Zombi Headquarters
Everything you ever wanted to know about zombies but were afraid to ask!
Did you know … ?
In the early 1800s, Haitian slaves experimented with poisonous herbs and toxic
animal
parts to taint the food prepared for their French masters, causing paralysis in the
nervous system which led to "zombie" tales of horror.
A Pharmacological Case for Zombies
A zombie or zombi is an animated human body devoid of a soul. In
contemporary versions these are generally reanimated or undead corpses, which
were traditionally called "ghouls." Stories of zombies originated in the
Afro-Caribbean spiritual belief system of Vodoun.
According to the tenets of Voodoo, a dead person can be revived by a bokor or
Voodoo sorcerer. Zombies remain under the control of the bokor since they have
no will of their own. "Zombi" is also another name of the Voodoo snake god
Damballah Wedo, of Niger-Congo origin; it is akin to the Kongo word nzambi,
which means "god." There also exists within the voudon tradition the zombi
astral which is a human soul that is captured by a bokor and used to enhance the
bokor's power.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie
1.Philosophical: Found in literature on philosophy and
consciousness, these zombies appear to be normal human beings, yet they are
completely devoid of subjective consciousness. They sort of shuffle around like
they are on a heavy dose of Thorazine.
2. Haitian zombies were once normal people, but underwent zombification by a "bokor"
or voodoo sorcerer, through spell or potion. The victim then dies and becomes a
mindless automaton, incapable of remembering the past, unable to recognize loved
ones and doomed to a life of miserable toil under the will of the zombie master.
Voodoo zombies are of three varieties:
# ZOMBI ASTRAL - an aspect of the soul that can be transmogrified at the
discretion of its possessor
# ZOMBI CADAVRE - a flesh zombie, which can be made to work
# ZOMBI SAVANE - a former zombie, someone who has gone to ground, became a
zombie and later returned to life.
3. Chemical: empowered by some sort of toxic waste/chemical.
4. Radioactive: brought to life through the clever or accidental use of nuclear
energy.
5. TechnoZombie: Dead corpse animated by means of some sort of technology that
usually goes haywire.
6. ElectroZombie: a freak electrical storm/accident causes the dead to rise.
7. The Infected: a rogue microorganism/virus that causes the living to act a lot
like Chemical zombies.
8. OCD zombies: These undead come back for a very specific reason. To finish
something they started. Once the task is completed, they usually R.I.P.
9. HellSpawn: the dead are usually controlled by a spirit/demon/evil entity.
10. AlienControl: ET's use the legions of the dead to do something dastardly to
the living.
11. Cursed: The afflicted are undead until the curse is broken.
12. Hollywood zombies: Originate in Hollywood B movies; they are dead, but
"reanimated". One can recognize them by the slow and clumsy walk and the dull
expression of their eyes. Totally absent, they seem to follow the sole quest of
of human flesh.
Source:
http://www.squidoo.com/zombie
http://zombies.monstrous.com/hollywood_zombies.htm
A discussion of zombie symbolism could require the writing of a
thesis. However, there are four main themes present with the zombie archetype:
1. Death. To be confronted with a zombie is to be confronted with our own
mortality. Humans go to great lengths to obscure the remains of our dead,
especially our loved ones. Our dead are made up and dressed up to hide the
ugliness of decomposition. Zombies remind us that no one will escape the
inevitable death experience.
2. The Unknown Familiar. In many zombie movies, we see the transformation of a
friend, brother, sister, mother, or father into a decayed, rotten walking death
that attacks and devours. All familiarity is lost when the loved one dies and
comes back to life; all morality vanishes and is replaced by taboos such as
cannibalism and incest.
3. Monster of Modern times. The Night of the Living Dead was one film that
provided an existential mockery of the horror and utter lack of regard for human
life apparent in the Viet Nam war in the 1960s. Zombies reflected the same
motiveless and absurd gruesome behavior and carried on in the same nihilistic
fashion as was perpetuated by this senseless war.
