¥ Saab Jes Lan and Debora Chie tht vombies in performance art blic demonstrations elucidate a further type of zombie evolution: the spectator bas become participant in, n erator of, his own zombie stories, ‘Across an ever-broadening array of mesa, zombies are making their presence known, and in several variations they ate learning, adapting to their altered circumstances with frightening rapidity, and evolving into a rather perplesing ontological problem for humans” As the demareating line between us and them, and subject and objeet, recedes, confusion arses. We must ask ourselves: Are zombies becoming more human, oF are ‘humans becoming more like zombies? If we are, might that resolve some ‘of ur uniquely humanist problems? Will the equalizing free af the zom- bie horde undergo gender trouble, identity polities, and disparities Dberween the haves andthe have-nots? Might we not all be beter ff dead? And the Dead Shall Rise Part introduction by Kevin Boon Deaths very sevions mater, Mrs Fiske, People who £0 rough tare never dhe same ‘aves no, Those Who Sek Frgiteness” Discourse in contemporary popular American culture concerning zombie nythology is colored by George Romero's fusion ofthe zombie with the shoul in bis monumental filma Night of the Living Dead in 1968. Neacly every film made ater Romero's fest sequel to Night, Dewn ef the Dead (1978), can be linked back w Romero's characterzation of the zombie. And itis quite difteute co find a zombie novel or shore story release ater Romero’ thir film in his zombie series, Day ofthe Dead (1085), that does not follow the director's lead. Iis not surprising, then, that contemporary discussions of the zombie often ground chemsclve in Romere’s vision and begin their examinations during the period Peter Dendle labels the olden Age." But zombie mythology, asthe esays in this section show, possesses @ rich history and a much broader relevance & contemporary culrures than customarily acsbuted tot Unlike other iconic creatures in horror narratives—Frankenstcin’s vonster, werewolves, vampires, and other monstrous manifestations in uropeanfitional narratives—the zombie proper emerges from religious and cultural origins ofthe Afvican diaspora. The chapters in this setion go long way toward racking that journey through fields of Haitian sug- sreane to American poplar culture, The two chapters that frame this see- tion, Cheea Kee's "They are not men... they are dead bodies: From6 Kevin Boon (Cannibal so Zombie and Back Again” and Franck Degoul’s ““We are the mirror of your fears’ Hitan Identity and Zombification,” both examine ‘zomsie niythology’s ineluctable relationship to Hat, Kee traces the myth ‘throagh the nineteenth century and up to the 1968 appearance of Rome- 10's Nigh of th Living Dead ilostrating a predominately Wester view of ‘vo0¢oo! and the zombie, while Degoul contrasts that view with an illuni- nation ofthese same myths “within che Haitian context.” ‘We might further rede Romero's influence by privileging film over ‘other forms of media in discussions of the zombie, despite the zombie myths permeation of American media and culture. Richard J. Hand's “Unlead Radio: Zombies and the Living Dead on 1930 and 19408 Radio rama” helps to offer this shorceoming by chronicling the zombie'spres- ‘encein the early days of radio and its appearance on such icone programs 1a The Shad and Inner Sencrum Myris. Film does not hold exclusive domain over the zombie. The zombie has lumabered into every American art form, inchuding theater, music, literature, performance art, painting, and sculpeure ‘Mast approaches to zombie studies fll into two broad categories. The first examines the socioistoical evolusion of the myth through and across ‘ultra landscapes, The zombie (as Degonl clearly llusrates) is primarily 2 politieal, cultural, and religious product, and how its defined depends ‘on who is looking; thus Western and Haitian characterizations ofthe zom- bie difer. Further, contemporary characterizations (American and Hai- sian largely differ from early nincteenth-century characterizations, so such so that no single perspective can contain the whole of the myth. art ofthe myth may, a times, even contradict one another. Just as voo- doo and tales of zombies were emplayed by colonial forces to dehnmanize Haitians (as Kee outlines), they are also, as Franck Degoul points out, source of empowerment for Haiti and iss citizens, a “valorzing sign of, Hbitanness.” "The second cstegary involves psycho-philosophical critiques of the zombie designed to clarify the nature ofthe myth and is relationship to human consciousness. My own offering inthis section, “The Zombie as (ther: Mortality and the Monstrous in the Post-nuclear Age,” fills into this category in ts attempe tllstrate the existential natre ofthe zombie and the myth’s relationship ro the self before and after the introduction of| ‘nuclar weapons into American consciousness. ‘A sociohistrieal approach is bound to the label “zombie,” but a psy chopphilosophical approach can be more eral in this regard. The fist approach dates the heginning of the zombie flm to the 1932 production And be Dead Sha Be 7 ‘of White Zombie, but the second might date the frst zombie film tthe 1gz0 production of Dar Cabinet des Dr. Caligor, by arguing that Cesare, the sommambulated assassin, has lost his volition and is largely indstin- suishable from the zombies we encounter in Waite Zombie and later ims, such as Ouanga (1933), Rel of the Zombies (1936), and I Walked with a Zombie (1943). “The tm “zombie” is often equated with terms such as “the wncead” and discussed as if returning from the dea is sn indispensible charaeers- ticof the zombie. Yet, if we are to use that characteristic ro define zombies, swe encounter numerous complications, The