Kodi narrative traditions dealing with origins of the day, month, and year reflect Western religious heritage, presenting time, in the sense of duration, the experience of time slipping away, as coming into being with the genesis of oppositions such as night and day, the waxing and waning of the moon, and the wet and dry seasons. When the Kodi say that time did not begin until their ancestors arrived on Sumba, they give a primacy to their own social experience and endow it with cosmological significance. Aside from such narratives, ultimate origins or eschatological issues receive little...

Kodi narrative traditions dealing with origins of the day, month, and year reflect Western religious heritage, presenting time, in the sense of duration, the experience of time slipping away, as coming into being with the genesis of oppositions such as night and day, the waxing and waning of the moon, and the wet and dry seasons. When the Kodi say that time did not begin until their ancestors arrived on Sumba, they give a primacy to their own social experience and endow it with cosmological significance. Aside from such narratives, ultimate origins or eschatological issues receive little formal attention. The past, in most of its aspects, is treated relatively realistically in Kodi narratives. The perception of how time passes is also a perception of life and what it has to offer.