3. Power and Exploitation. Zombies are easily worked by their owners for long
hours and are often seen exploited in this fashion in zombie movies. Zombies of
the Haitian variety illustrate a loss of conscious control and free will, and
thus, a reduction to the level of animal. Deprived of their humanity by their
master, they are forced into slavery through exploitation.
4. Apocalypse. Movies reflect the consciousness of the culture in which they are
produced. Japan had Godzilla in the wake of nuclear attack; the United States had zombies that
appeared at the height of the Cold War paranoia. Due to the decadence of
humankind, zombies struck a society spiritually void and consumed by violence.
Unlike the Godzilla archetype of a great strange "other" bringing death and
destruction to the innocent, zombies are the manifestation of the personal and
collective shadow of a society that is capable of perpetuating such devastation.
One by one, friends and loved ones are zombified, and their numbers increase
exponentially until we are all consumed by a psychic, spiritual, and physical
plague of our own making.
http://zombies.monstrous.com/symbolism.htm#exploitation
Other more macabre versions of zombies have become a staple of
modern horror fiction, where they are brought back from the dead by supernatural
or scientific means, and eat the flesh (or the cerebral matter) of the living.
They have very limited intelligence, and may not be under anyone's direct
control. This type of zombie, often referred to as a Romero zombie for the
filmmaker that defined the concept, is archetypal in modern media and culture.
Zombies are very popular in horror- and fantasy-themed entertainment. They are
typically depicted as mindless, shambling, decaying corpses with a hunger for
human flesh, usually created or re-animated through scientific means. Fictional
zombies have a long history in Western culture, dating back to the 1600s, with
many evolutions of the concept from literature to films and beyond. Zombies have
appeared in countless films and media.
Photo by Joel Friesen. This photo is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution
2.5 License
In short: you are free to distribute and modify the file as long as you
attribute its author(s) or licensor(s).
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie
Haitian Penal Code:
Article 249. 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.
The methods of creating and controlling zombies vary among bokors. Some bokors
use blood and hair from their victims in conjunction with voodoo dolls to
zombify their victims. Others methods of zombification involve a specially
prepared concoction of mystical herbs, in addition to human and animal parts
(sometimes called "coup padre").
Ingestion, injection, or even a blow dart may be used to administer the potion
variety. When these substances come into contact with the victim's skin,
bloodstream or mucous membranes, the victim is rendered immobile within minutes,
succumbing to a comatose-like state resembling death. The victim retains full
awareness as he is taken to the hospital, then perhaps to the morgue and finally
buried in a grave.
The bokor then performs an ancient voodoo rite; taking possession of the
victim's soul, and replacing it with the loa that he or she controls. The
victim's "trapped" soul is usually placed within a small clay jar or some other
unremarkable container. The container is wrapped in a fragment of the victim's
clothing, a piece of jewelry, or some other personal possession owned by the
victim in life, and then hidden in a place of secrecy known only to the bokor.
The bokor raises the victim after a day or two and administers a hallucinogenic
concoction, called the "zombi's cucumber," that revives the victim. Once the
zombi has been revived, it has no power of speech, its past human personality is
entirely absent, and the memory is gone. Zombis are thus easy to control and are
used by bokors as slaves for farm labor and construction work. One case in 1918
involved a voodoo priest named Ti Joseph who ran a gang of laborers for the
American Sugar Corporation, took the money they received & fed the workers only
unsalted porridge. Indeed, giving a zombi salt is supposed to restore its
personality, and send it back to its grave and out of the bokor's influence.
