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A zombie
is a creature that appears in folklore and popular culture typically as a reanimated corpse or a mindless human being. Stories of zombies originated in the Afro-Caribbean spiritual belief system of Vodou, which told of the people being controlled as laborers by a powerful sorcerer. Zombies became a popular device in modern horror fiction, largely because of the success of George A. Romero's 1968 film Night of the Living Dead
. [1]
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THE ZOMBIES TICKETS
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Etymology
There are several possible
etymologies of the word zombie. One possible origin is
jumbie
, the
West Indian term for "ghost".
[2] Another is
nzambi
, the
Kongo word meaning "spirit of a dead person."
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word entered English circa 1871 and is derived from the
Louisiana Creole or
Haitian Creole zonbi
, which in turn is of
Bantu origin.
[3] A
zonbi
is a person who is believed to have died and been brought back to life without
speech or
free will.
[4] It is akin to the
Kimbundu nzúmbe
ghost.
Voodoo
{{#ifexist:Category:Articles needing additional references from August 2009
According to the tenets of Vodou, a dead person can be revived by a
bokor, or sorcerer. Zombies remain under the control of the bokor since they have no will of their own. "Zombi" is also another name of the Vodou snake
lwa Damballah Wedo, of
Niger-Congo origin; it is akin to the
Kikongo 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 a woman that appeared in a village, and a family claimed she was
Felicia Felix-Mentor, a relative 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 medicine
| ”
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Several decades later,
Wade Davis, a
Harvard 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'), includes
tetrodotoxin (TTX), the poison found in the
pufferfish. The second powder is composed of
dissociatives such as
datura. Together, these powders were said to induce a death-like state in which the victim's will would be entirely subject to that of the bokor. Davis also popularized the story of
Clairvius Narcisse, who was claimed to have succumbed to this practice.
Symptoms of
TTX poisoning range from numbness and nausea to paralysis, unconsciousness, and death, but do not include a stiffened gait or a deathlike trance. According to neurologist
Terence Hines, the scientific community dismisses tetrodotoxin as the cause of this state, and Davis' assessment of the nature of the reports of Haitian zombies is overly credulous.
[6] 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.
Popular culture
Modern zombies, as portrayed in books, films, games, and
haunted attractions, are 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
. Typically, these creatures can sustain damage far beyond that of a normal, living human. Generally these can only be killed by a wound to the head, such as a headshot, and can pass whatever syndrome that causes their condition onto others.
Usually, zombies are not depicted as thralls to masters, as in the film
White Zombie
or the spirit-cult myths. Rather, modern zombies are depicted in mobs and waves, seeking either flesh to eat or people to kill, and are typically rendered to exhibit signs of physical decomposition such as rotting flesh, discolored eyes, and open wounds, and moving with a slow, shambling gait. They are generally incapable of communication and show no signs of personality or rationality, though
George Romero's zombies appear capable of learning and very basic levels of speech as seen in the films
Day of the Dead
and
Land of the Dead
.
Modern zombies are closely tied to the idea of a
zombie apocalypse, the collapse of civilization caused by a vast plague of undead. The ideas are now so strongly linked that zombies are rarely depicted within any other context.
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. In some zombie apocalypse narratives, such as
The Return of the Living Dead
and
Dead Set
, zombies are depicted as being as quick and nimble as the living, a further departure from the established genre stereotype.
Philosophical zombie
A
philosophical zombie is a concept used in the
philosophy of mind, a field of research which examines the association between conscious thought and the physical world. A philosophical zombie is a hypothetical person who lacks full
consciousness but has the biology or behavior of a normal human being; it is used as a
null hypothesis in debates regarding the identity of the mind and the brain. The term was coined by philosopher
David Chalmers.
[7]
Social activism
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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.
[8]
References
- Zombie Maestro Lays Down Lore
- Howstuffworks "How Zombies Work"
- zombie - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
- Definition of zombie - Merriam-Webster's Student Dictionary
- Gallaher, Tim (1997). Zora Neale Hurston, American Author
- Hines, Terence; "Zombies and Tetrodotoxin"; ''Skeptical Inquirer''; May/June 2008; Volume 32, Issue 3; Pages 60-62.
- Chalmers, David. 1995. "Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness", Journal of Consciousness Studies, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 200-219
- Shopping Spree of the Dead!