A relational approach of conflicts in the context of judicialization of domestic violence in East-Timor

Abstract

This article addresses the judicialization of domestic violence in East-Timor, discussing the victimization and individualization of these conflicts which emerge in relational contexts. On an ethnographical approach of institutional care practices with women sheltered, I reflect on their trajectories facing the discourses and practices of a local NGO, resorting to the literature of Brazilian anthropology. My argument is that domestic violence can be better understood both critically and analytically if we consider the communicational aspect of physical power in the (re)production of engendered representations of subjects and their social fantasies.