Summary: The Truth About Zombies
Running head: The Truth about Zombies
The Truth about Zombies
Abstract
In this paper we’re going to look beyond what Hollywood has itched in our minds what a zombie is. We will discover what a “zonbi” really is. We’ll look in the zonbi’s Haitian and Vodoun background, how exactly a zombie is created, and why. We will distinguish the differences between what is make believe and what is real as we look into two specific kind of zombies that really exixst in the world today. After reading this paper no longer will there be any confusion or misinterpretation of what is a zombie, you the reader will be able to identify and understand exactly what a zombie really is. The Truth about Zombies
What comes to mind …show more content…
when you hear the word zombie? The word “zombie” usually brings to mind the creatures depicted in numerous horror films – the mindless, rotting, “living dead” who shuffle with their arms stretched out in front of them, devouring the flesh of their victims. I’m sure many hit movies like Night of the Living Dead or TV series The Walking Dead; even video games come to mind e.g. Resident Evil and music videos such as Michael Jacksons Thriller. These all have one major thing in common; they are all misconceptions of what a zombie actually is. The truth about zombies is that they do exist just not the way they are portrayed in our media today, zombies are a creation of black magic; Voodoo.
The first kind of zombie we’ll look at is in Haiti you can go to a Haitian voodoo priest or witch doctor and have a curse put on certain person that owes you money or such.
They have the ability to turn someone into a zombie. Now when someone is turned into a zombie they die and come back to life as a mindless slave to the person who paid to have the curse put on them. Now as a zombie that person has a mindless slave to work for them and a free slave at that. That may sound a little farfetched, but they’re actually documented occasions of people that have been declared dead in Haiti, then years down the line that person has been seen alive and with the characteristics of a zombie. The cases studies were reported by British anthropologist Roland Littlewood and Haitian doctor Chavannes Douyon and concerned three individuals identified as zombies after they had apparently passed away.(-) Douyon’s study was a medical investigation into three ‘returned zombies’ – each of which was identified as a member of the family who had died and who had returned with the characteristic …show more content…
features.
FI was a 30-year-old woman who had died after a short illness and was buried next to the house, only for her to be recognized in a zombified state three years later by her family, wandering near to her village.
WD died at the age of 18 shortly after his “eyes turned yellow” and his body “swelled up” and was buried in a family tomb. He was identified as a zombie at a cockfight eight years after he had been buried.
MM was a young woman who also died at 18 after a short illness, but who was identified 13 years later in the town market, walking around in the characteristic detached shambling way.
While the families put their fate down to sorcery, a full medical examination was carried out by the two doctors, including the use of EEG and CT brain scans.
FI showed no neurological damage but was diagnosed with catatonic schizophrenia, a very withdrawn form of psychosis. WD was found to have brain damage, probably from lack of oxygen, and epilepsy, which could be treated with drugs. MM was found to a developmental learning disability, probably caused by her alcoholism when her mother was pregnant with her.(jjjj) Now besides this type of zombie there is another form of a zombie that you can purchase form a Haitian voodoo priest. This form of zombie is similar to the other form in ways such as it involves a dead soul or spirit that you use as a slave to bring you luck and success. These zonbis are not the walking dead but rather the common, everyday spirits of the recently dead, zonbi astral. There was and instance documented by blah blah
where the spirits were captured from a cemetery in a mystical ritual and then contained in an empty rum bottle.
This feat was achieved by a man named St. Jean, who made his living (in the face of chronically high unemployment) as a bòkò, or sorcerer, in a neighborhood near the cemetery in downtown Port-au-Prince. St. Jean performed a complex ritual that infused human life into the bottle and transformed the container into a living grave, housing a human-spirit hybrid entity. In the bottle, the spirit-embedding medicine includes cemetery earth, but also more to the point, the skull shavings. At some previous time, St. Jean had most likely prepared the skulls in a sort of spirit-extracting ritual, treating them with baths of dew, rain, and sunshine. The skulls had been given food (which they absorb mystically (as spirits in the invisible world generally do) and had been baptized with new, ritual names. Their names would have been cryptic phrases such as “je m’engage” (“I’m trying”) or “al chache” (“Go look”). Each skull would have been charged with a specific strength, job, or problem to treat. Presumably, these skulls were activated with the ability to enhance luck, wealth, and health. “Spirit-admonishing medicines” instruct the zonbis in the work that they’re being commanded to do on my behalf. Ingeniously, this technology of good luck zonbi-making involves dressing the zonbis in the very instructions and work directions the maker intends them to perform. The mirrors around
the center of the bottle, are its “eyes for seeing” and will identify any force coming at me with malevolent intent. The scissors lashed open under the bottleneck are like arms crossed in self-defense. The dollar bill in the bottle instructs the zonbi spirits to attract wealth. The herbs are for the zonbis to heal me of sickness and disease, while the perfumes are to make me attractive and desirable. St. Jean created for them a magnetic force field by placing two industrial magnets as a kind of collar on the neck of the bottle. In Afro-Creole thought, spirit can inhabit both natural and human made things, and what is more, this force can be manipulated and used, often for healing and protection, sometimes for aggression or attack. The zonbis were trapped in the bottle until the time when, as with every person, their spirit would go on to God. The bòkò instructed me to ask the zonbis for anything I wanted, because, captured and ritually transformed, they were working for him, and now, as if subcontracted out. These are actual factual events that demonstrate what a zombie is. Although it comes from a place where black magic is practiced and a place where in todays society would be look down upon. It still happens and is practiced regularly religiously.
