A zombie is a reanimated human 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. vodoo, vodun, or vodoun may refer to any of West African vodun, a west African religion Haitian vodou, mostly derived 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. Horror fiction is broadly Fiction in any medium intended to scare unsettle or horrify the audience George Andrew Romero (born February 4, 1940) is an American director writer editor and actor Night of the Living Dead (1968 directed by George Romero, is an independent Black-and-white Horror film.

There are several possible etymologies of the word zombie. Etymology is the study of the History of Words &mdash when they entered a language from what source and how their form and meaning have changed over time One possible origin is jumbie, the West Indian term for "ghost". The Caribbean (ˌkærəˡbiən kæ'rəbiən Cariben|Caraïben or Caraïben; Caraïbe or more commonly Antilles; Caribe is a Region consisting ^[1] Another is nzambi, the Kongo word meaning "spirit of a dead person. The Kingdom of Kongo (1400 – 1914 ( Kongo: Kongo dya Ntotila or Wene wa Kongo) was an African kingdom located in west central Africa in what "^[1] According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the etymology is from the Louisiana Creole or Haitian Creole zonbi, of Bantu origin. Louisiana Creole is a French Creole language spoken by the mixed Louisiana Creole people of the state of Louisiana. Haitian Creole language ( kreyòl ayisyen) often called simply Creole or Kreyòl ( pronounced) is a language spoken in Haiti Bantu may refer to Bantu expansion, a series of migrations of Bantu speakers Bantu languages Bantu people ^[2] A zonbi is a person who is believed to have died and been brought back to life without speech or free will. Speech refers to the processes associated with the production and perception of Sounds used in Spoken language. The question of free will ^[3] It is akin to the Kimbundu nzúmbe ghost. Kimbundu is one of the most widely spoken languages in Angola, especially in the north-west of the country notably in the Luanda province These words are approximately from 1871. ^[2]

Voodoo

See also: History of Haiti

According to the tenets of Voodoo, a dead person can be revived by a bokor or Voodoo sorcerer. The recorded history of Haiti began on December 5, 1492 when the European navigator Christopher Columbus happened upon a large island in Bokor s in the religion of vodou are sorcerers or Houngan (priests for hire who are said to 'serve the Loa with both hands' meaning that they can practice 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". In Vodou, Damballa is one of the most important of all the Loa. The Niger-Congo languages constitute one of the world's major language families, and Africa 's largest in terms of geographical area number of speakers and number Kikongo or Kongo is the Bantu language spoken by the Bakongo and Bandundu people living in the tropical forests of the Democratic Republic 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. History The concept of folklore developed as part of the 19th century ideology of Romantic nationalism, leading to the reshaping of oral traditions to serve modern ideological Haiti ( English: ˈheɪ·tiː or haɪ·ˈjiː·tiː French Haïti a·i·ti Haitian Creole: Zora Neale Hurston ( January 7, 1891 &ndash January 28, 1960) was an American folklorist and author during the time Hurston pursued rumors that the affected persons were given powerful drugs, but she was unable to locate individuals willing to offer much information. A psychoactive drug or psychotropic substance is a Chemical substance that acts primarily upon the Central nervous system where it alters Brain She wrote:

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). Edmund Wade Davis (born December 14 1953) is a noted Canadian anthropologist, ethnobotanist, author and photographer whose work has Ethnobotany ( from " ethnology " - study of culture and " Botany " - study of plants) is the scientific study of the relationships The Serpent and the Rainbow is a 1988 American Horror film, directed by Wes Craven and starring Bill Pullman. Year 1985 ( MCMLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar) Year 1988 ( MCMLXXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar) 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 (anhydrotetrodotoxin 4-epitetrodotoxin tetrodonic acid TTX is a potent Neurotoxin with no known antidote which blocks Action potentials in Nerves Tetrodotoxin is the same lethal toxin found in the Japanese delicacy fugu, or pufferfish. is the Japanese word for Pufferfish and is also a Japanese dish prepared from the meat of Pufferfish (normally species of Takifugu, Lagocephalus Tetraodontidae is a family of primarily marine and estuarine fish At near-lethal doses (LD₅₀= 5-8µg/kg)^[5], it can leave a person in a state of near-death for several days. In Toxicology, the median lethal dose, LD50 (abbreviation for “Lethal Dose 50%” or LCt50 (Lethal Concentration & Time of a 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. A dissociative is a drug which reduces (or blocks signals to the conscious mind from other parts of the brain typically but not necessarily limited to the Senses Such Datura is a Genus of 12-15 species of vespertine Flowering plants belonging to the family Solanaceae. Davis also popularized the story of Clairvius Narcisse, who was claimed to have succumbed to this practice. Clairvius Narcisse was a Haitian man said to have been turned into a living Zombie with the use of a combination of drugs 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.

