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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.

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? 

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One Response so far.

  1. 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).

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