A traditional Haitian voodoo zombie.
Wild, uncontrollable zombies from the film Night of the Living Dead (1968).
A zombie is a fictional undead being created through the reanimation of a human corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror, science fiction, and fantasy literature. The term comes from Haitian Creole dialect. In Haitian folklore, a zombie is a dead body reanimated through various methods, most commonly magic. Modern depictions of zombies do not necessarily involve magic but often invoke science fictional methods such as radiation, mental diseases, viruses, and scientific accidents. Although the Haitian zombies were mind-controlled slaves of the wizard who raised them (and can be seen as a metaphor of historical Haitian slavery in general), popular culture since the 1970s has recharacterized zombies' nature as that of ferocious wild beasts of prey, driven by a single-minded desire to eat human flesh.
Zombie in The House of Daniel[]
After the Big Bubble burst, zombies became popular with factory and mill owners in the United States, as they would work for no pay.[1] Down-and-out people even volunteered to become zombies, as zombies felt no pain or sadness.
However, in June 1934, things changed when the first zombie riot broke out in Denver, Colorado. The exact cause of the riots was unclear, but rumor had it that vampires had to some extent reawakened basic human desires in zombies.[2] The renewed purpose seemed to improve zombie mobility, and they began killing every living person they could find. Moreover, it created a sort of bloodlust in them, as zombies often chewed on or outright ate their victims.[3] The riots lasted for about four days.[4] But these were merely the first in a serious of riots that sporadically broke out in the years that followed. Nonetheless, the U.S. did not see reason to stop using zombies for labor.[5]
See also[]
- Vampire, a mythological creature which is also often classified as "the living dead" and seeks to feed on humans.
- Vurkolak, an Eastern European mythological creature similar to zombies and/or vampires.
References[]
| |||||||
