Almost
everyone is familiar with the modern zombies a shuffling, ravenous, reanimated
corpse that terrorizes and eats humans. But since zombies aren’t real, how did
their legend get started? Where did the word “zombie” come from?
ZOMBIES ACROSS THE WORLD:
For thousands
of years, zombie-like monsters have appeared in legends and myths all over the
world. In the Middle Ages in Europe, many people believed in revenants – ghosts or reanimated bodies
that would return from the grave to terrorize the living, sometimes with a
specific purpose, like revenge, or to torment someone who had wronged them in
life. In Norse mythology, draugr were
said to be the reanimated bodies of warriors who had been reborn with amazing
abilities, like being able to turn into a wisp of smoke and pass through stone.
Draugr were said to drive humans and
animals mad and cause chaos everywhere they went.
Chinese
cultures told of jiangshi, living
corpses that had white hair and greenish-white skin, doomed to hop everywhere
because of the stiff limbs that had set in after death. Many Asian have
variation of the jiangshi, including Japan, Vietnam and Korea.
One of the
earliest known references to the living dead is in The Epic of Gilgamesh an
ancient Mesopotamian epic poem. In it, Ishtar, the goddess of love and war,
travels to the underworld and demands to be let in, threatening that she “will
bring up the dead to eat the living”
Zombies in the Caribbean:
The clearest
connection we have to the modern zombie comes from the Caribbean, where
religions from West Africa blended with Christianity and Catholicism to create
vodou (voodoo), a religion that includes belief in spirits, witchcraft and
sorcery. The word zombie is thought to have originated from the Caribbean,
possibly from several different sources.
The Haitian
word zonbi refers to a person’s soul, while the the word nzambi, of African
origins, means “god” or “soul.” In vodou, bokar are priests who use black magic
to create a zombi to use as a servant. The bokar would sneak the person a
powder that would make them appear dead. It is believed that the bokar was able
to capture the spirit or soul of the person, ensuring the future zombi’s
obedience. Once the person is reanimated, they have no recollection of their
previous life, and would operate in a near-deathlike state. It is believed that
salt will bring a zombi back to their senses.
Belief in vodou and witchcraft in Haiti is
still strong, and the laws regarding murder specifically address this issue:
“It shall also be qualified as attempted murder the employment which may be
made against any person of substances which, without causing actual death,
produce a lethargic coma more or less prolonged. If, after the person had been
buried, the act shall be considered murder no matter what result follows.”
Modern Zombies:
When zombies
first started appearing in movies in the 1920s and 30s, they were depicted as
typical vodou zombis with the movies taking place in Haiti. Then, in 1968,
filmmaker George Romero made Night of the Living Dead, the first movie to
introduce the idea that zombies must eat the living.
The film
terrified audiences and helped turn horror movies into a box-office favorite.
Romero’s version of the zombie is what most modern zombies are based on. Now,
it seems as though there’s a new zombie movie every summer! Even the word
zombie is now used to describe people who go through life in a trancelike
state, doing the same tasks over and over with no enjoyment or excitement.
Now you can watch some zombies dance:
happy halloween!!
