Zombies Within The Haiti Culture Essay

PAGES
2
WORDS
602
Cite

Zombies in the Haiti Culture In the last two decades, zombies have gained popularity in the Western world, becoming a metaphor for persons who lack consciousness and threaten social structures. Many other parts of the world have accepted this kind of thinking. There are, however, a few differences with regards to the treatment of the figure -- in terms of zombification and the wider inferences to bias inherent in the practice. Even though zombies have been the subject of various studies, they have not been investigated with regards to their mythological contributions. Many mythological studies have focused on Greek texts and other texts that have greatly influenced the modern Western world ideology, which is why research into Haiti's zombie myth was quite unlikely (Thomas, 2010).

The Haitian Zombies

The zombie phenomenon surfaced in Haiti in the late 1800s. Zombification practices would later find expression in discussions linked to compromised biases that emerged from slavery and imperialism. Zombies soon transcended the discourse between the individual and the collective as the post-slave narrative paid little attention to the individual compared to the naturally developed collective dynamic. The zombie figure implied that with no identification to a collective group no individuality, uniqueness or even consciousness....

...

Thus, zombies were depicted as figures that wandered the globe with no figurative foundations, such as homes or resting places, which would in turn mean that they won't be able to generate consciousness. Zombies then were simply a further discussion or the post-slave narrative. This simple Haitian Zombie myth does more than just tackling imperialism; it questions the importance of the literature on subjectivity (Thomas, 2010). As a result, the Haitian myth would imply that the very idea of creating and using a common language works to produce zombies, in that, the moment we speak, we disrupt the subjectivity of the individual(s) whom we are speaking with. Accordingly, all social institutions condemn individuals to zombification: an ironical state of figurative subjectivity and death (Thomas, 2010).
Zombies in the American Culture

The notion of the zombie-slave managed by some kind of zombie-master was initiated into the American culture by the individuals coming back from Haiti after the American occupation, which began in 1925 (Krivoruchko, 2014). Romero's re-imagination of the genre to an apocalyptic siege tale instead of an icon of Haitian teachings, gave American audiences a perfect outlet of embracing survivalist dreams, which hearten back to the country's birth on the frontier (Stewart, 2013).…

Sources Used in Documents:

Bibliography

Krivoruchko, E. (2014). Ethology of zombies. Retrieved from: http://ekrivoruchko.com/kisd/INT/Ethology_of_Zombies.pdf

Stewart, G. (2013). The Zombie in American Culture. Ontario: University of Waterloo.

Thomas, K. (2010). Haitian Zombie, Myth, and Modern Identity. Comparative Literature and Culture, 2.


Cite this Document:

"Zombies Within The Haiti Culture" (2016, February 10) Retrieved April 26, 2024, from
https://www.paperdue.com/essay/zombies-within-the-haiti-culture-2155274

"Zombies Within The Haiti Culture" 10 February 2016. Web.26 April. 2024. <
https://www.paperdue.com/essay/zombies-within-the-haiti-culture-2155274>

"Zombies Within The Haiti Culture", 10 February 2016, Accessed.26 April. 2024,
https://www.paperdue.com/essay/zombies-within-the-haiti-culture-2155274

Related Documents

Zombie Argument v. Physicalism: In the field of philosophy, zombies are imaginary creatures that are used to illuminate problems regarding consciousness and its relation to the physical world. As compared to those in witchcraft or films, zombies are exactly like human beings in every physical aspect but without conscious experiences. However, zombies behave like humans and some of them even spend considerable amount of time discussing consciousness. While few people believe

Zombies The possibility of a zombie apocalypse or outbreak has been especially popular recently, in both popular culture and more serious fields. This is because while the actual threat posed by zombies in film and television is not real, in many important ways a potential zombie outbreak mimics the kind of pandemics and disasters that public health officials seek to prevent and plan for. In fact, zombies serve as a such

One of the reasons that zombie films have endured for as long as they have is because they help people to get a glimpse of what the future may possibly hold. By obtaining such insight into a possible future, people are able to better prepare for it and to not fear it as much as they might without such movies. One of the implications of the zombie meme's tendency to

Consumerism Zombies Culture of Consumerism Much of the Western World has been transformed into a Cult of Consumerism and grounded in Fashionable Consumption. As the Limitations of the Natural World become more clear, something must be done to Challenge Consumerism It can be hard to pinpoint a definition for consumerism. However, generally the term is used to describe people that conflate wants and needs. For example, some people might identify the new iPhone

Zombie Management Add on Richard Richard, I appreciate your comments and strongly resonate with your ideas about the individual and his responsibility to save himself. I think others need to adopt the approach the we have taken on this idea and derive a new idea of the word community. To me community is should be more liberal and voluntary that what is presented in today's culture. This is unfortunate but allows

Cult Films
PAGES 6 WORDS 1757

Cult Films Both Rosemary's Baby and I Walked with a Zombie are movies that have explicit elements of what we might more commonly think of as "horror" films. On the other hand, however, both rely so heavily on atmospheric tension and are so laden with strange ambiguity and "arty" moments that they seem to transcend the genre. Given the large following behind both movies as well, they are often just as