Passage of Darkness : The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie

In 1982, Harvard-trained ethnobotanist Wade Davis traveled into the Haitian countryside to research reports of zombies—the infamous living dead of Haitian folklore. A report by a team of physicians of a verifiable case of zombification led him to try to obtain the poison associated with the process and examine it for potential medical use. Interdisciplinary in nature, this study reveals a network of power relations reaching all levels of Haitian political life. It sheds light on recent Haitian political history, including the meteoric rise under Duvalier of the Tonton Macoute. By explaining zombification as a rational process within the context of traditional Vodoun society, Davis demystifies one of the most exploited of folk beliefs, one that has been used to denigrate an entire people and their religion. Passage of Darkness Contents Foreword by Robert Farris Thompson Preface by Richard Evans Schultes Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The Historical and Cultural Setting 2. The Haitian Zombie 3. The Problem of Death 4. The Poison 5. The "Antidote" 6. Everything Is Poison, Nothing Is Poison: The Emic View 7. Zombification as a Social Process 8. The Bizango Secret Societies Conclusion: Ethnobiology and the Haitian Zombie Note on Orthography Glossary Bibliography Index