Zombies

[JMA]

I'm looking for articles about zombies. I tried the SCICOP website, and also de Skeptic Dictionnary, but I didn't find much.

The Skepdic page (http://skepdic.com/zombies.html) is a little bit dissapointing on this subject. There is more about p-zombies than about "real" zombies

So, if you have some nice skeptical webpage for me, that would be nice

 

[Dredred]

http://www.google.nl/search?sourceid=mozclient&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&q=zombies+haiti
seems to give some good links?

 

[JMA]

Well, so now, most of the skeptics do accept the Wade Davis hypothesis? or not?

 

[Dredred]

Well, so now, most of the skeptics do accept the Wade Davis hypothesis? or not?

I have no idea what his hypothesis is. I just thouht I'd introduce you to the wonders of google
I've heard this theory that in Haitian communities, if someone committed a grave crime, he could be punished by poisoning him with a toxin that leaves him brain damaged, resulting in zombie-like behavior. It doesn't sound that far fetched to me. Maybe you could try to find out if such a substance was available in Haiti and if there are credible reports of it being used as punishment, if you want to find the origin of the myth.

 

[shemp]

If you're going to investigate zombies, then you better protect yourself with Zombie Alert!

 

[Ashles]

From
this page

For three years he traveled in the Andes and Amazon, living among a dozen or more tribes as he searched for new sources of medicines and studied coca, the most sacred plant of the Inca and the notorious source of cocaine. Collecting some 6000 botanical specimens, working with traditional healers and shamans, Davis traversed the Andean Cordillera at fourteen points and twice descended the Amazon from source to mouth. In 1982, his research took him to Haiti to study zombies, the living dead of Vodoun folklore, and investigate the first medically documented case. Working among the secret societies, he identified a folk preparation that contained a powerful nerve poison capable of inducing a state of apparent death so profound that victims could actually be misdiagnosed as dead. This study, the basis of his dissertation research at Harvard, led to two books, Passage of Darkness and The Serpent and the Rainbow.

Sounds reasonable enough.

Alrthough I wasn't a big fan of the film.

 

[JMA]

Sounds reasonable enough.

Yes, but there is also critics on the web. For exemple:

Davis puts forward a psychobiological hypothesis. The subtitle of the book is quite up front about this (The ethnobiology of the Haitian zombie). His critics are mainly biologists and pharmacologists. Ethnobiology is a suspicious field to them. The whole perspective of ethnobiology, as the name indicates, is that cultural factors, not merely biological ones, account for many responses to psychoactive drugs (drugs whose effects are tied to the psychological state of the subject). Thus it would seem that some of the critics' vehemence is related to their distrust of the entire field of science which Davis represents.

http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/bookreviews/davis1.htm

 

[Dr Adequate]

Well, so now, most of the skeptics do accept the Wade Davis hypothesis? or not?

Having read his book, I stand firmly in the "don't know" camp.

 

[dharlow]

Davis' findings were challenged in the journal Science some years ago. The article is as follows:

Booth, W. (1988). Voodoo Science. 240, pp 274-277.

I haven't read this myself, only seen it referenced, but it might be a useful follow-up (perhaps it is on the web somewhere).

 

[Blondin]

[grouchy smurf] I hate zombies! [/grouchy smurf]

 

[Cleon]

"Zombies. They give me the creeps." - Mr. Kaufman, Land of the Dead

 

[Ashles]

"Don't say that"
"What?"
"The 'Z' word."
"Why not?"
"Because it's ridiculous."

- Shaun of the Dead

 

[chran]

Davis' findings were challenged in the journal Science some years ago. The article is as follows:

Booth, W. (1988). Voodoo Science. 240, pp 274-277.

World Magazine Bank (via EBSCOhost) only has the citation of the article, and your information was a little bit wrong:

Science; 15/04/88, Vol. 239 Issue 4850, p274, 4p

Abstract: A popular claim that a chemical found in puffer fish (tetrodotoxin) as the possible crucial element in the creation of the zombies of Haitian folklore is challenged. Critics claim contrary evidence was ignored. How the hypothesis of Wade Davis, a botanist from Harvard University, concerning zombie creation, works. Background and critical response. Mystery of the zombies remains unsolved.