When anthropologist Edmund Leach asked: "How is it and why is it that men, who are a part of Nature, manage to see themselves as 'other than' Nature even though, in order to subsist, they must constantly maintain 'relations with' Nature?” he was, in effect, declaring his need for an INTERPRETATIVE SYSTEM, a system which could explain why people actually  see themselves as “other than Nature." 

 

His evolutionary bottom-up, inside-out interpretative system provided no answers. Thankfully, there is an answer. As illustrated above, the answer is found in the question: Why you carry two identify cards? A Miccosukee living in South Florida would reply by saying. One card says: “a SOUL housed in a physical body.”  This SOUL ‘housed’ in a body exists in the sphere of Freedom, Intentionality, and Culture. The second card says: “a physical BODY which ‘houses the SOUL.”  It exists in the sphere Nature and Necessity. As a physical substance the BODY is subject to the laws of Nature.

​

Now if personhood is actually rooted in nature and the SOUL is reduced to neurons interacting in the brain as proposed by all naturalists, then. of course, his question makes sense. But if one begins with the SOUL as an immaterial substance, a substance which is “housed” in a body, one has an answer to the question: How is it and why is it that men, who are a part of Nature, manage to see themselves as 'other than' Nature? 

 

Supporting this natural dualism are the dual SOUL-BODY semantic categories of the Mikasuki language spoken by the Miccosukee living in South Florida. These unlearned innate categories structured in the unconscious mind compels every Miccosukee speaker to view existence as being dual.  It is a natural phenomenon..

 

One exists either in Nature as a spiritual substance aka SOUL housed in a physical BODY subject to death,  or, as a SOUL existing in the spheres of Freedom, Intentionally, and Culture, a substance not subject to death. In this regard, the apostle Paul agrees, declaring: “For we know that if the earthly tent [our physical body] which is our house is torn down [through death], we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” (II Cor 5:1)

 

This natural dual existence illustrated below has manifested itself phenomenally in the Mikasuki language by (a), a dual set of pronouns (-ele, I and cha- I), and by (b), a complementary dual set of existential verbs, namely,  ayyom-, someone exists, and             -e££om, something exists. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the above illustration, whenever one declares, “Ayyom ele,” I exist,  one is declaring that one exists as a human being aka SOUL positioned outside the physical laws of Nature and Necessity. Whenever  one declares, “Cha e££om,” I exist, one is declaring that one exists in a physical BODY in Nature subject to its material laws, including death. 

 

The dual SOUL-BODY categories structured in the subconscious positions every Miccosukee in two spheres of existence; first, in the sphere of Freedom and Culture as an acting, thinking SOUL having both a mind and the capacity to act intentionally, and secondly, as one living in the sphere of Nature housed in a BODY which is subject to the physical laws of Nature.

​

The semantic data supports the view that “God created humans of two ingredients and that he sustains persons (souls, spirits) apart from their bodies between death and resurrection.”  It is a Biblical perspective which answers Leach’s question, "How is it and why is it that men, who are a part of Nature, manage to see themselves as 'other than' Nature?

​

Now the bottom-up, inside-out interpretative system Leach was using rejected the idea that such a dual SOUL-BODY system could possibly be structured in the unconscious mind, a system which compelled people to see themselves as spiritual beings aka SOULS who occupied bodies in Nature.

 

Whereas an ordinary person believes that people have SOULS which survive the destruction of their bodies, the committed materialist does not.  In addition, whereas no folk society would classify people as a KIND of ANIMAL, materialists do.

​

Now unknown to the materialist, there exists a sacred book called the Bible which actually reveals when this "common sense natural dualism" actually began. It began when "the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person” (Genesis 2:7) and then, "out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air” (Genesis 2:19).

 

Now what had been missed by most Biblical scholars is the fact the Hebrew word wayyiser, ‘formed’ in verse 7 is not identical in form to the same word  in verse 19  where the referent is to the “animals of the field and the birds of the air.”  What is missing from the second wayyiser  is a single, hardly noticeable Hebrew yod.  

 

This of course raises the question: can the absence of something as tiny as a yod in a word carry meaning?  Emphatically, the answer is: yes; the absence of a yod in Hebrew, an the absence of the article before a noun in Greek, and the absence of a syllable   on a word  in Chácobo all carry meaning.

 

For example, when translating the New Testament into the Chácobo language it was imperative that I understood the meaning of absence, not of a yod, nor an article before a noun, but of a syllable.  Absence or the subtraction of the last syllable on a three syllable noun like kamano, ‘tiger’  would mean it was the subject of an intransitive verb rather than subject of a transitive verb.

 

For the Greeks, paying attention to the absence of the article was important. Greek scholars Dana and Mantey wrote that it would be a “serious blunder” to ignore when the Greek article was absent before a noun.  Similarly, it would be a serious blunder to ignore the absence of the yod when the “Lord formed the animals living on the ground and the birds in the air” in Genesis 2:19

 

Sadly, most Bible scholars have missed the significance of the absence of smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, the yod.  We note that in Genesis 2:7 the word wayyiser, ‘formed’ has two yods; in verse 19 in which the referent is “animals living on the ground and the birds of the air,” the word ‘wayyiser’ (formed) has only one yod.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​

Regarding the additional yod in verse 7, Hebrew scholar Joseph H. Hertz notes that “the rabbis point to the fact that in verse 2:7 the word for “formed” (wayyiser) is written with two yods, whereas in verse 19 when relating to the creation of animals it has only one yod.  ......(implying) man alone is citizen of two worlds; he is of both earth and heaven.”    This contrast, though hardly noticeable, can be seen in the difference of the two words for “formed” (wayyiser) each marked by a circle.  

 

Convictions

1. There exists a natural BODY-SOUL dualism “written on the heart” (Romans 2:15) which manifests itself phenomenally in language.

2. This natural BODY-SOUL dualism began “when the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground. …and breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils.”  

3. I am a SOUL housed in a physical BODY which is subject to death.

4. The Good News: Someday my SOUL “will have a [new] house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” (II Cor 5:1).

​