Are zombies real or just something Hollywood is into nowadays? If you’ve ever seen the movie The Serpent and the Rainbow, you know the question is legitimate. That movie was based on a book by Wade Davis, who earned his PhD in part on the basis of his research into “zombification” in Haiti. Davis and others theorize that zombies are real, and that they are the result of specific drugs given to individuals against their will that produce zombie-like states and behavior. The modern drug Flakka is a current, frightening example. Other researchers disagree, noting that zombie lore is very old and encompasses notions that sound a lot like demonization and possession.

Readings:

Ackermann, Hans-W & Gauthier, Jeanine, “The Ways and Nature of the Zombi,” The Journal of American Folklore 104:414 (1991): 466-494

Murtaugh, “Constructing the Haitian Zombie: An Anthropological Study Beyond Madness”

William Booth, “Voodoo Science,” Science new series, 240:4850 (April 15, 1988): 274-277

Neurophilosophy (Science Blogs), “The ethnobiology of voodoo zombification,” Sept 13, 2007

Wade Davis, “Zombification,” Science new series, 240: 4860 (June 1988): 1715-1716

Natalina, “Indonesian Zombie Photo: Real, Fake, or Misunderstood?” Extraordinary Intelligence blog, Sept 20, 2010

YouTube: Zombie Drug BRAZIL ‘Cloud Nine‘ (2017)