Humanities Homework Help

Zora Neale Hurston (1984) argues, “if science ever gets to the bottom of Voodoo in Haiti and Africa, it will be found that some important medical secrets, still unknown to medical science, give it its power, rather than gestures of ceremony.” 

Is it possible that zombies and the dead are explainable?

Why or why not?

For some context to the work of Zora Neale Hurston, I encourage you to watch this short clip from Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun. 

I will attach more information once you accept it.

POST 1

I do think it is possible that zombies and the dead are explainable. As Zora Neale Hurston explains in her book “Tell My Horse”, Haitians believe that zombies are the bodies of those without souls, also known as the living dead. This concept can be represented in several ways in society beyond the usual “Hollywood” concept of a zombie. Someone who has lost all will, desire, and purpose to live can be considered a soul-less body, as they mope their way through their life until they find a purpose, if they ever find one again. This same thing can be applied to people who do the same thing, day in and day out. These people have mundane lives filled with endless repetition of doing the same thing or routine every day without failure or change. Just like those who have lost all motivation, these soul-less people become numb to the world around them and resist any change or difference to their routine.

What immediately comes to mind to me in relation to this concept is the episode of Spongebob Squarepants, where Squidward Tentacles moves into Squidville, a town filled with other squid-people who act like and enjoy all the same things Squidward does. Day in and day out, Squidward does the exact same thing, and we see through a montage the grin on his face that he has after moving in quickly disappear into a miserable frown, where he eventually gives up playing the clarinet, one of his favorite pastimes, with the other squids. Squidward feels defeated and lifeless living in Squidville, as nothing exciting or out of the ordinary happens anymore unlike when he lived next to his former neighbors Spongebob Squarepants and Patrick Star. Their unpredictability, while annoying at times, would add some excitement to Squidward’s otherwise mundane life, so without them in Squidville, he feels soul-less doing the same thing over and over again without failure or interruption.