Cadaverous Context
Zombie Cultural Influence: Haitian Vodou Pharmacology
An ethnobotanist named Wade Davis suggested in his two books The Serpent and the Rainbow (1985) and Passage of Darkness. The Ethniobiology of the Haitian Zombie (1988) that Haitian living zombis were actually under the pharmacological influence of two drugs. The first, known as a coup padre, was created from tetrodotoxin, a deadly porcupine fish extract and neurotoxin. The second chemical was a similar compound to the one found in flowering datura plants, which caused dissociation and hallucinations. Given together by the bokors, the mixture could simulate the appearance of death, and make the victim sluggishly psychotic and easily manipulated. Because of widespread societal beliefs in zombis, the receiver of the drugs took easily to the suggesting that he or she was a zombi, too, and acted accordingly.
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