spiritual beliefs, colonial administration, ethnographic interests and fieldwork experience. It is argued that the presence of outsiders precipitated a new "transformative animism" as colonial control over Portuguese Timor was consolidated. Bringing colonial and professional ethnography into the one frame of reference, it is shown that ethnographers of both types not only bore witness to these processes of transformative animism, they also exemplified them. The book presents an original synthesis of East Timor's history, culture and anthropology.