The Full Zombie

A comprehensive exploration of the cultural history, science, and ethics of the Haitian zombie

December 01, 2009

What Davis Actually Said About the Haitian Zombie Creation.

The following bracketed annotation paraphrases what Wikipedia stages as an introduction to the Haitian zombie.

{In 1937, Wikipedia writes, while researching folklore in Haiti, Zora Neale Hurston was introduced to a middle age woman, Felicia Felix-Mentor, who was believed to be a real zombie on accounts that she had died when she was 29 years old, been buried, then came back from the dead under mysterious conditions. At the time of her death, it was rumored that "powerful people" (meaning voodooists) using "powerful drugs" did her in. Unfortunately, no one would come forward to corroborate these rumors or to provide further information concerning the circumstances of her death. Nevertheless, Hurston confidently asserted that the woman she saw was without a doubt a real zombie and, on account of such observations, she prophesized that

 "... If science ever gets to the bottom of Voodoo in Haiti and Africa, it will be found that some important medical secrets, rather than its gestures of ceremony, give it its power."

"Several decades later," Wikipedia continues, "Wade Davis presented a pharmacological case for zombies in two books, The Serpent and the Rainbow (1985) and Passage of Darkness: The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie (1988.)  Davis traveled to Haiti in 1982 and, as a result of his investigations, claimed that a living person can be turned into a zombie by two special powders....The first powder, which contains Tetradotoxin (TTX) enters the bloodstream usually via a wound. The second powder is composed of dried plants of the Datura family which have dissociative, neurological properties. Together, these two powders ... induce a death-like trance at which point the victim loses all his power and falls under the complete control of the bokor."}

The Full Zombie refuting argument:

The prominence given to Hurston's musing as to how Voodoo would ultimately be viewed by science, followed by a total misrepresentation of Davis's claims concerning the Haitian zombie creates the false impression that, somehow, zombification has something to do  with medical or pharmacological interventions when, in fact, the pharmacological theory of zombification has long been discredited and set aside for obvious reasons. Furthermore, if Voodoo is truly a religion as it is claimed to be, how, then, can it be said that "medical secrets" held in the making of zombies, a crime under the State law, will ultimately prove to be the source of its power? What is the rationale of that citation? Seriously!

As to Davis, Wikipedia completely misrepresents what he claims to be the true nature and pathogenesis of the zombification process.  

Indeed, stung by the worldwide criticism (2) of his Tetradotoxin-theory of zombification, Davis effectively abandoned that theory and concluded instead that zombification is a psychologically-, rather than a pharmacologically-induced phenomenon. According to this so-called "psychogenic theory," the process leading to the creation of a full-fledged zombie evolves in four distinct phases (Davis, pp 197-212.) The first phase, the most important, he said, begins with placing the targeted individual under a magic spell which initiates a state of fear that becomes increasingly overwhelming. Once this is instituted by the houngan, the individual begins a gradual withdrawal from society along with a psychological transformation of his inner-self whereby he becomes more and more alienated not only from his family and circle of friends, but also from himself. He ends up in a state of total inter- and intra-personal alienation, walking around literally like a "zombie," estranged from the entire surrounding community. It is this process of self-alienation that Davis calls zombification (Phase 2).  It is at the end of that phase that the Tetradotoxin-laced powder (Zombie-powder) is supposedly administered (phase 3) to give the zombified individual the appearance of a corpse, thereby tricking his family into burying him. Then, under the cover of darkness, the individual is disinterred and, supposedly, he is given a herbal concoction containing mind-altering drugs of the Datura family which helps to keep him in a state of controlled stupor, characteristic of the zombie. Finally, he is taken away amidst a voodoo ritual (phase 4.)

It should be pointed out that the above scheme is highly speculative and does not advance in any way  our understanding of the zombification phenomenon if such a thing ever existed at all. It is based on the "Voodoo death" concept propounded by Professor Cannon in 1942, which The Full Zombie has already commented on and found wanting in medical logic.  

It should also be reminded that despite the extensive documentation provided by Davis in support of the "real zombie" argument, the true identity of the person who claimed to be Narcisse and bore his name was never positively established. Whether he was who he claimed to be, or just an impersonator, will never be known. His identification was based on the hear-say testimonials of fellow villagers, his medical record along with the fact that two physicians pronounced him dead at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital, his death and burial certificates, and the testimony of family members who, upon his alleged return from the dead, identified him as one of their own, previously dead kin or relatives. That was then. In light of Professor Littlewood data (3,)we now know that in the absence of a forensic investigation which must necessarily include a comparative DNA examination of the declared zombie with that of the presumptive family, the true identity of anyone claiming to be returning from the dead cannot be confirmed with any degree of certainty.

Professor Littlewood has indeed convincingly demonstrated the critical role of DNA fingerprinting in the identification of alleged zombies and their presumpptive families. Failing such foolproof identification, nobody, including Narcisse, should be allowed to pass for a real zombie in a scientific paper. This point is made clear in both, the book, "The Haitian Zombie Secret" and in the article, "Connaissez-vous Narcisse?"

One day, it is hoped, people like Felicia Felix-Mentor (Hurston p.179) and others not quite like her, will be recognized for what they really represent, namely, a subset of the Haitian population with a variety of mental illnesses, people with organic brain syndrome, epileptics, deaf-mutes, faux-zombies, i.e., normal or sick people who are portrayed and used as zombies in a deliberate scheme of deception for financial gain. What it would take to get to expose this so-called "mystery" is a large scale, country-wide study conducted with the same scientific rigidity shown by Professor Littlewood. Unfortunately, "powerful forces" in the country may never let that happen. They would rather believe in zombies as a powerful social and political weapon. 

 

Davis, Wade. Passage of Darkness: The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie, University of North Carolina Press, 1988