Analysis
In today’s world zombies are becoming the craze. There everywhere I the media from movies, tv, and video games. All the talk about a zombie apocalypse seems a bit farfetched it’s more than likely a passing craze. Even though zombies for the most part of what we consider them to be is all made up and exaggerated by the media the fact is that they are real and they do exist. And understanding what they are and how they come to exist is fascinating and even probably a little bit relaxing considering how far the media takes it e.g. zombie apocalypse. Even though know the true origin of zombie may leave one still in disbelief in it all who is to say someone else’s religious beliefs are wrong.
Conclusion
Knowing what a real zombie is and see how it doesn’t really impact ones regular life can be relieving in some ways. just being educated properly is one advantage, it never hurts to be knowledgeable in any way . The zombie media hype is still entertaining at the least but like most things Hollywood can conjure up that’s all it is a source of entertainment.
References
Anderson, Charles & Johnson (2003). The impressive psychology paper. Chicago: Lucerne Publishing.
Smith, M. (2001). Writing a successful paper. The Trey Research Monthly, 53, 149-150.
Entries are organized alphabetically by surnames of first authors and are formatted with a hanging indent. Most reference entries have three components:
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2. Year of Publication: In parenthesis following authors, with a period following the closing parenthesis. If no publication date is identified, use “n.d.” in parenthesis following the authors.
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The Truth about Zombies
Abstract
In this paper we’re going to look beyond what Hollywood has itched in our minds what a zombie is. We will discover what a “zonbi” really is. We’ll look in the zonbi’s Haitian and Vodoun background, how exactly a zombie is created, and why. We will distinguish the differences between what is make believe and what is real as we look into two specific kind of zombies that really exixst in the world today. After reading this paper no longer will there be any confusion or misinterpretation of what is a zombie, you the reader will be able to identify and understand exactly what a zombie really is. The Truth about Zombies
What comes to mind …show more content…
when you hear the word zombie? The word “zombie” usually brings to mind the creatures depicted in numerous horror films – the mindless, rotting, “living dead” who shuffle with their arms stretched out in front of them, devouring the flesh of their victims. I’m sure many hit movies like Night of the Living Dead or TV series The Walking Dead; even video games come to mind e.g. Resident Evil and music videos such as Michael Jacksons Thriller. These all have one major thing in common; they are all misconceptions of what a zombie actually is. The truth about zombies is that they do exist just not the way they are portrayed in our media today, zombies are a creation of black magic; Voodoo.
The first kind of zombie we’ll look at is in Haiti you can go to a Haitian voodoo priest or witch doctor and have a curse put on certain person that owes you money or such.
They have the ability to turn someone into a zombie. Now when someone is turned into a zombie they die and come back to life as a mindless slave to the person who paid to have the curse put on them. Now as a zombie that person has a mindless slave to work for them and a free slave at that. That may sound a little farfetched, but they’re actually documented occasions of people that have been declared dead in Haiti, then years down the line that person has been seen alive and with the characteristics of a zombie. The cases studies were reported by British anthropologist Roland Littlewood and Haitian doctor Chavannes Douyon and concerned three individuals identified as zombies after they had apparently passed away.(-) Douyon’s study was a medical investigation into three ‘returned zombies’ – each of which was identified as a member of the family who had died and who had returned with the characteristic …show more content…
features.
FI was a 30-year-old woman who had died after a short illness and was buried next to the house, only for her to be recognized in a zombified state three years later by her family, wandering near to her village.
WD died at the age of 18 shortly after his “eyes turned yellow” and his body “swelled up” and was buried in a family tomb. He was identified as a zombie at a cockfight eight years after he had been buried.
MM was a young woman who also died at 18 after a short illness, but who was identified 13 years later in the town market, walking around in the characteristic detached shambling way.
While the families put their fate down to sorcery, a full medical examination was carried out by the two doctors, including the use of EEG and CT brain scans.
