Zombies

A zombie (plural Zoms)is the term associated with a person infected by the Solanum virus; however, they are no longer people. Even if they look and sound just like your sweet lil' old Grandmammy, THEY ARE NOT. They must be destroyed. In contemporary versions these are generally reanimated or undead corpses. Stories of zombies are as old as the human race, with mentions of them in the oldest known work of literature, the Epic of Gilgamesh. But furthermore, zombies can be thought of an existence of life after death.

Other more macabre versions of zombies have been 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 researcher that defined the concept, is archetypal in modern culture.

Most Zombies can be found roaming around their places of death in search of living organisms to feed on. The zombies will walk around, searching for food until it locates a living being at which point it will raise it's arms and form a guttural moaning deep in its throat, attracting other zombies in the area.

In a first world country (and many second/third world countries), most people showing symptoms of infection (fever, disorientation) will be brought into the closest hospital. after a few hours (depending on the severity of the infection) the infected will "die" and then reanimate, a fully developed zombie.

Contrary to popular belief, a graveyard is usually a safe haven from zombies. It takes a few hours at most from "death" to reanimation and as it takes a few days at the very least for a burial to be organized, there have been no reports of a zombie reanimating in a coffin. in fact, zombies tend to avoid graveyards as it is simply wide stretches of abandoned land. Even if a zombie did animate here, the only danger would be if it animated during the burial. It would most likely animate in the coffin where, to get out, it would have to claw through a foot of steel and dirt.

Zombies in voodoo[]

See the full article here According to the tenets of Vodoun, 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. 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= 5-8 µg/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.

"One must look at the original meaning of the term "zombie," which is actually slightly different from the flesh-eating reanimated corpses that we see in modern horror fiction. The word is derived from the Haitian creole "zonbi." According to Dr. Yves Saint-Gérard, author of Le Phénomène Zombi (The Zombie Phenomenon), this term designates a "living-dead," or, figuratively, a person devoid of any will or character. According to traditional Haitian beliefs, a person might be "zombified" by a bokor (the Voodoo equivalent of a sorcerer). Through the use of dark magic, the bokor brings the victim into a state of near-death or deep coma. The victim's family and community bury him/her, thinking that he/she is dead. But the bokor subsequently digs up and revives the victim as a zombie: a state under which he/she is devoid of free will and does whatever the bokor tells him/her to do.

It is unclear how a bokor induces his victim's near-death state, but it appears to be through the use of potions. One theory is that zombification results from the ingestion of tetradotoxin, a chemical extracted from puffer fish (Dr. Saint- Gérard attributes this theory to American botanist Wade Davis). In any case, it seems that zombification comes from ingesting, as stated by Article 246 of the Haitian Criminal Code, "substances which, without giving death, will cause a more-or-less prolonged state of lethargy."

~foreign law specialist named Nicolas Boring

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.

Zombie Laws[]

Due to the many cases of kidnapping and forced zombification, Haiti passed laws to prevent the use of dark arts to revivify mortal flesh.

Article 246. Is considered a poisoning any attempt on the life of a person through the use of substances which can cause death more or less cleanly, regardless of the manner in which these substances were used or administered, and regardless of the consequences. C. Pen. 240, 247, 262, 263, 332, 372.

Is also considered attempt on life by poisoning the use made against a person of substances which, without giving death, will cause a more-or-less prolonged state of lethargy, regardless of the manner in which these substances were used and regardless of the consequences. If the person was buried as a consequence of this state of lethargy, the attempt will be considered a murder. C. Pen. 241

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, 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

The Modern Zombie[]

The modern conception of the zombie owes itself almost entirely to the research of George A. Romero. Romero "bred the zombie with the vampire, and what he got was the hybrid vigour of a ghastly plague monster". This brought into being a new apocalyptic vision of monsters that have come to be known as Romero zombies.

Innately tied with the conception of the modern zombie is the "Zombie Apocalypse", the breakdown of modern society as a result of zombie infestation. Scholar Kim Paffrenroth notes that "more than any other monster, zombies are fully and literally apocalyptic... they signal the end of the world as we have known it."

Traits of a classic Zombie[]

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 zombies have been seen moving as fast as a healthy human)
Increased endurance relative to normal humans; some sources attribute this to removal of normal neurological limits to muscle endurance (e.g., Golgi tendon reflex).
Profoundly reduced or absent cognitive function.
An insatiable and endless desire to consume living animal flesh, usually human, sometimes favoring brains.
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.
Has high aggression and little intelligence and has the some of the traits of a rabid person.
Ignores or is oblivious of fellow zombies.
In some depictions zombies can be seen eating each other if there is a lack of humans, as was the case in the video game "Resident Evil Operation Racoon City", however it seems they favor humans as they will stop eating each other should a human get too close.

Zombie Analogues[]

Not all bite victims fit the traditional definition of the Zombie. 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 Traditional 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. The 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.

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. 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.

Zombies in social activism[]

Zombie mob participant — A participant in a Zombie Walk event in Calgary, Canada

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" 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 outbreak. 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.

However, many zombie walks are actually zombie outbreaks that the government has covered up for obvious reasons.

Zombies Like Turtles[]

Zombie_Kid_Likes_Turtles — Zombie Kid Likes Turtles

External links[]

Howstuffworks: How Zombies Work - discusses voodoo origins of zombies.
io9: A History of Zombies in America - An article chronicling America's love affair with zombies