Zombies and Zombification

ZOMBIES There have been many films featuring zombies over the years. Who out there hasn't heard of Night of the Living Dead, most of us have watched it. Here I will be talking about the theories about this supernatural myth.....

 So, what is the definition of a zombie then. According to my dictionary which was published around the same time as dinosaurs walked the earth it is when a supernatural force or spirit reanimates and controls a corpse. When people talk about Zombies it is usually in assocation with voodoo, though I'm not saying everyone involved with this is going to be going around digging up bodies so they'll clean the kitchen or something. One case of zombification involved a guy called Clairvius Narcisse who died and was buried, only to turn up 18 years later with a disturbing story for his sister. Don't you just hate it when that happens? Apparently he had been turned into a zombie because he refused to sell land on the orders of his brothers. There's family loyalty for you huh? He had been forced to work in the fields with others like himself until his master died two years later and he was able to escape. He had kept his true identity secret for sixteen years wandering the lands as a beggar until he was sure those who had ordered him zombified had themselves gone to the grave and stayed there one would hope. Many of his claims were verified by the authorities. It was even noted that he had a scar on his cheek where a nail had been driven into his coffin.

 The threat of being zombified was used by the witch doctors to keep people in check, after all who would want to be raised as a mindless slave after death. Then again, I know some mindless people in college who I guess are technically still alive. This threat was given credence by a Dr E.Wade Davis who claimed that zombiism actually existed, after conducting research (in 1980) and speaking to people who claimed to be victims of this process, including Narcisse. He claimed that witch doctors used a specific potion of their concoction to induce a stupor which caused the belief that the person taking it was ready for burial. So, no drinking tea in the witch doctors house! Later the victim was dug up and an antidote was administered which usually resulted in brain damage. This theory was backed up further when he obtained samples of this zombification powder and it was found to contain bits of Japanese puffer fish, which in small quantities can induce full scale paralysis and had done so on two documented occasions. He ignored the fact that another anthropologist previous to himself had come up with the same theory and been ridiculed. He had found a logical explanation for the existance of zombies and that was enough for him. He concluded that witch doctors were very skilled in giving just the right amount of this powder to put the victim in the ground for a temporary period. Then, using some sort of magical powers as well as the antidote they would raise the zombie and then pump it full of more potions to keep it in a vegative state.