Zombies
From Zombiepedia
A zombie 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 Vodoun (Voodoo).
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 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.
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[edit] Zombies in voodoo
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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 Vodou 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."
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), 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, 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 "zombi drug". The vodoun 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.
[edit] Zombies in 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[1], 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
[edit] Traits of a classic Zombie
Popular culture depictions of zombies have evolved into a relatively consistent archetype generally consistent with the Romero zombie and characterized by the following traits:
- A body comprised of a deceased human body that has subsequently reanimated, usually because of a viral infection incurred while the body was still living
- Reduced speed of movement relative to normal humans (however, some recent theatrical depictions of zombies portray them as moving supernaturally fast)
- Increased strength relative to normal humans; some sources attribute this to removal of normal neurological limits to muscle strength (e.g., Golgi tendon reflex)
- Profoundly reduced or absent intellectual function
- An insatiable and endless desire to consume living animal flesh, usually human
- Lack of normal human biological functions such as sleep, digestion, sexual function, or cardiac function
- Lack of normal human biological requirements such as conventional food, sleep, or even oxygen
- Supernatural resistance or immunity to traumatic injury of any part of the body except for the brain
- Vulnerable only to attacks that remove the head or destroy the brain
[edit] Zombie Analogues
Not all bite victims are Zombies. Unless infected by some kind of mutagenic pathogeon, and subsequently become deceased and re-animated with the hunger for the living, a human cannot be termed a Zombie. Examples of this are in the movies 28 Days Later and Quarantine. In 28 Days Later, the victims are infected with a 'Rage virus'. In Quarantine, the virus is likened to Rabies, only with symptoms that show in minutes or hours instead of months. In both cases, the victim will 'turn' while still alive, and while the virus infects the brain and inhabits the blood, will not physically change the body. While losing that which makes them human, they become filled with rage and will attack any living being while recognizing its own. This infected can be killed by any normal means used to kill an uninfected human and will even starve to death without the instinct to feed itself for sustenance.
[edit] Zombies in popular culture
Main article: Zombies in popular culture
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. 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. Mainly brought back from the dead by a human-made virus or nuclear war, these types of zombies only hunger for human flesh, not brains in particular. They are very easily killed with a shot or bludgeon to the head, and can usually be killed by a bullet to the chest. Definitley found in groups (because of humans need to stick together in a zombie crisis, only to die and reanimate together) they search for humans night and day, moaning, and with enhanced hearing and smell, detect humans from miles away, moaning at their prey to put them in a fear induced sweat making them easier to detect.
[edit] Zombies in 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 on Buy Nothing Day, November 25, 2006, in Montreal, a crowd of Zombies invaded the downtown core to take part in a "Shopping Spree of the Dead"[2] and ridicule the compulsive aspect of Christmas shopping.
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.
[edit] Zombies in Real Life
Zombies are very much real. First documented 2000BCE in what is today, the rural farmlands of India. Oddly enough, the zombie mass in India is still there, number about two million. Over the past twenty years their numbers have been extremely lowered, thanks to efforts from the Zombie Outbreak Response Team (ZORT), and government approved bombings and deployment of troops. The mass has been surrounded by UN forces, and they are encroaching slowly each day, since 2003, there has not been one minute where a bullet has not been fired to kill a zombie in the circle. Plans for the eradication of the mass estimate between 2012 and 2013. There are several other zombie masses in the world, and they are spreading.
[edit] References
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[edit] External links
- Howstuffworks: How Zombies Work - discusses voodoo origins of zombies.
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