... but zombies are real.
Laura Bohannon was an anthropologist who worked among the Tiv people of West Africa. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_B...)
Anthro 101 students know her famous essay, "Shakespeare in the Bush"
archived by Natural History magazine online here: http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/edit...
The men of the Tiv had a hard time with the idea that Hamlet's dead father could walk, talk, be seen, and be heard. They did not believe in ghosts. "But you can touch a zombi."
I was going to post this under Science because of a comment in "How False Information Becomes Fact." It is a cogent discussion, but in a few places, it seemed to me, that people who deny ghosts accept zombies. (And that would include me. Just sayin'... it helps to step back and look at your beliefs every now and then.)
Anthro 101 students know her famous essay, "Shakespeare in the Bush"
archived by Natural History magazine online here: http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/edit...
The men of the Tiv had a hard time with the idea that Hamlet's dead father could walk, talk, be seen, and be heard. They did not believe in ghosts. "But you can touch a zombi."
I was going to post this under Science because of a comment in "How False Information Becomes Fact." It is a cogent discussion, but in a few places, it seemed to me, that people who deny ghosts accept zombies. (And that would include me. Just sayin'... it helps to step back and look at your beliefs every now and then.)
My favorite: "update your contact list daily"
There are no vampires, werewolves, zombies, or magic. What all of those are is imaginative superstition. Everything that was magic is either trickery or misunderstood science. There are no beliefs without proof. Which is why vampire movies, etc. no longer are considered all that scary, but slasher films are. If you are fascinated by that sort of thing I suggest a show on Showtime or Netflix called "Penny Dreadful" which lumps all the 19th century scaries into a pot, stirs them up with a little pseudo-science and pours them out in parallel stories that are well written, fun, and oddly get you rooting for the ghoulies.
Vampires were started between Vlad the Impaler (who was really just butchering Muslims to keep them from invading) and a few poor souls who were literally allergic to sunlight (extreme photosensitivity). Add in an overactive imagination and a fear of bats... There were also a few very twisted individuals (sadistic European royalty) who held such literally demented and demonic beliefs that a bath in the blood of virgins could prolong life.
Witches? Those were people who would concoct hallucinogenic brews (which would typically contain deadly nightshade, hensbane, and other poisonous plants) in their cooking pots (cauldrons) and then "administer" them to themselves rectally using a broom. Their resulting hallucinations made it seem to them that they were flying.
Werewolves? Also a known medical condition of extreme hair growth mixed with a popular fear of wolves in general and typical druids who worshiped the moon.
Zombies and walking dead? This one actually gets psychological, as there is a very real and visceral fear associated with being controlled - even if one is dead. The inference is that one is no longer in control of one's own body, but that someone else through necromantic powers has torn you from your rest and tormented you away from a peaceful hereafter only to continue to torment the living.
Ghouls? These have existed for much of time. They are people who eat other people, i.e. cannibals. Most were simply people who were starved - usually by their own governments - but there were also a few rare psychos who invented for themselves other reasons. Hannibal Lecter is only a more modern personification.
Ghosts? These actually have a basis in reality. To some they are the spirits of the departed who appear to men in order to impart some kind of warning or message. To others they are the spirits of the departed who are haunted themselves by the actions of their own lives or some traumatic occurrence.
Mummies? This one is actually pretty recent and revolves mostly around Egyptian mummies and the maladies which struck some archeologists (mainly those interested in the very public Tutankhamen discovery). Leverage that with the mystery of the ancient Egyptians and their beliefs and it gives the creatively-minded all kinds of interesting places to go.
If you carefully look at each of these "supernatural" events, there is most certainly an element of Hollywood introduce to each, but each in turn originated from some real event or occurrence. If you want to look at the purely fantastical, look at science fiction to nearly every invocation of "aliens" invented. Whether it is Sigourney Weaver, Arnold Schwartzenegger, Wil Smith, or Ender Wiggin facing off, each incarnation of alien is in turn fairly ridiculous - even though they make for great stories.
(PS - not me who -1'd you)