ZOMBIE

In folklore, a 'zombie' or 'zombi' is an animated human body devoid of a soul. In contemporary versions these are generally reanimated or undead corpses, which were traditionally called "ghouls". Stories of zombies originated in the Afro-Caribbean spiritual belief system of Vodou.
Other more macabre versions of zombies have become a staple of modern horror fiction, where they are brought back from the dead by supernatural or scientific means, and eat the flesh (or the cerebral matter) of the living. They have very limited intelligence, and may not be under anyone's direct control. This type of zombie, often referred to as a Romero zombie for the filmmaker that defined the concept, is archetypal in modern media and culture.

Contents

Voodoo

Folklore

Philosophy

Popular culture

Social activism

References

External links

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 "C-Blackie" 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. Villagers believed they saw Felicia wandering the streets in a daze thirty years after her death, as well as claiming the same with several other people. 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] and opinions remain divided as to the veracity of his work, although there is wide recognition 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.

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!
''translated by Maureen Gallery Kovacs''

Philosophy

Main articles: Philosophical zombie

In philosophy of mind, zombies are hypothetical persons who lack full consciousness but behave otherwise just like other people; thought experiments involving them are often used as metaphors for doubting the existence of minds besides one's own. They are referred to as philosophical zombies or "p-zombies".

Popular culture

Main articles: Zombies in popular culture , List of zombie films, List of video games featuring zombies

Zombies are very popular in horror- and fantasy-themed entertainment. They are typically depicted as mindless, shambling, decaying corpses with a hunger for human flesh, usually created or re-animated through scientific means. Fictional zombies have a long history in Western culture, dating back to the 1600s, with many evolutions of the concept from literature to films and beyond. Zombies have appeared in countless films and media.

Social activism

Some zombie fans continue the George Romero tradition of using zombies as a social commentary. Organized zombie themed flash mobs or Zombie Walks, which are primarily promoted through word of mouth, are regularly staged all over the world. Usually they are arranged as a sort of surrealist performance art but they are occasionally put on as part of a unique political protest such as the anticonsumerism action Buy Nothing Day, November 25, 2006, in Montreal, a crowd of pseudo-zombies invaded the downtown core to take part in a "Shopping Spree of the Dead"^[5] and ridicule the compulsive aspect of Christmas shopping and consumerism in general.
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. The walk was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest zombie walk ever held.
Other organizations such as Zombie Squad use the genre as a way to promote disaster preparedness and to encourage horror fans to become involved in their community, through volunteering or hosting zombie themed charity fund raisers.

References

External links

★ Howstuffworks: How Zombies Work - discusses voodoo origins of zombies.

★ fun and games: