ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

The Evolution Of Zombies

Updated on December 14, 2012
Source

An overview of the historic movie monsters known as zombies, and the part they have played in books, movies and even history. Seeing as how this seems to be the popular monster choice of horror writer's over the last few years, it only seemed fitting.

Before the vampire, werewolf or Frankenstein monster were ever even conceived in novels, zombies were already terrorizing the hearts of people all over the world. They in fact may just be the oldest "pop" monster ever, not to bad for a rotting heap of flesh.

When zombies were first introduced to the world is unknown. What we do know is that they date back farther then the writing of Revelations, when it is said that the dead will once again walk the Earth. Regardless of religious belief, it can't be denied that this was written a very long time ago, and seemingly so to put fear into your heart.

Zombies have taken on a number of different characteristics, depending on what area of the world and what era they are derived from. They have been known to be anything from rotting corpses to the recently dead, and from brain eaters to flesh eaters and sometimes even eaters of the soul.

During the 18th century B.C. the walking dead were mentioned in an epic poem appropriately named, The Epic Of Giglamesh, forget Revelations this piece of writing takes their existence back to around 3800 years.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ | Source

Origins and appearances of the zombie in history

NORSE MYTHOLOGY

In Norse mythology the undead appear by the name of draugr, a reanimated corpse roaming around to eat and infect the living with their plague. Does this sound familiar or what? When a human being is killed by a draugr they too become a draugr, which is spoken of in the Eyrbyggja saga an Icelander saga translating to The Saga of the People of Eyri. This particular version of the undead dates back to the 13th century or possibly even earlier.

AFRICA'S ZOMBIES

In Africa, a version of the zombie, or more frequently known there as zonbi or nzumben, is a reanimated corpse brought back to the living through mystical means such as witchcraft. When this form of the creature was first thought to exist is unknown, but we know them to date back to well before the 19th century. There are 3 separate forms of the African zombie, each deriving from their own area, West Africa, South Africa and Haiti.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ | Source

According to West Africa's belief, the dead can be brought back by a sorcerer, or bokor. The creature then remains under the control of the bokor with no free will of their own. A piece of the zombies human soul, also known by zombi astral, is captured by the bokor and used to enhance his power.

The astral is often kept in a bottle and sold to their clientele for luck, business success or healing purposes. Legend has it, that this particular form of zombie will return to the grave by merely feeding it salt.

The undead in some South African communities are believed to be reanimated by a young child, and the only way the spell can be broken is with a very strong sangoma , a spiritual and medicinal healer, also known as a shaman.

Witches are also thought to be the creators of zombies in this particular region. By killing and possessing the body, they are able to force it into slavery. Trains in this area were once rumored to be ran by these zombies and controlled by a witch, giving them the name witch trains.

In 1937, Zora Neale Hurston was researching folklore in Haiti and came across the case of a woman named Felicia Felix-Mentor. The family of this woman said she had been dead and buried since 1907 at 29 years old, and yet she was still often seen roaming the village. Rumors of the use of psychoactive drugs were said to be used but no evidence was ever found by Hurston, as she was unable to find anyone willing to speak on the subject.

Decades later findings by Wade Davis, an ethnobotanist and author of book The Serpent And The Rainbow, discovered the use of TTX, a powerful and often fatal neurotoxin, was the cause of these so called walking dead phenomenons. Unfortunately for Wade the scientific community dismisses TTX as being a cause for this condition.

Which type of zombie do you prefer to be eaten by?

See results

MODERN DAY, AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN ZOMBIES

Through the 1900s Zombies experience several small changes, but for the most part would remain the slow moving undead monsters, craving the taste of either human flesh, brains or a combination of both.

After the new millennium began zombies received a face lift of sorts from the big screen. No longer would they be limited to being the slow moving, brainless creatures we had become bored with. Now they were known to run, jump and in some instances have actual thought. Combine these features with the modern day special effects and a new breed of monster is born.

In conclusion, I would just like to say that even though the undead may not be the scariest monster in our day and age, they are certainly the most persistent and susceptible to change. With at least close to 4,000 years of existence and modern upgrades backing them up, I don't think they will be going back to their graves any time soon.

DS Duby

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ | Source
working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)