Music in Umeda Village, New Guinea

Abstract

meda is one of four villages, the other three being Punda, Sowanda, and Waina-Wyalla, which make up the Waina-Sowanda census area in the West Sepik District of New Guinea, lying between the Bewani and Border Mountains and close to the West Irian border. The population of the Waina-Sowanda area is sparse, because it is one of the less ecologically favoured regions of New Guinea. In 1969 the population of the whole area numbered only about 960 individuals. Contacts with outsiders, mainly Malay, Dutch and Australian, have been sporadic and with little effect on the people. The economy depends mainly on hunting and collecting, with little emphasis on either gardening or livestock. Ceremonial exchange and Big Men, both of which are typical of New Guinea as a whole, are not encountered in the Waina-Sowanda area. With the lack of the Big Men, the emphasis in Umeda society is on equality. There are no specialist economic roles, and a relative lack of division of labour. In respect to the degree of specialization, Umeda society is not typical of the general Sepik region, where knowledge, and especially some forms of musical knowledge, is the preserve of particular clans. The general lack of specialization in Umeda is reflected in the music, where all men play the huf trumpets and everyone knows the repertoire of songs. Umeda society, however, though unspecialized, demands a high degree of coordination and cooperation between its members, especially in the production of sago. This, too, is reflected in the music. A particularly important aspect of Umeda society is the division of the village into two ritual moieties: edtodna (of the men) and agwatodna (of the women). In Umeda there are three edtodna hamlets and three agwatodna hamlets, and each hamlet is itself divided into two other moieties which come into their own in lesser rituals, such as curing and garden magic. In rituals involving the whole village, notably the important ida sago fertility ritual, each ritual role must be duplicated, one ritual actor coming from each of the two moieties. For this reason obviously both moieties, despite their names, contain men; furthermore, women are not significant in the rituals where moiety affiliation is important.