Brendan
P. Buckless & Antonia Armstrong-Laira
Donner
Party: Zombie Horde
Based on
George Matheson’s I am Legend we
decided to create two subdivisions of zombie:
I) Unevolved
II)
Evolved and community oriented
We
created a web to break down our thought process and conclusions. Our first
question was:
1) Do zombies form communities?
→No → isolated →why? → competition for
food → brains → not an evolutionary driver.
→Yes → in a horde → why? → to find food →
do they work together? → inadvertently →
form of social
evolution? → yes → why? →
2) When a zombie horde forms,
does it ever dissolve? →
No → why? → because it’s easier to hunt.
3) But does that really indicate
a sense of community? →
maybe, but what is community?
4) A community is: mutual
reliance dependent upon communication.
→Verbal → moans? → too speculative to
quantify.
→Non-verbal → acknowledgement of one
another? → yes →
5) Does that indicate
consciousness though?
→ could we even know? → consciousness depends
on memory → can’t be quantified, too
speculative.
6) Take a step back. What is
consciousness?
→memory
formation → as in primal desire? → animals have some memory →
don’t dogs recognize their own name? → yes → but isn't that just familiarity? → maybe.
don’t dogs recognize their own name? → yes → but isn't that just familiarity? → maybe.
7) What about collective
identity? →
zombies know the difference between humans and other zombies.
→but do
they know the difference between zombies? → how so? → better question is →
how do
humans perceive difference? → gender.
8) Do zombies recognize gender?
→No, they are all the same and
therefore have attained total equality.
→Yes →
gender dynamics then → attraction? → too speculative → but what about emotional
connection?
→ provided they can perceive difference within themselves shouldn't favoritism
exist?
The question about whether or not zombies recognized gender made me think of a passage in "Pride Prejudice & Zombies" in which Elizabeth and her sisters come upon a female unmentionable cradling a zombie child. While this might be expected in a world more like "Zone One" where stragglers are known for sticking to what they were doing right before death, the zombies in PPZ are more specifically focused on feeding. The fact that this zombie woman also ran off into the woods carrying the zombie child indicates some level of protection as she almost certainly resisting the urge to attack the sisters in order to get her infant back to the safety of the woods. I wouldn't go as far as to say there is still some level of attraction and unique interaction between male and female zombies however I do believe there is evidence regarding some aspects of gender roles still being in tact (at least in PPZ).