Zombies Bodies without souls

1
ZombiesBodies without souls

• A corpse that has been raised from the grave and
  animated
• Most closely related with Haitian Vodou
• Not to be feared. Fated to live a life of
  slavery on a plantation.
• Wade Davis, The Serpent and the Rainbow
• Together with Haitian psychiatrist, Dr. Lamarque
  Douyon, tracked down and recreated Zombie Powder,
  a type of powder that (allegedly containing
  pieces of dried puffer fish) causes the victim to
  appear dead. http//video.nationalgeographic.com
  /video/player/places/culture-places/food/japan_puf
  ferfish.html
• Davis emphasized the role of a powerful priest in
  depriving a person of their will, and
  psychologically helping to create this
  zombification process.
• In Haitian Vodou, the part of the soul able to be
  controlled by this priest is the ti-bonaj or
  their personality/individuality.

2
Death Rituals

• Funeral Rituals
• Mainly done to comfort the living, while
  providing a way for the soul to remove itself
  from the community.
• Murngin of Australia
• Dying person is surrounded by wailing, singing
  mourners attempting to comfort him/her. Men tend
  more towards expressions of revenge, while women
  display grief, cutting their heads with sharp
  sticks.
• Ancient Egypt
• Professional mourners would be hired to walk
  behind the coffin of the Pharaoh, wail and tear
  at their hair.
• Tana Torajans of Indonesia
• Sadness and anger thought to be disruptive to
  interpersonal relationships and bad for ones
  health. Only during specific times at a funeral
  are public displays of grief appropriate.
• Nuer of East Africa
• Body is quickly buried and the grave obliterated
  so that the ghost does not cause problems for the
  living.
• Dani of New Guinea
• The ghost is seen as a particular problem and
  elaborate rituals are performed to appease the
  ghost and allow it to move on.
• Disposal of the Body
• Depends on cultural perceptions of an
  individuals corporeal self
• Secondary Burials
• Cremation
• Mummification
• 19th century U.S. culture
• Present-day U.S. culture

3
Burials and Secondary Burials

• Burials
• The most common disposal method. Sometimes the
  body may be buried quickly and not carry much
  meaning, as with the Nuer of East Africa. More
  often, the body is elaborately buried
• Burial by Pyre warriors who die in battle.
  Vikings and the Viking Funeral
• Thus he (Odin) established by law that all dead
  men should be burned, and their belongings laid
  with them upon the pile, and the ashes be cast
  into the sea or buried in the earth. Thus, said
  he, every one will come to Valhalla with the
  riches he had with him upon the pile and he
  would also enjoy whatever he himself had buried
  in the earth. For men of consequence a mound
  should be raised to their memory, and for all
  other warriors who had been distinguished for
  manhood a standing stone which custom remained
  long after Odin's time. (excerpt from Ynglinga
  Saga)
• Burial under/near dwelling or special preparation
  of the body was also common
• Ancient Egypt Predynastic (pre-3,000 B.C.E.)
  non-elite burials
• Deceased wrapped in a shroud, placed in a small
  wooden coffin.
• Secondary Burials
• Often marks the end of the mourning period.
  Commonly involves, digging up, processing and
  reburying the body in some way. Sometimes
  thought that what happens to the body also
  happens to the soul
• http//video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/p
  laces/culture-places/beliefs-and-traditions/taiwan
  _secondburial.html
• Murngin of Australia
• After 2-3 months (or more) body is exhumed, bones
  are washed of any remaining flesh. Cleaned bones
  are placed in a bundle and watched over for
  several months, then taken out, smashed up and
  placed into a log which is then left to rot.
• A finger or other small bone may be saved as a
  relic for the family
• An object of religious veneration, especially a
  piece of the body or a personal item of
  religiously important person, such as an ancestor
  or saint.

4
Cremation

• Funerary practice of burning the body. Practiced
  for a variety of reasons
• A way to destroy the corpse, so ghost cannot
  haunt the living.
• Reaction to the indignity of the decay process.
• Economically cheaper than burial.
• Yanomamö Body is decorated, burned on a pyre in
  the middle of the community. Smoke is thought to
  be contaminating so all children and the sick
  leave the village during cremation. Bits of
  teeth and ashes saved in a hollow log to be
  crushed and consumed in a soup later on.
• The Yanomamö are Endocannibalistic
  anthropophagers meaning that they eat the bodies
  of their own people.