Serpent and Rainbow

th e t and rpen e Se Th bow le Rain title sty b ster su a
odoo d of vo worl at the in o i k ng r ldot iM de Aniout to cksi e Cl
4/21/12
Presentations
Wade Davis Tetradotoxin Ton Ton Macoute
4/21/12
Wade Davis
Wade Davis has been described as "a rare combination of scientist, scholar, poet, and passionate defender of all of life's diversity." Mostly through the Harvard Botanical Museum, he spent more than three years in the Amazon and Andes as a plant explorer, living among 15 indigenous groups in eight Latin American nations while making some 6,000 botanical collections. His work later took him to Haiti to investigate folk preparations implicated in the creation of zombies, an assignment that led to his writing Passage of Darkness (1988) and The Serpent and the Rainbow (1986)
4/21/12
PASSAGE OF DARKNESS: THE ETHNOBIOLOGY OF THE HAITIAN ZOMBIE

A more scholarly, less sensationalistic version of The Serpent and the Rainbow
4/21/12 According to Davis, what makes zombies is the interplay between certain features of the culture of Haiti and the use of drugs. "Evidence suggests that zombification is a form of social sanction imposed by recognized corporate bodies--the poorly known and clandestine secret Bizango societies--as one means of maintaining order and control in local communities." The essence of Davis' claim is this: there are zombieshowever, there are actually very very few of them they are created in part by a poisoned powder however, they are created in part by the effects of the culture zombies are created when a person first falls into a death-like trance which is both drug and culturally induced then is revived and kept under the control of the houngan by the use of other drugs zombies are created by Voodoo priests who are members of the Bizango secret societies Bizango societies constitute a totally secret and hidden other government beneath the surface of Haitian society zombification is not random nor for profit or personal vendetta zombification is the ultimate punishment to someone who has seriously violated the law of the Bizango society
4/21/12 Davis claims there is a poisoned powder which causes the target person to fall into a death-like trance. It was to seek this drug that originally got Davis the assignment to track down the zombie poison. His sponsors reasoned that such a drug must exist, and if they could find it might have valuable pharmacological possibilities as an alternative to currently popular but unsafe anesthetics. The great controversy which Davis' book has caused is mainly connected to his claim that the chemical tetrodotoxin, gotten from the puffer fish, is the primary active ingredient in this "zombie powder." The powder alone cannot adequately account for nor make a zombie. Davis describes the "set and setting" which is required for the powder to work. "...set, in these terms, is the individual's expectation of what the drug will do to him or her; setting is the environment--both physical and, in this case, social--in which the drug is taken. Thus the poison in the powder, which is a psycho-active drug (one whose effect is related to specific personal psychological factors), will have different effects depending on who one is, what one's socialization and expectations are.
4/21/12 Escaped slaves, the maroons, living deep in the mountains, created an alternative society, more African than Western. These societies brought with them the remembered lore of Africa, including knowledge of the use of local poisons. The poisons were used as tools of social control within the maroon communities. After independence and the radical split between the life in the rural areas and the cities, these maroon social organizations became the secret Bizango societies, and zombification is, effectively, their death sentence for serious violations of the code of conduct required in Bizango.
Critics argue that Davis grossly exaggerated what he had found in the powder and that he had exaggerated, if not lied, about the chemically active properties of the powders he brought back.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cyGqzgJd3M
4/21/12
http://www.oas.org/juridico/mla/fr/hti/ fr_hti_penal.html Haitian Penal Code, Article 246 [year?]
4/21/12
Zombis and pop culture

Summaries of the 2 readings Zombi movies and fiction [and???]
4/21/12
What to watch for/think about

This film was made by Wes Craven:
What adaptations, distortions, oversights and exaggerations might you expect?
How are Haiti and Haitians presented in this film, as opposed to last weeks?
Goofs Just before the spider starts crawling on Dr. Dennis Alan's face, you can see the crew member in the left background who placed it there. Errors in geography: At Captain Peytraud's first meeting with Dr. Alan, Peytraud wears his full Haitan Tonton Macoute uniform including a row of several award ribbons. All of these ribbons are in fact United States armed forces decorations - clearly visible are the Vietnam Service Medal, Korean Service Medal, Air Force Overseas Ribbon, and the Army Good Conduct Medal.
4/21/12
Discussion
How would friends and family not aware of what voodoo really is react to this movie? What reactions might Haitians have? Harvard anthropologists? In scholastic terms, what are the high and low points of the film? In terms of entertainment value? Cmo reaccionaran a esta pelcula sus amigos y parientes que no saben nada del vud? Cmo sera la reaccin de los haitianos? los antroplogos de Harvard? En trminos escolticos, cules eran los aspectos positivos y negativos de est pelcula? en trminos de entretenimiento?
4/21/12
For the next class:

readings + 5 line summaries: 3 readings in handout; p. 326 in Afro Latin@ reader written: 2 200 word reviews for a general audience. 1 RAVE review [Loved it!] 1 scathingly negative review. Have some fun with your critique, but keep it clean, por favor. presentations:
1. 2. 3. 4.
5.
Henry Louis Gates Jr. Rafael Trujillo Toussaint LOuverture Jean-Jacques Dessalines Henri Christophe
**beware of Wikipedia!

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th e t and rpen e Se Th bow le Rain title sty b ster su a

odoo d of vo worl at the in o i k ng r ldot iM de Aniout to cksi e Cl

PASSAGE OF DARKNESS: THE ETHNOBIOLOGY OF THE HAITIAN ZOMBIE

http://www.oas.org/juridico/mla/fr/hti/ fr_hti_penal.html Haitian Penal Code, Article 246 [year?]

Zombis and pop culture

What to watch for/think about

What adaptations, distortions, oversights and exaggerations might you expect?

For the next class:

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