story of Jesus's ervifation and resurrection hecomes a story of zombifcation, as does every ghost story ever told, and the zombies Wade Davis refers to in The Serpent and the Rain ancl Passage of Darknene The Ethnbiloy ofthe Haitian Zoic cease to be rombies, ‘What is still needed in zombie studies is clear articulation of what ‘constitutes a zombie. While Hollywood zombies since the mid-eightes have largely been reanimated corpses, not all reanimated corpses have heen zombics, Frankenstein's monster, for example, is reanimated dead fiesh, ut the monster has never, to my knowledge, been referred t asa zombie, while che infeted in 28 Days Later, who do not return from the dead, are nearly always classified as zombies My colleague Peter Dendle claims chat “the substantial overlap among ‘the various movie monsters preeludes the possibilty ofan all-encompass- ing definition of a zombie,” a point that easly extends to the epresnta- tion of zombies in literature and other cultural manifestations. [Nevertheles, zombies do all share a common characteristic: the absence ‘of some metaphysieal quality oftheir esental selves. ‘This may he the soul, the mind, the will, or in some cases the personality. But every zom- bic experience loss of something essential that previous to zombifiation defined it as human. Usually chis enti «loss of volition, though not always. The zombies in Brian Keene's The Rising are intelligent and act, with purpose. They have vlition, bor its not the volition ofthe bodies? ‘original occupants. The original self has beem altered in a way that guts its exence, ‘The person is no longer a person in either an exstental of metaphysical sense, While this characteristic isnot an all-encompassing Aefinition, itis» uniform criterion that makes classification possible, When we apply this criterion to zombie mythology as it appears in art, 1 Hiteranre, radio, and culture, we ean identity nine major eategories n of which cover zombies that exhibit the necessary loss’ Kevin Bon ‘of elf, and two additional categories which are necessary because the term “ambi” is sometimes employed to identify non-rombies* ‘Thenine eypes, briefly defined, areas follows: 1) zombie drone:a person ‘hose will has been taken from him or her, resulting ina slavish obedi- nce; (2) simnbie ghval: fasion of the zombie andthe ghoul, which has lost voltion and feeds on flesh; (3) rch somiie: people who have lost their voltion through the use of some technological device; (9) bio zombie: imi- larto tech zombies, except some biological, natura or chemical element is te medium that robs people of thei wil, (5) zombie channel: « person who has been resurrected and some other entity has possessed his or her form; (6) aycblogieal zombie: « person who has lost his or her will as a result of some psychological conditioning; (9) cultura! zombie: in general, refirs tothe type of zombie we locate within popular culture; (8) zambie _ghor: not aceually a zombie, rather someone who has returned from the deal with all or most of his or her faculties intact, and (9) zombie ruse: slight of hand common in young adult novels where the “zombies” turn ‘outto not be zombies at all! Ik should be noted that these categories often overlap. ‘The zombies in the 1998 film 1, Zombie, for example, are both tech zombies (because of| ther implants) and zombie drones (because they are shambling slave labor like the Haitian zombies of earlier works). Cesare in Caligar is oth a psychological zombie, by dint of is mesmerization, and a zombie drone, becuse of his complete servitude to Caligr’ wil. The zombies in Rome ro’: series are zombie ghouls and bio zombies. Yet despite the somesimes- fluid boundaries herween these categories, this system of clasifieation ‘offers some foundation as we enter into discussions of zombies in their many artistic and cultural incarnations. In this collection, which examines zombie evolution, we might focus especially on where the flux between ‘categories suggests kind of development, mapping the zombies transfor- ‘mations throughout the twentieth century both diachronically and syn- chmnically in order co determine where there has been teleological transformation, and where several kinds of zamies have coexisted, peo- pling «kind of zombie nation “They are not men . .. they are dead bodies!” From Cannibal to Zombie and Back Again Chera Kee ‘Contemporary American zombies! are remarkably similar:"They are born of infection, ae the dead returned to life, ad havea taste for human fesh Burt this hasn't always been the poplar imagining of the zombie. When mbes were fist introduced into U'S. culare, they were radially difer- ‘ent. The earliest zombies were neither sick nor cannibalistic; they were victims of n exotic religion, used as slaves, forced co submit tothe wil of 1 zombie master. While i is widely accepted that modern zombies were born in George Romero's 1968 film Night ofthe Living Dead, discussion of the ties that bind modern zombies to their Hatin ancestors is sometimes forgotten. Yer this ignores the zombie's cannibalistic rots. The zombie is one of the few popular Hollywood monsters that come from outside Europe; rather, i arises out of stores connected to Haitian ‘Voodoo, and early zombie fiction in the United States owes much to fears ‘of Hai as an independent black republic. From the time ofthe Haitian Revolution onward, stories of Voodoo circulated throughout the Americas and Europe. Anxiety about Haiti in the United States translated into an aniety about Voodoo, which vas ineeasngly linked to cannibalism in che US. popular press to underscore supposed Haitian primicivism, Yer, after nuleuous U.S. occupation of Hat from x915 to 1934, cannibalism nding Voodoo in fvor of zrcics the hogan to fade ont ofthe discourse su