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Zombie
A zombie is a reanimated corpse. Stories of
zombies originated in the Afro-Caribbean spiritual belief
system of Vodou, which told of the dead being raised as
workers by a powerful sorcerer. In modern horror fiction,
zombies are generally undead corpses brought back from the
dead by supernatural or scientific means, and are not always
under someone's control. They have very limited
intelligence, and hunger for the flesh of the living.
Folklore
In the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed that the souls
of the dead could return to earth and haunt the living. The
belief in revenants (someone who has returned from the dead)
are well documented by contemporary European writers of the
time. According to the Encyclopedia of Things that Never
Were[4], particularly in France during the Middle Ages, the
revenant rises from the dead usually to avenge some crime
committed against the entity, most likely a murder. The
revenant usually took on the form of an emaciated corpse or
skeletal human figure, and wandered around graveyards at
night. The "draugr" of medieval Norse mythology were also
believed to be the corpses of warriors returned from the
dead to attack the living. The zombie appears in several
other cultures worldwide, including China, Japan, the
Pacific, India, and the Native Americans.
The Epic of Gilgamesh of ancient Sumer includes a mention of
zombies. Ishtar, in the fury of vengeance says:
Father give me the Bull of Heaven,
So he can kill Gilgamesh in his dwelling.
If you do not give me the Bull of Heaven,
I will knock down the Gates of the Netherworld,
I will smash the doorposts, and leave the doors flat
down,
and will let the dead go up to eat the living!
And the dead will outnumber the living!
Popular culture
Modern zombies, as portrayed in books, films, and haunted
attractions, are quite different from both Voodoo zombies
and those of folklore. Modern zombies are typically depicted
in popular culture as mindless, unfeeling monsters with a
hunger for human flesh, a prototype established in the
seminal 1968 film Night of the Living Dead. Zombies have
been the subject of many horror films since, and occur as
antagonists in many video games. There are still significant
differences among the depictions of zombies by various
media; for one comparison see the contrasts between zombies
by Night of the Living Dead authors George A. Romero and
John A. Russo as they evolved in the two separate film
series that followed. There have also been books on zombies,
such as The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z, both of
which written by Max Brooks.
Philosophy
In philosophy of mind, zombies are hypothetical persons who
lack full consciousness but have the biology or behavior of
a normal human being; thought experiments involving them are
often used as arguments against the identity of the mind and
the brain. The term was coined by philosopher of mind David
Chalmers. They are referred to as philosophical zombies or
"p-zombies".
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Voodoo
According to the tenets of Voodoo, a dead person can be
revived by a bokor or Voodoo sorcerer. Zombies remain under
the control of the bokor since they have no will of their
own. "Zombi" is also another name of the Voodoo snake god
Damballah Wedo, of Niger-Congo origin; it is akin to the
Kongo word nzambi, which means "god". There also exists
within the voudon tradition the zombi astral which is a
human soul that is captured by a bokor and used to enhance
the bokor's power.
In 1937, while researching folklore in Haiti, Zora Neale
Hurston encountered the case of Felicia Felix-Mentor, who
had died and been buried in 1907 at the age of 29. Hurston
pursued rumors that the affected persons were given powerful
drugs, but she was unable to locate individuals willing to
offer much information. She wrote:
"What is more, if science ever gets to the bottom of Voodoo
in Haiti and Africa, it will be found that some important
medical secrets, still unknown to medical science, give it
its power, rather than gestures of ceremony." [1]
Several decades later, Wade Davis, a Canadian ethnobotanist,
presented a pharmacological case for zombies in two books,
The Serpent and the Rainbow (1985) and Passage of Darkness:
The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie (1988). Davis
traveled to Haiti in 1982 and, as a result of his
investigations, claimed that a living person can be turned
into a zombie by two special powders being entered into the
blood stream (usually via a wound). The first, coup de
poudre (French: 'powder strike'), induced a 'death-like'
state because of tetrodotoxin (TTX), its key ingredient.
Tetrodotoxin is the same lethal toxin found in the Japanese
delicacy fugu, or pufferfish. At near-lethal doses (LD50=
5-8µg/kg)[2], it can leave a person in a state of near-death
for several days, while the person continues to be
conscious. The second powder, composed of dissociatives like
datura, put the person in a zombie-like state where they
seem to have no will of their own. Davis also popularized
the story of Clairvius Narcisse, who was claimed to have
succumbed to this practice. There remains considerable
skepticism about Davis's claims,[3] although there is wide
belief among the Haitian people of the existence of the
"zombie drug". The Voodoon religion being somewhat secretive
in its practices and codes, it can be very difficult for a
foreign scientist to validate or invalidate such claims.
Others have discussed the contribution of the victim's own
belief system, possibly leading to compliance with the
attacker's will, causing psychogenic ("quasi-hysterical")
amnesia, catatonia, or other psychological disorders, which
are later misinterpreted as a return from the dead. Scottish
psychiatrist R. D. Laing further highlighted the link
between social and cultural expectations and compulsion, in
the context of schizophrenia and other mental illness,
suggesting that schizogenesis may account for some of the
psychological aspects of zombification.
Social activism
Some zombie fans continue the George A. Romero tradition of
using zombies as a social commentary. Organized zombie
walks, which are primarily promoted through word of mouth,
are regularly staged in some countries. Usually they are
arranged as a sort of surrealist performance art but they
are occasionally put on as part of a unique political
protest.
The world's largest zombie walk was held on October 29, 2006
in Monroeville Mall in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the setting
of Romero's original Dawn of the Dead film. The walk
consisted of 894 attendees who all were instructed to bring
canned food for a local food drive. |
