ABSTRACT
In the Umeda language ida smav means ‘to hold a ritual’ - ida can be used in a loose sense to mean rituals other than the sago fertility ritual called ida, though all these lesser rituals also have specific names of their own. In speaking of ida Umedas refer not only to the actual performance, the period of about two weeks during which the two phases of the ritual take place, but also to the whole period, which may be up to 10 months, between huf smav and the performance. The idea of the ‘logical priority’ of the feminine is reflected, for instance in an Umeda myth - which has many parallels elsewhere in New Guinea, of an original ‘all female’ society, in which women also had the ritual knowledge which is now the prerogative of men.
