From "World War Z" to "The Walking Dead" to "Shaun of the Dead" to "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" and countless brain-dead rip-offs, zombies (basically re-animated corpses with an unstoppable craving for human flesh, especially brains) have invaded pop culture like never before. For staggering, slow-moving monsters, zombies have become quite a force in the entertainment industry over the past decade.
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| Béla Lugosi |
Though George Romero's 1968 film "Night of the Living Dead" is often considered to be the original modern zombie film, the first actually appeared nearly 40 years earlier in "White Zombie," starring Béla Lugosi as an evil voodoo priest in Haiti who zombifies a beautiful young woman. In the years since, only a handful of zombie films have returned to their Haitian origins, most notably "The Serpent and the Rainbow."
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "zombie" first appeared in English around 1810 when historian Robert Southey mentioned it in his book "History of Brazil." But this "Zombi" was not the familiar brain-eating manlike monstrosity but instead a West African deity. The word later came to suggest the vital, human force leaving the shell of a body, and ultimately a creature human in form but lacking the self-awareness, intelligence, and a soul. It was imported to Haiti and elsewhere from Africa through the slave trade.
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| Zombie stripper! Look out! |
Everyone knows the fictional zombies, but fewer know the facts about zombies. To many people, both in Haiti and elsewhere, zombies are very real. They are not a joke! they are something to be taken seriously. Belief in magic and witchcraft is widespread throughout Haiti and the Caribbean, often in the form of religions such as voodoo and Santeria.
Haitian zombies were said to be people brought back from the dead (and sometimes controlled) through magical means by voodoo priests called bokors or houngan. Sometimes the zombification was done as punishment (striking fear in those who believed that they could be abused even after death), but often the zombies were said to have been used as slave labor on farms and sugarcane plantations.
I think its really interesting to look at the roots of Zombie genre relating back to Haiti and voodoo traditions. This is something I had never known before this class. I wonder why the zombie genre has strayed so much away from its roots?
You know, this is a bit off-topic, but I misread your first paragraph and thought you were talking about movie sequels, remakes, and spin-offs as zombies, themselves -- you know, remakes of old films "coming back from the dead," so to speak? Food for thought.
I really like the information on zombie lore, and how radically different things have changed from then to now. I wonder why we don't see many movies about "voodoo priests" anymore? I have an old book of zombie comics from the 60s, and it was rife with voodoo priests and black magic.
Yay for zombie history. Papa Doc Duvalier was dictator in Haiti in the 1960's. He had an army called the 'ton ton macoutes' (The name was inspired by hatain folklore describing bogeymen that would snatch children in the middle of the night). Well, these ton ton macoutes were notorious for their expressionless faces. Many Haitains believed that they were zombies under the control of Voodoo priests.
Wouldn't that make a cool film? A ruthless dictator creates a bloody legacy with zombie army. Then maybe a voodoo priest turns against said dictator and there is an all out zombie war....witchdoctor against witchdoctor.
While the Haiti history that we have learned in class was interesting, I think the "Zombi-West African Deity-human vitality leaving the body" is a really interesting foundation/bridge to our understanding of Zombies.
It kind of reminds me of the 21 gram/at death debate. Im sure someone knows more than me, but this strikes a similar chord, i.e. something leaving/departing the body at death.
I also think the macabre aspect of popular culture is interesting and what we associate with Zombies. In the Haitian short story we read, as well in 'The Serpent and the Rainbow,' while Zombification obviously involves death, it does not overtly involve decay. Now when we imagine Zombies they are grotesque and decomposing creatures, even the 'recently' dead in the Walking Dead, there seems not only to be something missing (ie human intelligence/emotion) but there is an instant and distinct pallor, signifying the departure of whatever made them human.
It's slightly amazing how much the current idea of zombies has evolved. I don't have any sources to back it up, but it seems to me like somewhere between White Zombie and Romero(maybe starting with the latter), our idea of the zombie became much more like "revenants" of Medieval folklore. From wikipedia:
"Often the revenants are associated with the spreading of disease among the living. The appropriate response is usually exhumation, followed by some form of decapitation, and burning or removal of the heart."
If you read the rest of it, they are a far cry from our "zombies" but it is still interesting how language appropriates and changes our associations
It is very interesting to learn about the origins of zombies and how they have spread all over the world in such a short amount of time. I am curious as to what Haitians perspective of zombies is today? It would also be interesting to learn about how they are depicted in other places around the world. Whether they are feared, laughed at, incorporated with culture, mocked etc.
This is some interesting stuff. I have to admit, I'm pretty up to date with modern zombie-related literature/film/entertainment however I'm not so caught up on the classics. I'm definitely going to have to go back and watch some of them and thanks to this post I know where to start. Also, this history stuff is cool. It's always interesting to see how a word originates and how it changes to become what it is today. Really interesting stuff, thank you!