The scientific community dismisses tetrodotoxin as the cause of this state. Terence Hines, writing in the May/June 2008 Skeptical Inquirer, points out that TTX poisoning can be classified by four levels, or grades, with grade one characterized by numbness and nausea, grade two marked by greater numbness and motor difficulty, grade three signified by severe flaccid paralysis, respiratory failure, and aphonia, and grade four characterized by serious respiratory problems, hypotension, cardiac difficulties, brain hypoxia, unconsciousness and death. The Skeptical Inquirer is a bimonthly American Magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI with the subtitle Chronic Hypoxia is a pathological condition in which the body as a whole ( generalized hypoxia) or region of the body ( tissue hypoxia) is deprived of adequate Hines points out that these symptoms are not consistent with the descriptions of voodoo zombies by Davis, which include the ability to walk and lurch forward with stiff limbs, rather than flaccid ones that render one completely immobile, and it is for this reason that Davis' claims were dismissed by the scientific community in the 1980's. Hines believes that Davis was too credulous in his acceptance of information provided to him by Haitians, whom Hines believes took advantage of Davis, much as Margaret Mead's Samoan subjects had with her in the 1920's. Margaret Mead ( December 16, 1901, Philadelphia &ndash November 15, 1978, New York City) was an American ^[6]

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. A psychogenic disease is a set of symptoms or complaints whose origin likely lies within the complex interactions of the frontal lobes of the brain and the system in which the complaint Amnesia (from Greek) is a condition in which Memory is disturbed Catatonic is a syndrome of psychic and motoric-disturbances In the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association Mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern that occurs in an individual and is thought to cause distress or disability that is not expected as 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. Ronald David Laing ( 7 October 1927 – 23 August 1989 was a Scottish Psychiatrist who wrote extensively on Mental illness Schizophrenia ( from the Greek roots schizein (σχίζειν "to split" and phrēn

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) is well documented by contemporary European writers of the time, such as William of Newburgh and Walter Map. This article is about the Revenant in Folklore For the Tzimisce Revenant Families see Revenant. William of Newburgh (1136? &ndash 1198? also known as William Parvus was a 12th century English historian and Augustinian canon from Bridlington, Walter Map (born 1140 died c 1208&ndash1210 was a medieval writer using Latin According to the Encyclopedia of Things that Never Were^[7], 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. A draugr or draug (original Old Norse plural draugar, as used here not draugrs) or draugen ( nor. Norse mythology comprises the indigenous pre-Christian religion, beliefs and Legends of the Scandinavian peoples including those who settled on Iceland The zombie appears in several other cultures worldwide, including China, Japan, the Pacific, India, and the Native Americans. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country For indigenous peoples in the United States other than Hawaii and Alaska see also Native Americans in the United States.

The Epic of Gilgamesh of ancient Sumer includes a mention of zombies. The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from Ancient Mesopotamia and is among the earliest known works of literary fiction. Sumer ( Sumerian: sux-Latn [[Ki (earth ki]]-[[EN (cuneiform en]]-'''ĝir15''', Akkadian: Šumeru; possibly Biblical Shinar Ishtar, in the fury of vengeance says:

Father give me the Bull of Heaven,
So he can kill Gilgamesh in his dwelling. Ishtar ( D IŠTAR 𒀭𒌋𒁯 is the Assyrian and Babylonian counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to Gilgamesh was the son of Lugalbanda and the fifth king of Uruk (Early Dynastic II first dynasty of Uruk ruling circa 2600 BC according to the Sumerian king
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!^[8]

Popular culture

Main article: Zombies in popular culture

A group of actors portraying zombies. Appearances of the Bull (also known as Taurus) in Mythology and worship are widespread in the ancient world

Modern zombies, as portrayed in books, films, games, and haunted attractions, are quite different from both voodoo zombies and those of folklore. A haunted attraction or dark attraction is a venue which simulates the experience of visiting a structure or outside space that is inhabited by what appear to be 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. Night of the Living Dead (1968 directed by George Romero, is an independent Black-and-white Horror film. Typically, these creatures can sustain damage far beyond that of a normal, living human and can pass whatever syndrome that causes their condition onto others.

