G. Zegwaard
The Asmat people
I took me 40 years to find the meaning of the "Tree of the Knowledge" reflected in any possible way in the metaphorical o mythological oral o written tradition of any ancient human culture on the Earth.
1) In the anthropogenesis of Sigmund Freud (S.F.) and Wilhelm Reich (W.R.) we have:
"Of course these cannibalistic savages ate their victim. The primal father die at their hands, and now they accomplished their identification with him by devouring him and each acquire part of his strength. The totem feast, which is perhaps mankind's first celebration, would be the repetition and commemoration of this memorable criminal act with which so many things began, social organization, moral restrictions and religion"
('Totem and Taboo', Sigmund Freud; p. 183)
"Freud interpreted the religious concept of the fall from grace, as an expression of a prehistorically act of murder. On the other hand, the Biblical myth of Adam and Eve, as well as the catholic ideology of hereditary sin, are revealed as basically myths of a sexual transgression. This does not exclude the possibility that the sexual transgression was accompanied by an act of murder."
('Sex-Pol', W. R; pp. 221-222)
"The downfall of Adam and Eve is obviously, beyond any doubt, due to something that they did against the Laws of God -of the Nature- in a Genital Way" .
('The Murder of Christ', -'M C.'- , W.R.; p.11)
2) "But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said: 'Ye shall not eat of it; neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die'
...Did anyone ever in the course of six thousand years explain that Tree? No one ever did so. Why? The mystery of this tree is part of the mystery of man's entrapment. A solution of the mystery of the tree could possibly answer the predicament why man is in the trap" (M.C., W.R., p. 11)
3) Now we pass to "The Beginning was the End", by Oscar Kiss Maerth:
"One ape discovered that eating the fresh brain of one's own kind increases the sexual impulses. He and his descendants became addicted to brains and hunted for them. It was not until later that they noticed that their intelligence increased as a result. The outcome of this process is HOMO SAPIENS.
..After I had recognized the truth concerning man's origin I hesitated to proclaim it, but when I thought of the Genesis story in the Bible…the decision was made easier for me…because in these few pregnant lines -of the Genesis- the truth concerning the origin of mankind had already been told many thousands years ago, but was no longer understood. What Genesis describes in images is totally in accordance with what I have apprehended." (pp. 36-204)
4) In 1959, G. Zegwaard published in the 'American Anthropologist, num. 61, "Headhunting Practices of Netherlands New Guinea". And this is what he had to say about the Asmat people that practice 'headhunting' in the south coast of the island of New Guinea:
"For the Asmat people…the human body is associated with a TREE: the legs compare to the plank roots, the trunk to the human body, the arms to the boughs, AND THE HEAD TO THE TOP WITH THE FRUIT SITS IN THE TOP."
(Quoted from 'The Anthropology of Cannibalism', by Laurence R. Goldman; p. 136)
5) Now, before we continues, is important to make a parenthesis to take a brief pause to see cannibalism in historical retrospective.
Earliest reports go back to the fifth century B.C. when Herodotus, in his 'Histories', report such practice among the Scythians tribes. The 'Pekin man', a predecessor of the 'homo sapiens', around 500.000 B.C., had been known to eat the brain of his fellow man. Many of the skeletal remains found in the Stone Age caves show signs of cannibalism. In the same way, human remains of 'Homo sapiens neanderthalensis', from the Pleistocene deposit of Sants Croce Cave, in Bisceglie (Apulia), Italy, has shown the same evidence of cannibalism. In America, the new continent, Columbus, Americo Vespucci, Lopez de Gomara, Bernardino de Sahagun, etc., reported that cannibalism was well extended among the different peoples of the continent. In Africa, Asia and Oceania, the same practice was found everywhere. The New York Time published an article by Nicholas Wade under the title: 'Scientist says humans have cannibal past', in which a report by 'Science' journal, Dr. Simon Mead, reach the conclusion that "genetic evidence pointing to widespread cannibalism is likely to influence a long-standing debate among scientists". (See Marta Soldevila. She is in disagreement with such premise)
The result of excavations up to now show unequivocally that cannibalism started at the same time as the process of human development, no early and no late.
6) Now, bringing cannibalism through 'historical detour' to the present, we can return to the Asmat people and put together all the pieces of the puzzle:
The forbidden TREE of the Paradise was Man, and the forbidden Fruit, his Head!, an this was what God forbid man to eat.
And this is why, when they -Adam and Eve- ate such "fruit" happen the same when the Asmat people eat the human brain,…"The eyes of them both were opened" (Genesis), and, in the case of our origin in the Garden of the Eden,…hey new knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons" (Genesis)
7) GOD PROHIBIT MAN TO EAT FROM THE 'TREE OF KNOLODGE': FROM ITS FRUIT: THE HEAD THAT SITS IN THE TOP -OF THE TREE- OF THE HUMAN BODY. And this is why in only two million years the volume of the brain, unknown in the natural evolution of any primate, and in total disproportion to the rest of the physical body, increase from 400 c.c. to 1.500 c.c.. The consequence of this anomaly is given in the actual reality in which cannibalism, through its perfect representation, capitalism, is going 'to eat' another Prohibited Fruit: the Entire Planet…in this case, the punishment will be 'a little different' from what we received in the Garden of the Eden.
8) "In eating the brain man consumed the substances concentrated in it. Both, his brain and his capacity for though, increased disproportionately. From this arose the biological unjustified surplus of intelligence which later turned into a disease condition. At the same time the functions of the central nervous system, originally in equilibrium, were disturbed by the same means, the pituitary gland being particulary affected; this controls among other things hair growth and sexuality. Because of the constant new supply of brain substances, the distribution of hormones and other secretions was thrown into confusion. A new distribution system had to be developed. This became the cause of physical defects such as the loss of a coat of hair and of the female signs of fertility. The result is a physically and mentally ill creature at odds with himself and with Nature, who neither knows nor understands himself. The huge discrepancy between his almost unaltered form and his enormously increased intelligence forces man into further abnormal and self-destructive acts. He himself names this unhealthy process 'progress'…which is drawing inexorably nearer to the extremely dangerous state in which man will destroy himself by mentally running amok: a lunatic genius" (Oscar Kiss Maerth; pp. 38-39)…The same creature that is actually in the border to the most apocalyptic transgression of all History…for long as any one can remember: 'to eat' the most forbidden "fruit" of all: he himself: The Planet .
