求一篇西方关于zombie（丧尸）的传说的文章

如题

The word zombie refers to the ‘living dead’. In folklore zombies are portrayed as innocent victims who are raised in a comatose trance from their graves by malevolent sorcerers, and led to distant farms or villages where they toil indefinitely as slaves. Zombies are recognized by their docile nature, by their glassy empty eyes, and by the evident absence of will, memory, and emotion. Part of their souls may also be captured by the sorcerers. Zombies can only return to the world of the living upon the death of their masters. Accounts are sometimes cited of actual people who have undergone this ordeal, were declared dead, and later turned up at the homes of their kin in various degrees of health.

Sources indicate that the word is of African origin. The cadaver or spirit of a deceased person is called zumbi in the Bonda language, ndzumbi in Gabon, and nzambi in Kongo. However, the conviction that zombies exist is more widespread. It is encountered not only in sub-Saharan Africa, but also in the Caribbean and in Latin America.

A controversial theory by Wade Davis suggests that there may well be an ethnobiological basis for popular reports of the zombie phenomenon in Haiti. He refers to a case of zombification which had been verified by a team of physicians. In 1962 Clairvus Narcisse was pronounced dead at a hospital, and buried 8 hours later. In 1980 Clairvus reappeared, claiming that he had been made a zombie by his brother because of a land dispute. Davis argues that Clairvus was mistakenly diagnosed as dead, buried alive, and taken from the grave. Among the various preparations of Haitian sorcerers, Davis identified a marine fish containing tetrodotoxin, an extremely potent neurotoxin which induces a complete state of peripheral paralysis and imperceptibly low metabolic levels. He postulates that the Haitian belief in zombies could be based on those rare instances where the individual receives the correct dosage of the poison, is misdiagnosed as dead, and is taken from the grave by a sorcerer. Moreover, Davis argues that zombification is a form of punishment imposed by Bizango secret societies to maintain order in local communities.

Other scholars of Haiti regard the belief in zombies as purely mythical. From a Marxist perspective zombification — the image of people who have lost their minds and souls and are left only with the ability to work — is explained as symbolic comment on the historical process of colonialism.

In many parts of Africa zombies are an integral aspect of witchcraft beliefs; particularly where witchcraft discourses address issues raised by inequalities of wealth and power. For example, among the Bakweri of Cameroon new forms of wealth signalled a transformation in occult forces. When land was alienated for plantations by German and British colonists, the Bakweri were confined to reservations, and the plantations attracted a workforce from elsewhere. In this context a concept of nyongo witchcraft emerged. The Bakweri suspected prosperous outsiders of forming witch associations, taking deceased kin from the graves, and of transporting them by lorries to mount Kupe where they used the zombie spirits to work on invisible plantations. Yet the nyongo men themselves were in danger. If they were no longer able to sell their intimates to fellow witches, their colleagues would kill them, and reduce them to slavery. Initially these ideas exaggerated ambivalence towards wealth and hindered the emergence of a new elite among the Bakweri. However, when the Bakweri themselves earned much money from the cultivation of bananas, in the 1950s, nyongo witches were soon flushed out and brought under control. Hence the ban on individual enrichment was broken.

Similarly, in Malawi, witchcraft discourses constitute an argument about the morality of accumulation. Accumulation is endowed with moral adequacy when entrepreneurs make their constitutive relations visible by supporting their kin financially; and by redistributing wealth through patronage, gift-giving, and feasting. It is perfectly legitimate when entrepreneurs, who are motivated by these concerns, use medicines to protect their businesses and to ensure a steady flow of many customers. By contrast, accumulation which is motivated by individualism and greed is morally despised. In this situation entrepreneurs are said to achieve prosperity at the cost of human lives. Zombies are believed to reside with them, to protect their money, and to affect the minds of customers so that they can come to the business in large numbers. Zombies thus serve exactly the same purposes as medicines, but are an index of morally disputable witchcraft.

In South Africa discourses of zombies capture the illicit desire to dominate and the fear of being dominated. At a symbolic level the image of witches who keep many zombies resonates with the status of white industrialists and farm owners who employ many black labourers. The employment of zombies as servants in a nocturnal ‘second world’ echoes the daunting experiences of migrant labourers who leave their rural households for alien industrial and mining centres. The tasks of zombies resemble those of domestic assistants and farm labourers. They clean the homes of witches, fetch water and firewood, herd cattle, plough, sow, harvest, and run errands. The unique features of zombies exaggerate some of the less apparent consequences of domination. Zombies are only a metre tall; are similar in appearance; are hypnotized so that they display unquestioning obedience; and their tongues are cut. These features allude to the diminutive, childlike status of African labourers; who are all treated alike by their bosses; and are unable to express themselves. Moreover, zombies are sexless, are devoid of human desires, and are fed a meagre diet of maize porridge — the staple diet of South African labourers. Narratives of zombies also reflect upon the dependence of the dominated. Should witches die, their zombies will wander about endlessly in search of porridge. Being undead, they cannot return to their kin. Persons who aspire to positions of influence; and strong-willed mothers-in-law who command great authority over the wives of their sons, are those most often accused of keeping zombies.

Medusa（戈耳工美杜莎） 戈耳工是希腊神话中的蛇发女妖三姐妹，居住在遥远的西方，是海神福耳库斯的女儿。她们头上和脖子上布满鳞甲，头发是一条条蠕动的毒蛇，长着野猪的獠牙，还有一双铁手和金翅膀，任何看到她们的人都会立即变成石头。宙斯之子珀尔修斯知道这个秘密，因此背过脸去，用光亮的盾牌作为镜子，找出美杜莎，在雅典娜和赫耳墨斯的帮助下割下了她的头。从美杜莎的躯体里跳出双翼飞马珀伽索斯和巨人克律萨俄耳，他们都是波塞冬的后代。珀尔修斯躲避美杜莎两个姐姐的追杀时，在空中遇到狂风的袭击，被吹的左右摇晃，从美杜莎的头颅上滴下的鲜血落到利比亚沙漠中，成为毒蛇（包括上面所介绍的毒蜥）。 在蛇发女妖三姐妹中，只有美杜莎是凡身，她的姐姐丝西娜和尤瑞艾莉都是魔身。据说美杜莎曾是一位美丽的少女，因吹嘘自己比雅典娜长的漂亮而被这位智慧女神夺去了她所有的美丽，只留给她一个丑陋的妖怪之躯。 戈耳工的血液虽然剧毒，却拥有特殊的力量，曾赋予埃里克特翁尼亚斯（见Erichthonius）以起死回生的能力。珀尔修斯用割下的美杜莎的头颅杀死了海怪塞特斯（见Cetus），回去后把头颅交给雅典娜，雅典娜把它固定在自己的盾牌/胸甲中央。 戈耳工三姐妹的头像常被艺术家用在象征性的徽章、建筑的装饰物甚至雅典的钱币上，也曾用于士兵的盾牌上。

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