Misconceptions Of Vampirism And Its Impact On Modern Culture

In modern society, vampires are relegated to an icon at Halloween, or at most, a symbol of an alternate lifestyle, which is anything from a fad to a cult religion. However, during the middle ages, vampires were well known as mythical stories in cultures. In some culture in vampires have had a significant cultural impact on civilizations throughout the centuries. Through various superstitious beliefs, there have been different tradition all over in different countries. So, how does the depiction of vampires in the media have a cultural impact on our society? There are symbols of the very real fear of animal attack, so too the vampire took on– or was created to be– a symbol for another threat in the lives of the people. This threat, represented
by the vampire, was of nature out of control, specifically natural cycles. Throughout the year's vampirism had had impacts in traditional cultures, and media.
Vampirism is not created by demonic possession, by unholy burial, or an immoral life.
A vampire is a mythological or folkloric creature that is famous for their blood sucking ability to prolong their life and their super strength. People today, when hearing the word "vampire", the first thing that comes in their mind is Edward Cullen (Twilight 2008 the vampire romance series) and any movies that have a vampire appearance or those vampires that they read in a fictional book particularly "The Twilight Saga" by Stephanie Meyer. But do you have any idea what are the characteristics of a vampirism? Do you want to know the common misconceptions about them? And why these misconceptions spread out all over the
world? As mentioned before, vampires are known in many different countries, however, their culture has been proven by many myths pertaining to them. As we have been told throughout our lives, vampires are nothing, but mythical creatures created to either scare us or created to make money off the interest of individuals through TV shows, movies, and books. However, in Twilight, that was not the case. Twilight created an opposite viewpoint of the myths of how a vampire is seen in the movie by making them vegetarians instead of blood-sucking villains.
In some cultures, they believe that humans would take another form when they died. They believe that once their loved one died, they would come as a vampire as a reincarnation form if they were mischief vies people. “By 1870, most educated Europeans and Americans saw vampirism as either thrilling entertainment (on both stage and page) or as an example of the backward superstitions of peasants in such lands as Hungary, Romania, Serbia, and Greece (Cawthorne).” Vampirism has been relevant in many cultures and traditions throughout religions. Vampirism has had a large effect on varies traditions and superstitions in cultures over the past few decades. There was a “700-year-old skeleton from Sozopol, Bulgaria, was found with its teeth removed and stabbed through the chest with an iron rod. Scholars suspect that townspeople did this to ward off vampires a very real fear in Europe for hundreds of years (Little)”. Scholars suspect that the modern conception of these Halloween monsters evolved from various traditional beliefs that were held throughout Europe. Vampires can be repelled with garlic or can be killed directly in the heart.
The darkest killers that are waiting to strike at any time they lay eyes with a Nonvampire to control and end their life with just one sip of their blood. All over the world, there are different types of stories that are based on the idea of vampirism and how people became vampires. The Dalmatian variation of vampirism is known as the Kulak. This species of the vampire is not known to cause pain and suffering, however; to be annoying as they possess your household.
For example, in Africa, we strongly believe that vampirism is more than a mythical story told to entertain us. We’ve experienced stories like family members seeking vampire inspired people to take revenge on their loved ones and going as far as killing because of jealousy. Those who believe that vampirism is all about fun and games, however where I’m from is more than just an amusement to the public. Myself had witnessed how just a mythical story could turn into the most nightmare of your life. Some of my peers could argue that it's just another myth that we came up with to frighten our audience. But little do you know, in Africa, our mythical stories always turned up to be true. In my perspective, not all vampires have these amazing abilities that grant them a supernatural power, such as strength or agile movement and most of all speed. Also, how they were seen in different cultures? when I first read the book “Twilight” series which Stephanie Meyer wrote it. I would be showing some examples of how vampires have evolved in our today’s cultures. Moreover, I would also give details of where the very first myths cultures stories were made about vampires. Some might say that vampires are some cruel undead people that ever-crossed path with the living. Some might, also, think that vampires only live and survive on only human blood, that they are also cold-blooded. Recalling from what Stephanie Meyer said in her book; there was one typically nice, kind loving vampire family, who just wanted something different from what others from their own kind asked for. And That one thing the vampire family asked for was to live an almost normal life as human regular being. Vampires are not the most welcomed creature on earth. One of the most popular myth was that vampires were well known to drink, and destroy human beings; they were also called Beasts.