Usually, zombies are not thralls to masters, as in White Zombie or the spirit-cult myths. White Zombie ( 1932) is an American Horror film, first released on August 4, 1932. Rather, modern zombies come in mobs and waves, seeking either flesh to eat or people to kill or infect. Typically, they show signs of physical decomposition such as rotting flesh, discolored eyes, and open wounds, and move with a slow, shambling gait. They are generally incapable of communication, showing no signs of personality or rationality.

Modern zombies are closely tied to the idea of a zombie apocalypse, the collapse of civilization caused by a vast plague of undead. The zombie apocalypse is a particular scenario of apocalyptic fiction that customarily has a Science fiction / horror rationale 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. Living Dead is a blanket term for various films and series that all originated with the seminal 1968 Zombie movie Night of the Living Dead created George Andrew Romero (born February 4, 1940) is an American director writer editor and actor John A Russo (born 1939) sometimes credited as Jack Russo or John Russo, is an American screenwriter and Film director most commonly

Many critics of the modern horror film have asserted that zombies act as a metaphor for our fear of the social underclass. In this analysis, they are the opposite of vampires, which are traditionally represented as a malignant form of aristocracy (for example, Lord Ruthven, Carmilla and Count Dracula). Aristocracy is a form of Government, where rule is established through an internal struggle over who has the most status and influence over society and internal relations This article is about Scottish nobility See Lord Ruthven (vampire for the fictional lead character of the 1819 novel The Vampyre. " Carmilla " is a Gothic novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, featuring as its primary Antagonist the vampire Count Dracula. The rise of vast numbers of Zombies represents the rise of the downtrodden masses, overwhelming and consuming the comfortable lives of the middle and upper classes. In George Romero's classic Dawn of the Dead, the zombies are compared to mindless shoppers endlessly wandering a vast department store. Dawn of the Dead (also known as George A Romero's Dawn of the Dead, Zombie internationally Zombies in Britain, and alternately called

Philosophy

Main article: Philosophical zombie

In philosophy of mind, zombies are hypothetical persons who lack full consciousness but have the biology or behavior of a normal human being; they are often used in thought experiments which make arguments against the identity of the mind and the brain. A philosophical Zombie, p-zombie or p-zed is a hypothetical being that is indistinguishable from a normal human being except that it lacks conscious Philosophy of mind is the branch of Philosophy that studies the nature of the Mind, Mental events Mental functions mental properties Consciousness has been defined loosely as a constellation of attributes of Mind such as Subjectivity, Self-awareness, Sentience, and the The term was coined by philosopher of mind David Chalmers. David John Chalmers (born April 20, 1966) is a Philosopher in the area of Philosophy of mind. They are referred to as philosophical zombies or "p-zombies". A philosophical Zombie, p-zombie or p-zed is a hypothetical being that is indistinguishable from a normal human being except that it lacks conscious ^[9]

Social activism

Main article: Zombie walk

A participant in a Zombie Walk event in Calgary, Canada. A zombie walk (also known as a zombie mob, zombie march, zombie horde, zombie lurch, zombie shuffle or zombie pub crawl A zombie walk (also known as a zombie mob, zombie march, zombie horde, zombie lurch, zombie shuffle or zombie pub crawl Calgary (ˈkælgəriː is the largest city in the Province of Alberta, Canada Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page

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. A zombie walk (also known as a zombie mob, zombie march, zombie horde, zombie lurch, zombie shuffle or zombie pub crawl Usually they are arranged as a sort of surrealist performance art but they are occasionally put on as part of a unique political protest. ^[10]

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. Monroeville Mall is a two-level enclosed shopping mall in Monroeville Pennsylvania, east of Pittsburgh. Dawn of the Dead (also known as George A Romero's Dawn of the Dead, Zombie internationally Zombies in Britain, and alternately called The walk consisted of 894 attendees who all were instructed to bring canned food for a local food drive. ^[11]

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 fundraisers. Zombie Squad, frequently abbreviated to ZS is a community service and disaster preparedness organization that uses the metaphor of a " Zombie Apocalypse " or "Zombocalypse"

References