About to start live tweeting @CyberCafeSci with @Charlie_Popple on The Science of the Undead...
Charlie is an Egyptologist, specialied in mummies - and now on the History of the Undead - which is her book and also the title of this week's talk...
...so we start with #Alive 2020 - Netflix zombie movie...
...the fascination here is with the legends of the undead - especially zombies - which are still very much a part of life in some cultures...
...and a shout out to The Waking dead - immortalized in the mis-spelt Facebook group The Woking Dead (@CyberCafeSci having originated in Woking..)...
...Walking Dead (before I add another mis-spelling...)...
...a zombie, after spending time in a coffin or tomb, could have their soul and free will exorcised, and so be a safe slave worker...
...and a tip for any eventual zombie post-apocalyptic world dwellers - if you feed a zombie salt it will go back to its tomb and turn to dust - a useful thing to know...
...I may have that back to front - salt may free the zombie in a bad way - so maybe just don't try it...
...so here we go into real-life(!) zombie stories...
...our first case is a woman who died, but was found later walking, catatonic, through Port au Prince - with distinctive scars...
...obviously townsfolk assumed her husband had turned her into a zombie, but she was later diagnosed with schizophrenia...
...now to Wilfred, also confirmed as undead, and whose uncle was given a life(!) sentence for turning him into a zombie, after confessing..
...Wilfred was eventually diagnosed with 'organic brain syndrome' and epilepsy...
...our third case, coincidentally, swelled up and died during a prayer meeting to help a zombie neighbour, but appeared later claiming to have had a child with another zombie...
...her diagnosis was eventually fetal alcohol syndrome...
...(I tried feotal and feotal but went with fetal but none look right so anyway..)...
...in two of these cases the zombie had a 10 mm hole in their chest...
...so zombification is a process, with a ritual, to deliberately(?) turn a dead person into a zombie...
...and often linked to some crime or sin...
...so, to the recipe for zombification...
...slow poisoning is one way, or rubbing zombie powder into their skin, before they die - then doing the zombifiation ritual once they die and are buried...
...and now to the scientific studies of zombification and zombie powder - starting with sceintifically (and questionable ethics..) 'trying it out'...
..as you would, of course, being a scientist of repute...
...so he bougght zombie powder from a priest, and checked what it contained - newts, frogs, worms, human bits, flowers that can cause amnesia, and hallucinogens, plus bits of a tree frog that can cause paralysis...
...and the worst bit was puffer fish - responsible for half of deaths through food poisoning in Japan each year...
...luckily(?) none of these was in sufficient dose to have an effect...
...and in a twist, you could also buy an antidote if you had been zombie-powdered...
..zombie-powder antidote has aloe vera, so that must work...
...turning people into zombies is a crime in Haitian law (one wonders why it isn't everywhere..)...
...and a suggestion that the threat that someone would zombify you if you were mean or criminal, would be an effective deterrent regardless of its reality.
So, now into questions: the mythology of salt (makes me want to do Cafe Mythology now..) - the idea of salt as a purifying agent?
Can you be zombified if you haven't died? No, so that is good news. You have to be dead but not for long.
How many zombies in Haiti today?
There is no scientifically significant sample....
There is no scientifically significant sample....
...however the threat of zombifying is still very much present - and some societal groups have been banned under the ant-zombification laws...
Question on ethical concerns around studying zombification - especially experimental zombie-challenge clinical trials
Are the zombie cases confirmed or not? Answer: neither - families confirmed identity - and remembered burying them - but doctors diagnosed medical disorders.
A serious qestion as to why this all happens in the market place? Suggestion is that the market is the hub of social activity so zombies gravitate there.
Question lining Egyptian mummies to zombies - but no folklore on undead or risen from the dead in ancient Egypt.
...'linking'...
And to science/religion/legend controversy: could Jesus have been a zombie???
...answer, yes in the sense that ayone who rises from the dead is technically a zombie, but our image of zombies is of horror so that would not be applied in a case such as Jesus.
...and our zombie image conflicts perhaps with tradition, where zombies may be indistinguishable from living apart from having no soul or free will..
and in true Cafe Sci tradition we go down the rabbit hole of, if we don't have free will then aren't we all zombies anyway?
A side note - Haiti was the only slave colony to rebel - and control their own fate, hence exercise free will as opposed to being slaves - hence the idea of losing free will being a horror?
And the power of suggestion - and the role of selling you the antidote just in case...
So now we go into the idea that you might apparetly kill somone, and when they were dug up not dead they would think you were a zombie?
And the horrifying tradition of Victorians being buried with a bell so they could ring it if they were buried and woke up?
And the modern equivalent of being buried with your mobile...
So we are well into Peter Cushing territory now, asking about vampires and the idea of drinking blood - which is a modern construct, but....
...at some times people did believe in coming back from the dead, and so used to dig dead people up to check they were still dead...
...and the drinking blood idea came from them seeing blood around the mouth, and assuming (as one would..) that the dead had been drinking blood...
...humans are weird....
..and it is almost a relief to return to the modern idea of zombies as something you would dress up as for a charity run or a party...
OK, we are veering off into ghosts now (having done vampires) - but ghosts are just dead not undead, I think, it's complicated.
Right, back to the festival of the dead somewhere they dig up the dead each year to have a party with them...
...there being cultures other than Western, where the relatonship with the dead does not end with the funeral, but continues routinely...
...and here we draw a scientific distinction between the dead, the accidentally undead, and the deliberately undead (the latter being zombies) ...
...and whether the undead relationship manifests practically in everyday life, as opposed to being a religious concept with little practical effect
Where does the word 'zombie' come from? Answer, African languages with varied meanings - god, undead, ghost. But now, it is specifically Haitian and hybrid voodoo/christianity in ritual and style.
And finally, the zombie seems to be a construct from slave culture - a mix of so many African languages and traditions hybridised with western values and christianity - which is perhaps a call for greater understanding of slavery culture and tradition.
Thanks to @Charlie_Popple for a fascinating talk, @CyberCafeSci , and to @Coffee_Fueled for hosting and acting as question-master.
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