Origins of the zombie

The zombie, like the vampire, has become for better or worse ingrained in our culture and our consciousness.  From humble beginnings it has come to be a stalwart in film, game and books throughout the world.  From zombie apocalypse survival guides and podcasts to zombie flash mobs and walks done by horror fans the zombie is on the verge of becoming the next vampire.  But where exactly do the living dead originate from?

First off we have to come to a definition of a zombie.  There are many but in essence the zombie has to have been a creature (I say creature so that animals can be included) that has been killed or died of natural causes and then has been reanimated and is under control by another person.  This is the most basic definition of a zombie and is the one that we will use.

In popular culture the zombie can be traced back to 1818 with the anonymous release of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus”.  This was the first book to feature a definitely dead creature that is reanimated and initially under control of its creator. The tale of the creature and its creator has been immortalised in film and television since studios found the story and many people feel more for the creature than for its victims. 

In the same mould is H.P. Lovecrafts “re-animator” which was published in 1921.  This story drew heavily on Frankenstein with its mad scientist protagonist and his creations.  Except instead of lightning re-animator used a biological substance to bring life back to his experiments.  Also this substance could be used on body parts bringing to life lurid visions of arms flopping around on the floor or eyeballs following you around the room.  This could also be seen to be a precursor of the popular zombie virus idea that is so prevalent today.

Although these were the first appearances of the zombie in literature the zombie was a well known and too many people a frightening reality before this.  On the islands of Haiti the threat of being turned into a zombie was for many a real possibility if they crossed the wrong person.  The popular practise of voodoo which has many practioners and believers worldwide holds that a bokur or sorcerer can create a zombie and hold it under his sway.  Under these beliefs it is held that feeding a zombie salt will release it from its bondage.

As early as 1937 folklorist Zora Neale Hurston came across tales of the zombie and even met someone who claimed she was under the zombie spell.  This was followed up by Wade Davis, a Harvard ethnobotanist who published several books about the zombie in voodoo practises which included the excellent “serpent and the rainbow” which was later made into a feature film.   He came to the conclusion that the zombie is actually a person infected with two very dangerous compounds, tetrodotoxin and datura.

The first time the word zombie actually enters the English language is in 1819 according the English oxford dictionary.  It is used in the following way, “In the West Indies and southern states of America, a soulless corpse said to have been revived by witchcraft; formerly, the name of a snake-deity in voodoo cults of or deriving from West Africa and Haiti.”  In this form the zombie is called the Nzambi.

So according to published sources we can say that the first time the word or a definition appears is 1819 while the first time the actual idea of a zombie, i.e. Frankenstein appears is in 1818.  However when it comes to the origins of the zombie it is clearly a mix between the hidden usage of the term in regards to voodoo and the popular gothic culture of the 1800’s.

And if you think that zombie’s are just myths and legends to frighten little children then I point you to the following article.  It is perhaps the first clue that films about zombies being created from viruses aren’t as farfetched as you may think.  Http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100818105730.htm