Contemporary Traditional Asmat Culture, Part 2The Asmat Creation Story:Fumeripits creates People

from trees

By Alexandra RoybalCulture/Geography, Period 8

February 2, 2012Caglayan, Ph. D Emily. “The Asmat” In Heilbrum Timeline of Art

History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art,

200-http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/asma/hd_asma.htm

According to Asmat tradition: "Fumeripits was the first being to exist on earth, and he also created the first

men's ceremonial house called jeu."

Fumeripits would spend his days dancing along the beach, but after awhile grew tired of bieng alone.

So he chopped down a number of trees, carved them into human figures, and placed them inside the jeu.

However, since the sculptures were inanimate, Fumeripits was still unhappy. He then decided to create a drum, and chopped down another tree, hollowed out the center, and stretched a piece of

lizard skin over the top.

As he began to play the drum, the human figures miraculously came to life, their elbows came unstuck

from  their knees, and they began to dance.

This is how Fumeripits made people from trees. And the first people were Asmat