Zombies, Revenants, Vampires, and Reanimated Corpses

The general names given to the undead are zombies, revenants, vampires, and reanimated corpses. The undead are either corporeal undead or corporeal living dead. The corporeal undead include those animated undead who are commonly called revenants and vampires who have transformed while being undead. Zombies are the corporeal living dead. According to outward appearances, the corporeal living dead appear dead and are close to death (their senses are numbed and body functions reduced), but they are actually alive and cognizant of their surroundings.

Overview

The plea by parents to their children to “hush or you'll wake the dead” continues the ancient and culturally pervasive entrenched fear that a human body could actually return to the land of the living. When a person dies, we wish it was not true and that we could see that person again; but a fear can also exist that if that individual did rise from the dead, he or she might be malevolent. Would a person see that individual as a spirit or ghost, or would that individual rise from the grave as a decayed corpse? The fear of the presence of a moving, tangible, dead person that could be touched and could physically touch you has created the undead monsters that cultures throughout the world not only fear but also place in modern popular culture.

People from various cultures visualize the walking dead differently. Appearances of the walking dead include that they can ooze and be bloody with maggots crawling, they can lumber and stumble around, or they can fly and travel at fast speeds. They are usually visualized as being soulless also.

Zombies

Zombies are seen as individuals who look as if they are dead, but they are in fact living. It is in the Haitian community and the Vodoun (voodoo) faith where zombies are prominent and legitimately feared. The word zombie has traveled from Africa to Haiti and most likely came from the Kongo word nzambi, which translates somewhat into “spirit of a dead person.” The process of zombification involves essentially being poisoned by a blend of substances made into a powder that might include as ingredients ground-up human remains, botanical dissociatives, and a neurotoxin (tetrodotoxin) from either the porcupine fish (Diodon hystrix L. and Diodon holacanthus L.), the puffer fish (Sphoeroides testudineus L. and Sphoeroides spengleri Bloch), and/or the Marine toad (Bufo marinus L.). One poison concoction could include toxic fish that are sun dried, heated, and placed in a mortar with roasted tarantula, nonvenomous lizards, parts of the brown and white toad, and ground-up human bones. The bokor, who makes the poison, covers his body with oil and wraps hemp sacks around him. He plugs his nostrils and covers his head with a hat to prevent from being affected. As the poison starts [Page 1002]its work, a person feels the sensation of tiny bugs crawling under the skin. A small amount of the powder mixture eaten in food or delivered by the prick of a thorn or directly into a wound makes a victim unable to move or speak, but they are conscious of their surroundings. The nervous system's motor responses are paralyzed. The mouth will not open and the eyes do not react to stimulus. It is possible to die of this type of poisoning because the heart rate and body temperature drop and breathing is markedly slowed and can result in asphyxiation. If the victim recovers, they fully recall their time as a zombie.

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