Zombie in Haiti Essay Example for Free

Zombie in Haiti Essay The word zombie has been popular for several decades since it related to sightings and unsolved mysteries. Mostly, people understand that the word zombie is synonym for undead, ghosts, or monsters. Zombies are a bunch or walking dead-people that seek to feed on human flesh and infect any one that has been bitten by them. The definition is generally motion picture-induced or gained from spooky stories among friends. Anyway, the term is considered mostly as make believe tales that is nothing more than a great Hollywood story. Nevertheless, one cannot escape the logic that every tale as an original story behind it, one that is true and has not been tampered with. Within this paper, we are exploring studies and literatures about the origins of the ‘zombie tale’. Various Exposures on Zombie As mentioned before, most people know zombie and define them based on what they see on Hollywood movies. Nevertheless, there are actually quite a number of literatures –both fiction or scientific- that also cover the story on zombies. The first recorded book that exposed zombies to the western culture was the Magic Island, by W.B. Seabrook in 1929. The book, along with other literatures after it until the 1950, described zombie as a mindless thrall controlled like puppets by mystical masters. They could be reanimated corpses or living humans but never an independent character. Despite the fiction-nature of some literatures, the depiction of Zombie and its characteristics are rich in details and explanations. There are even books on how to survive a worldwide zombie outbreak (Allen, 1986). In movies, the tale of Zombies goes way back to the 1930’s. The first movies about zombies have a strong sexual component within it. In 1968 however, the sexual image of zombies has been decreased substantially cause of George Romero’s ‘Night of the Living Dead’ that identified zombies with cannibalism and awful bodily conditions. This is the popular image on zombies in the modern western movies until this day. Movies like ‘Dawn of the Dead’, TV serials like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and music videos like Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ add popularity to the story of zombie as a mindless, flesh-eating monsters (Allen, 1986). Zombie in Haiti With the popularity of Zombie in Hollywood movies and fictional literatures, the impression of seriousness within the zombie concept was almost entirely gone. Scientific minds will almost instantly assume a fictional tone of voice behind any conversations on zombies. Nevertheless, some researchers have actually performed investigations on zombies and the truth about their existence on the planet. One of the most recognized scientific writers on the ‘zombie tale’ was Wade Davis (1988), with his book ‘PASSAGE OF DARKNESS: THE ETHNOBIOLOGY OF THE HAITIAN ZOMBIE.