Source: http://zombies.monstrous.com/becoming_a_zombie.htm
Canadian ethnobotanist, 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 being entered into the blood stream (usually via a wound). The
first, coup de poudre (French: 'powder strike'), induced a 'death-like' state
because of tetrodotoxin (TTX), its key ingredient. Tetrodotoxin is the same
lethal toxin found in the Japanese delicacy fugu, or pufferfish. At near-lethal
doses (LD50= 5-8µg/kg)[2], it can leave a person in a state of near-death for
several days, while the person continues to be conscious. The second powder,
composed of dissociatives like datura, put the person in a zombie-like state
where they seem to have no will of their own. Davis also popularized the story
of Clairvius Narcisse, who was claimed to have succumbed to this practice. There
remains considerable skepticism about Davis's claims,[3] and opinions remain
divided as to the veracity of his work,[citation needed] although there is wide
recognition among the Haitian people of the existence of the "zombie drug". The
Voodoon religion being somewhat secretive in its practices and codes, it can be
very difficult for a foreign scientist to validate or invalidate such claims.
Photo by Mila Zinkova. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify
this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the
license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".
From: http://www.squidoo.com/zombie
A Free Massively Multi-Player Web-Based Zombie Apocalypse. A simple html-based multiplayer browser
game where zombies and survivors fight for the control of a ruined city. The server is a little slow, but the
excitement of the players makes the game worthwhile. Check out the wiki and the forums as well.
The manner in which a zombie is destroyed depends on the type of
zombie it is.
Hollywood Zombies
Fire. Extreme amounts of electric current. Direct and extreme trauma to the
brain, such as driving a bullet, a drill, a long knife, a hammer, or some other
blunt object into the creature's skull.
Source: http://www.squidoo.com/zombie
Voodoo Zombie
The proper incantation and treatment of a the zombie artifacts such as the
voodoo doll can harm the zombie and even destroy it. He can also be put to final
rest through the appropriate voodoo ceremony, which forces the loa from its
body. When a zombie tastes either salt or meat, he recovers his past personality
and becomes aware of his state, immediately returning to the grave.
Serves 8 to 10
Use a food processor to whip this up in a snap. Follow the steps below and you
won't need to rinse the food processor bowl in between steps. After each step,
empty the contents of the bowl out and set aside.
Preparation:
Process enough bread to make:
2 cups fresh breadcrumbs
Process until finely chopped then set aside:
1/4 cup parsley with
2 cloves garlic (more if expecting vampires)
Process each separately until coarsely chopped
(not too fine, mixed texture is good), then
place together in large mixing bowl:
3 stalks celery
3 carrots
1 onion
Melt in a large frying pan over medium flame:
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
Add the celery mixture and sauté until soft and onions are translucent. Remove
from heat to cool.
Method:
In the large mixing bowl, mix in the remaining ingredients below, adding the
parsley and garlic and the breadcrumbs. When the vegetables have cooled, add
them to the mixture. Note: The only way to really mix this up well is to use
your hands-squoosh, squoosh!
1 lb. ground turkey
2 lbs. lean ground beef
1 lb. ground pork sausage
1/2 teaspoon thyme
3/4 teaspoon oregano
3 eggs
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce
3 teaspoons lemon juice
2-3 tablespoons heavy cream
Shape the meatloaf into a Zombie on a large baking sheet or pan with low sides;
placing a sheet of aluminum foil in the bottom helps for easy clean up. Lightly
grease the surface before adding the meatloaf.
Apply ketchup decoratively before baking.
Bake in a preheated 350 degree F. oven for 1 hour to 1 hour, 10 minutes. Let
cool before decorating.
Decorate the Zombie with any of these materials:
* ketchup
* mustard
* fresh parsley
* red, orange, and/or yellow bell peppers
* other decorative foods like slivered blanched almonds, olives, cherry
tomatoes, etc.
Hints:
The meatloaf will give off lots of juices as you cook it. For a crisper
presentation, we used a separate, clean baking sheet, covered it with parchment
paper, then carefully used a large spatula to transfer the cooked Zombie to the
clean sheet. The appendages (legs and arms) broke at the joints, but that's not
important and can either add effect, or be covered up with ketchup.
http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/kgk/2000/1000/meatloaf.html