Vampirism has had a large impact on media. Mythical stories about vampirism were by far the eldest, most resilient archetypes in modern media. Historically, vampirism lore has reflected the value and social structures of the culture it has existed in. in the twentieth century, the united states have become the focal point of the vampirism genre. The modern day of media on vampirism has changed, more than a 45 percent of American people’s relationship with religion and spirituality were important elements of the changes. The belief in vampirism has around since the beginning of human history since it has been in different cultures. Those cultures have had their own way to introduce, describe vampirism in their mythical stories. For example, on the type of Indian vampire feeds on the livers of its victims, while the Japanese vampires subsist by consuming infants ( Bunson, p. 138). American has had a fascination with Psychoanalysis and self-help. Over the last few decades, American culture has developed a dynamic relationship with psychological theory. These concepts have become an integral part of American identity. Though the genre has never had a historical connection with these ideas, one has developed into modern vampire media. In recent years, the vampire has come to reflect the American public's knowledge of themselves and their psychological health. Traditionally, vampires were peripheral characters in the tales that were told about them (Auerbach, p. 109). Bram Stoker's Dracula is an excellent example of this characteristic. Prior to the beginning of the twentieth century, most artists creating vampire media would not have had any concept of Freud. In fact, people who knew Bram Stoker have said that they "doubted whether he had any inkling of the erotic content of vampire superstition" (Frayling, p. 420). This is not to say that sexuality or erotic content were excluded in vampire media during this time. However, it does mean that modern conceptions about sexuality and eroticism cannot be applied to the vampire genre in previous centuries with any degree of certainty. During the Victorian era, the imputation of “eroticism was a punishment” ( Gordon and Hollinger, P. 29). Some scholars also believe that vampires may symbolize “oral sadists” who were either “Overindulged or deprived of maternal breast” (Dundes). This theory also seems to be supported by the actions of several other Ricean vampires. In the novel Interview With the Vampire, Louis de Point du Lac relays the experience of feeding on a victim. The following passage shows remarkable similarity with the act of breastfeeding.
The idea of sucking blood mesmerizes me; the warmed struggling when a vampire had his or her victims in his or her hands and all you can think of is. Is this how my life would end on earth? is almost like vampires have the 6th sense, they can detect a warmth blood form a human a mile away. Vampires are preys and they always ready to strike on their victims. As American culture's relationship with the psychological theory developed, vampires became more complex. Ricean vampires are the best example of the complexity that has developed within the genre over the last twenty-five years. They struggle with concepts of self and morality. They toil with the realities of loneliness and exclusion from society. They are social outcasts. Vampires are not allowed to share in human joys, tears, and triumphs because they are no longer truly human. They endure the most of immortality and it isn't pretty. The impact that vampirism have had in different cultures.
Some people believe that all vampires physically leave their grave when died. Not all vampires do that, on the other hand, in Northern Germany, the Nachezehrer, or “after-devourers,” stayed in the ground, chewing on their burial shrouds. These stationary masticators were still thought to cause trouble aboveground and were also believed to be most active during outbreaks of the plague. In the 1679 track “On the Chewing Dead,” a Protestant theologian accused the Nachzehrer of harming their surviving family members through occult processes. He wrote that people could stop them by exhuming the body and stuffing its mouth with soil, and maybe a stone and a coin for good measure. Without the ability to chew, the tract claimed, the corpse would die of starvation
(Little). Back in 1829, a 19-year-old Mercy Brown of Exeter, Rhode Island, died of tuberculosis, then known as consumption. When they opened Mercy Brown’s grave, they found blood in her mouth and her heart and took this to be a sign of vampirism (though they didn’t call it that). The neighbors burned Mercy’s heart and mixed the ashes into a potion for Edwin to drink—a common anti-vampire tactic. The potion was meant to heal him; instead, he died a few months later (little). Carroll believes these anti-vampire rituals were “introduced as a medical procedure at the time of the American Revolution” by German doctors who worked for the Hessian forces. Because of this, he thinks the New England vampires were based on the German Nachzehrer. Unlike blood-sucking Romanian vampires, New England’s vampires stayed in their grave, harming the living through “sympathetic magic” from afar, he argues (little). Brian Carrol a historian professor from the Central Washington University who was writing a book on the subject claimed that “the rituals were most common in eastern Connecticut and Western Rhode Island. My perspective is that the anti-vampire practice in New England came from many places and that the suspected New England vampires were more akin to Romanian vampires that the Nachzehrer. Whatever the source of these beliefs in New England, they were driven by the same social concerns as those before them: a fear of disease and a desire to contain it. In the 16th century in Venice, Italy. They would bury someone then later would dig the body and take their skull to put a brick in their mouth. They believed that the brick was likely to prevent the person from leaving the grave to eat people. As I researched more, I found that myths and legends about vampires existed all over the world. From Asian countries like China and Japan to European nations like Romania and Greece there is folklore concerning creatures of the night that feast upon human blood. To get a better understanding of how the vampire existed in these different cultures I researched a few of the countries who held strong beliefs in vampires.