Where do zombies come from? Well in our culture it can be traced back two ways: one of which is through the word zombie itself and the other is through myths and lore.
Neurotoxins
This is where the word zombi comes from. It has been proven over and over again voodoo magic is simply feats accomplished through science or at least an understanding of how to do things if maybe not how they actually work. The simplest of these is walking on fire, or rather on hot coals. The priest gives a speech or prayer while standing very close to the fire and coals. This gives him time to build up a layer of perspiration around his skin and as long as nothing flammable touch the coals he is perfectly safe.
Using neurotoxins to create zombis is a technique used in Haiti and documented by a number of doctors and scientists, the most public of which is Dr. Wade Davis and his books, Passage of Darkness and The Serpent and the Rainbow (which was turned into a movie.)
Certain poisons slow down bodily functions to the point that the person is considered dead. The poison from fugu (Japanese blowfish) can do this is only one such poison and is the one used by voodoo priests. However movies and books constantly have our heroes being injected with poison of this nature from some source or another (some of which are credible, some not so much.)
The victims can then be brought back to the living under the effects of a drug like datura stramonium. The drug damages the victim’s brain and leaves it in a trance-like state with no memory, but still able to perform simple tasks. Add this into the mental damage of believing you are the living dead and in often cases having to claw out of a grave, which due to lack of oxygen causes even further brain damage. It is really no wonder these poor people wander around, moaning with their arms outstretched.
This has been used by voodoo priests for years to create armies of slave labor or even heartless soldiers.
See the case of Clairvius Narcisse.
The myths range back from all over the world. In Rome the hints at the undead are everywhere, from the statement that just as many shades live under the coliseum licking the sand for blood from the fallen as there are audience members watching the slaughter, to the strict believes on burial rights and ritual sacrifice of young men and women to the shades and family ancestors, some records of which make the undead spirits seem to be less spirit and more flesh and bone.
Cave drawings in North America have depicted men being killed and buried, only for the story to continue as those men break out of the mounds and attack their old friends. The final drawings are of the men’s heads being crushed by rocks.
In Southeast Asia there is an island called the Island of the Damned (not kidding) this island is where many tribes take their elderly and ill too. They leave the dying on the shore of the island and sail away as the elders come out from the trees and fall upon those left behind. The boat waits out at sea until the elders return to the trees and if there is no body on the beach the people return to their tribe. If there is a body the people wait, they wait until the body rises and joins the elders in the trees.
In Ireland the stories of the fae are wide and strange but among them can be found myths of men made to crave the flesh of others, woman killed and raised to serve the fae in death, even stories of fae who look like humans savagely feasting on anyone they come across. The myths about these particular fae say they may have even been human at one point but no longer have souls.
The people of England has always been obsessed with stories of monsters who infect. Vampires who drink the blood of beautiful people and turn their favorites into vampires. Werewolves who feast on the flesh of any who cross their paths and infect those unlucky enough to survive. English lore is rife with monsters which look human but infect and consume humans.
Egyptians believed in the undead and the spirits living on so much that they had multiple gods devoted to it and countless rituals and spells concerning death and burial. The Pharaohs had their brains removed after death and their entire families were buried alive with them, this is the most commonly known practice however it was not the most brutal or the most sacred. In the stories of the gods Osiris is killed, ripped apart and part of him eaten, only to rise again as the undead god of the underworld while his son Horus takes his place as god of the sun. There was a cult who actually focused on this aspect of dying and coming back to life following in the living/dead gods footsteps.
The great myths are those of the Greeks and these myths are filled with spirits, shades and undead souls. Odysseus feeds the spirits a trench of blood to hold them at bay while he talks to the soul of another hero. It is quite regular for the souls of the dead to be referenced as thirsting after living flesh and blood. It was also generally accepted that these souls were not in fact ghosts but actual physical beings. Some heroes even turn into flesh eating monsters, such as Lamia who in out of grief and madness consumes children and over time her face changed though her body did not age. Hecate was the goddess of necromancy and if she were not given tribute she would, instead of protecting from evil spirits, draw the spirits to the offenders home where they would be killed and their flesh eaten.
The Salvic have a mythology which is shrouded in misinterpretations and missing information but some of what can be gathered include gaje or holy places which are fenced in cemeteries in wooded areas. The areas are fenced in and put in the woods not to keep people out but to keep any restless dead or malicious spirits in.
The Finnish are an interesting culture who seem to have many myths stolen from other cultures and their gods are all relatives or variants of the Norse gods and their monsters are called fairies, and are obviously replicas of the Irish fae. The one thing it seems is completely Finnish is the creature they call a demon, a creature which looks like a decaying human but acts worse and more violent than a goblin.
A tribe in South America trains one man from every generation with the sole purpose of slaying the breathless ones. He must hunt these cannibals who do not breath and can only be killed throw vicious decapitation.
In Canada we have the myth of the Windigo, a creature who was once human but now must eat other humans and forever moans like the wind. The Windigo is shapeless and indescribable in its horror, this could mean it is without physical form and like the wind or it could mean it can take many shapes and is too gruesome to properly recount.
These are just a few cultures of the hundreds that exist and they all have their own myths based on these creatures that were once human but now mindlessly kill and consume. So where did the zombie culture come from? Why is it so popular? Could it be that it came from our pasts? Myths are based on legends, legends are based on stories and stories are based on truth. It’s hard to say how much truth gets passed along in this generations long game of telephone but it is clear humanity has always been obsessed with the undead. Go back through and replace any italicized words with the word “zombie” and see how well it fits.
Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
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