Introduction
Watching a zombie movie or reading a book or survival guide about zombies would prepare an individual for any catastrophe. Zombies are a trending popular culture in the United States and hence get the learners engaged with anthropology and disaster research topics. Zombies represent more than the horror epic in the modern world, and they have become critical anthropological studies. Zombies have fascinated Americans for several decades. Despite the unattractive physical appearance, the zombie genre has increased in media representation.
Significance of Studying the Undead/Zombies
Zombies are currently everywhere on most media channels, including televisions and film screens. Anthropology classes need to incorporate studies on disasters and disease outbreaks. The zombie apocalypse can need to be included in classrooms to promote preparedness planning (Horn et al. 189). Incorporating Zombie themes during anthropological learning aspects has a variety of benefits.
Introducing zombies in the lecture sessions captures the learners’ interests, especially when discussing the cultural perceptions of death. Culture, health, and the environment need the incorporation of zombies. The literature on zombies’ pedagogy is essential in understanding anthropological issues such as climate change, the environment, culture, and the meaning of human existence. Using zombies provides a new pedagogical strategy that offers fertile provocations and a sustainable model of precarious artistic research that can introduce the political theory that is sounder to the study.
Furthermore, the Zombie apocalypse functions as a set-up to examine theoretical concepts such as international relations and actual-world challenges including ethnic and racial conflicts (Horn et al. 189). Although they were said to have been human, zombies serve as contrasting factors compared to humans. For instance, the zombie may be savage and turn into a rational being in another instance. By physical nature, these creatures are compact robotic beings with decaying flesh whose principal mission is to feed, consequently evoking fear in humans. In most instances, their insensitivity to the serial and mindless state demonstrates a lack of consciousness, which makes them different from humans.
Studying the undead and zombies shows the value of pedagogical events. Zombies are a trending popular culture in many nations, including the United States. Hence, incorporating them into instructional activities helps the learners engage with anthropology and disaster research (Hällgren and Buchanan 435). The incorporation of zombies also triggers the students to reflect on their lives and apply critical thinking skills to significant ideologies. Hällgren and Buchanan emphasize the value of zombie apocalypse lessons in enhancing students’ imagination by asserting that such fictional accounts can boot human imagination, which may reduce vulnerability to unforeseen events. Therefore, incorporating doomsday scenarios in learning is an effective way of challenging students to stretch their minds and think more critically about possibilities.
The American Captivation with Zombies Since the 1920s
A majority of Americans have developed a perception of the need to be prepared in case of an apocalypse. The embarrassment that manifests in zombie movies, books, survival guides, and exercise eras gives people an overview of survival strategies in the event of a specific disaster. The Americans feel that watching any zombie movie highlights the rules that can enhance the chances of survival. Despite the unattractive appearance and nature of zombies, Americans remain fascinated with these creatures. Americans’ attraction to zombies is ironic due to their ugly appearance, existence in states of decay, and unquenchable cannibalism in their dead state.
Historical reflection of the zombie in the American culture from its introduction into our awareness to The Walking Dead, zombies represent more than a regular horror as they are forms of political commentary. These creatures appear in films as a metaphor to instill greater fear, such as racial division, atomic catastrophes, communalism, mass contamination, and globalism (Hällgren and Buchanan 437). The Haitian Voodooist of the 19th century represents cultural aspects of the Americans during the antebellum times. The rural Haitian spiritual belief system was based on the West African slaves that the French brought to the region in the 17th century (Moreman 267). The people believed that the deaths from unnatural factors such as murder would make the dead linger and hence vulnerable to revival (Moreman 266). Americans tried to dismantle the belief when they occupied Haiti after a successful rebellion and independence from France in 1804. Americans had fears of voodooism which turned their spiritual belief system into a horror theme (Cameron 236-244). Haiti represented a place of primitive, odorless people who believe in witchcraft with the ability to make zombies run. The Western religion is tainted by the dark magic of the uncivilized society.
Zombies have been a reflection of fears of voodooism and blackness for the past decades until the 1940s before shifting to creatures with new symbolism consistent with America’s shifting political orientation. Zombies were an integral part of the American fears during World War II, which they believed would bring mass murders, atomic warfare, and the danger of communist authoritarianism. The fears manifest in zombie films like the King of the Zombies and the Walking Dead, where the undead are portrayed as lacking conscious experiences. In response to civil rights and the Vietnam War, the apocalypse zombie maintained the continuous obsession with zombies (Chidlow 184-185). Assassinations and the civil rights movement led to the film Night of the Living Dead which changed the zombie film industry.
The zombie is a shadow of the human from which it originates. The metaphors inherent to the Hollywood zombies reflect capitalism, science, and technology that has turned crooked. Americans’ fascination with the creatures mirrors what humans and society have been in the past and continue to exist. The animals provide an image of the breakdown of the social direction. Zombies are people’s products-whether they live in the Voodoo culture or the outcome of radiation, and the creatures exist due to human making.
Media Representation of Zombies
There has been an upsurge in the representation of zombies in multiple forms of media like comic books, computer games, movies, and television shows. The various symbolic model of zombies accounts for the increase in zombie use on numerous media platforms. These creatures characterize relentless enemy that intends to cause death and destruction without considering their safety (Wonser et al. 628-653). The enemies in real life may be neighbors, friends, and other close partners. The primary weapon in the current society is the terror that targets local communities. Terrorists cause atrocities to create violence and attacks on civilians, which slowly make people act against the existing authority. The primary target of such attacks is the hearts and minds of individuals rather than the opposing army. Such diversion of targets of attacks that are identical to zombies’ behavior has increased the popularity of the zombie genre.
Conclusion
The zombie apocalypse is a set-up to study theoretical concepts such as international relations and actual-world challenges, including ethnic and racial conflicts. Therefore, a study on zombies needs to be part of an anthropological study for students. Zombies have attracted Americans over the past decades since it is a shadow of the human from which it originates. Zombies are symbols of cultural aspects and political commentary of the society that instill fears among the Americans. The fascination of the people has, in turn, led to an increase in media representation of the zombies. In the future, I will consider exploring how studying the zombie movie genre challenges the evolutionary theory. Mainly, I am interested in finding out why the undead with dual states survive. Furthermore, I am looking forward to establishing the objections to the existence of the zombie idea today. Despite many people denying their facts, zombies are increasingly an integral part of popular culture.
Works Cited
Cameron, Christopher. “Zora Neale Hurston, Freethought, and African American Religion.” Journal of Africana Religions vol. 4, no. 2, 2016, pp. 236-244.
Chidlow, Ian. “Living With the Living Dead: The Wisdom of the Zombie Apocalypse.” Churchman, vol. 134, no. 2, 2020, pp. 184-185.
Hällgren, Markus, and David A. Buchanan. “The dark side of group behavior: Zombie apocalypse lessons.” Academy of Management Perspectives vol. 34, no. 4, 2020, pp. 434-457.
Horn, Laura, Olivier Rubin, and Laust Schouenborg. “Undead pedagogy: How a Zombie simulation can contribute to teaching international relations.” International Studies Perspectives, vol. 17, no. 2, 2016, pp. 187-201.
Moreman, Christopher M. Dharma of the Dead: Zombies, Mortality and Buddhist Philosophy. McFarland, 2018.
Wonser, Robert, and David Boyns. “Between the living and undead: How zombie cinema reflects the social construction of risk, the anxious self, and disease pandemic.” The Sociological Quarterly, vol. 57, no. 4, 2016, pp. 628-653.