FI showed no neurological damage but was diagnosed with catatonic schizophrenia, a very withdrawn form of psychosis. WD was found to have brain damage, probably from lack of oxygen, and epilepsy, which could be treated with drugs. MM was found to a developmental learning disability, probably caused by her alcoholism when her mother was pregnant with her.(jjjj) Now besides this type of zombie there is another form of a zombie that you can purchase form a Haitian voodoo priest. This form of zombie is similar to the other form in ways such as it involves a dead soul or spirit that you use as a slave to bring you luck and success. These zonbis are not the walking dead but rather the common, everyday spirits of the recently dead, zonbi astral. There was and instance documented by blah blah
where the spirits were captured from a cemetery in a mystical ritual and then contained in an empty rum bottle.
This feat was achieved by a man named St. Jean, who made his living (in the face of chronically high unemployment) as a bòkò, or sorcerer, in a neighborhood near the cemetery in downtown Port-au-Prince. St. Jean performed a complex ritual that infused human life into the bottle and transformed the container into a living grave, housing a human-spirit hybrid entity. In the bottle, the spirit-embedding medicine includes cemetery earth, but also more to the point, the skull shavings. At some previous time, St. Jean had most likely prepared the skulls in a sort of spirit-extracting ritual, treating them with baths of dew, rain, and sunshine. The skulls had been given food (which they absorb mystically (as spirits in the invisible world generally do) and had been baptized with new, ritual names. Their names would have been cryptic phrases such as “je m’engage” (“I’m trying”) or “al chache” (“Go look”). Each skull would have been charged with a specific strength, job, or problem to treat. Presumably, these skulls were activated with the ability to enhance luck, wealth, and health. “Spirit-admonishing medicines” instruct the zonbis in the work that they’re being commanded to do on my behalf. Ingeniously, this technology of good luck zonbi-making involves dressing the zonbis in the very instructions and work directions the maker intends them to perform. The mirrors around
the center of the bottle, are its “eyes for seeing” and will identify any force coming at me with malevolent intent. The scissors lashed open under the bottleneck are like arms crossed in self-defense. The dollar bill in the bottle instructs the zonbi spirits to attract wealth. The herbs are for the zonbis to heal me of sickness and disease, while the perfumes are to make me attractive and desirable. St. Jean created for them a magnetic force field by placing two industrial magnets as a kind of collar on the neck of the bottle. In Afro-Creole thought, spirit can inhabit both natural and human made things, and what is more, this force can be manipulated and used, often for healing and protection, sometimes for aggression or attack. The zonbis were trapped in the bottle until the time when, as with every person, their spirit would go on to God. The bòkò instructed me to ask the zonbis for anything I wanted, because, captured and ritually transformed, they were working for him, and now, as if subcontracted out. These are actual factual events that demonstrate what a zombie is. Although it comes from a place where black magic is practiced and a place where in todays society would be look down upon. It still happens and is practiced regularly religiously.
Analysis
In today’s world zombies are becoming the craze. There everywhere I the media from movies, tv, and video games. All the talk about a zombie apocalypse seems a bit farfetched it’s more than likely a passing craze. Even though zombies for the most part of what we consider them to be is all made up and exaggerated by the media the fact is that they are real and they do exist. And understanding what they are and how they come to exist is fascinating and even probably a little bit relaxing considering how far the media takes it e.g. zombie apocalypse. Even though know the true origin of zombie may leave one still in disbelief in it all who is to say someone else’s religious beliefs are wrong.
Conclusion
Knowing what a real zombie is and see how it doesn’t really impact ones regular life can be relieving in some ways. just being educated properly is one advantage, it never hurts to be knowledgeable in any way . The zombie media hype is still entertaining at the least but like most things Hollywood can conjure up that’s all it is a source of entertainment.
References
Anderson, Charles & Johnson (2003). The impressive psychology paper. Chicago: Lucerne Publishing.
Smith, M. (2001). Writing a successful paper. The Trey Research Monthly, 53, 149-150.
Entries are organized alphabetically by surnames of first authors and are formatted with a hanging indent. Most reference entries have three components:
1. Authors: Authors are listed in the same order as specified in the source, using surnames and initials. Commas separate all authors. When there are seven or more authors, list the first six and then use “et al.” for remaining authors. If no author is identified, the title of the document begins the reference.
2. Year of Publication: In parenthesis following authors, with a period following the closing parenthesis. If no publication date is identified, use “n.d.” in parenthesis following the authors.
3. Source Reference: Includes title, journal, volume, pages (for journal article) or title, city of publication, publisher (for book). Appendix
Each Appendix appears on its own page. Footnotes
1Complete APA style formatting information may be found in the Publication Manual. Table 1
Type the table text here in italics; start a new page for each table
[Insert table here] Figure Captions
Figure 1. Caption of figure
[Figures – note that this page does not have the manuscript header and page number]