iow that these sy mptoms were ik bya pectally prepared. _ priest. More popula:
drug, then the threat. of zombification. must nave: seemed: oe _eases, or even geneti

‘By Dana Schwehr i Sone : i
‘There are few monsters recognized by modern society that are real to them. So storylines that use t
as feared and misunderstood as the zombie. ‘The stereotypical neonate of the actual onigin« of zombie leg the undead — weapons research as
: re. it is the Umbrella.

zombie, an undead creature dripping rotting flesh while search- es Bae
_ ing for human brains to eat is a powerful image that terrifies een COUnUess 1 5, poe vies so ated on. unnamed research f
_ many, and arouses ‘sympathy i in few. The disgust that the zombie ™ a att bce eG revert ie ee e the undead to ¢
automatically nspires makes it difficult for some to see the
underlying issues addressed by the zombie my rth. Understanding
_ the ways that the zombie myth has evolved over time can help us
io understand society, since it is the horror stories that are told by
many that indicate what a group of people fear the most. :
The — of the zombie seems to be fom in Vor dae legend.

The stereotypical abie: an undead crea-
ture dripping rotting flesh while searching fo
human brains to eat is a powerful image thé
terrifies many, and arouses sympathy in few.

. as to Voodoo myths, a person could be cursed ty: a sor:
cerer, and this curse would. result i in the person’s death. That I er
son could then be resurrected by a Voodoo priest, known as a
~houngan. The person was now the undead entity known as a
zombie, and would be forced into slavery to the houngan. The
-houngan could even hire out his zombies, and keep the profits
from their efforts.
Of course, in modern times, most people hella that it is
impossible to raise the dead. Since there is usually some sort of
natural basis for most myths and legends, what could have :
inspired tales of animated dead people slaving away for an evil
master? Wade Davis, an ethnobotanist who went to study zom- :
bles: in Haiti, theorized that certain toxins could be used to sim-

ulate death, and contro! the “resurrected” person. He found two — ret a0 -
oo at > outcry against t “most members of
- possible sources of such a toxin, one being a plant known as : oF a oe di d
“zombi cuc umber” , and pullin fish venom being the other. He So oe m i fi cane ee
found that these substances could cause.a “death-like trance’, oe these poor 0
ene rs of the curren

and that upon awakening, the victims of these toxins suffered . oe ee
- from amnesia, delirium, and confusion. If the masses did not ee '

Understanding the ways that the zombie myth has evolved over tims 2 ¢
stand society, since it is the horror stories that are told by many that ind
people fear the most. D : ee :