Refutations of The Serpent and the Rainbow?

[The Charnel Expanse]

Hi there,

I just got done reading Wade Davis' The Serpent and the Rainbow and while I found it a fascinating and very entertaining book, there were definitely parts of it that required high-effort suspension of disbelief. I've read that other scientists have taken issue with claims Davis made in the book, but cannot find the magazine articles WP cites.

Can anyone provide me with links to credible debunking of the book, or summarize the articles in question?

Thanks.

 

[Bikewer]

I recall reading scholarly articles in OMNI magazine indicating that the "zombie" phenomenon was real; that "witch doctors" would poison individuals using shellfish toxin that largely mimics death, then remove the still-living body from the graveyard and revive him to become a personal slave. A "zombie" if you will. Supposedly this was effective because belief in zombies was so deeply entrenched in the population.
The victim would believe that the witch doctor had raised him from the dead, and now owned his soul....
Possible? I suppose.

 

[The Charnel Expanse]

That's the gist of the book, actually. It goes into great detail about the historical and sociological roots of the zombi phenomenon. But you can see from the citations in the WP article on it that it's definitely not without its skeptics in the scientific community.

 

[Big Les]

Actually there seems to be even less to it than that. Actual documented 'zombies' that aren't effectively acting under simple suggestion (i.e. playing along to a greater or lesser extent) are few and far between. There may have been a few poisoned in some way or even brain damaged by accidental or deliberate burial, but more likely they were mentally disabled to begin with. There certainly seems to be little evidence that the zombie powders have much active ingredient at all.

A couple of quotes from the PDFs I have of refuting articles:

Voodoo Science
Science, New Series, Vol. 240, No. 4850 (Apr. 15, 1988), pp. 274-277

The controversy involves the role of a powerful poison called tetrodotoxin in the creation of zombies. Davis' critics say there is either no tetrododoxin or little in the samples of zombie powder brought back by Davis to support his hypothesis. But there is more to it than that. The pharmacologists are accusing Davis of not playing by the rules by suppressing information that fails to bolster his case, while playing up a number of unconfirmed experiments that are repeatedly cited in his work as "personal communications." Some of the critics seem especially irked because Davis sought out their assistance but allegedly refuses to listen when told his conclusions are not supported by the evidence. "I feel like I've been taken for a ride," says [C.Y.] Kao [of State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, who is also quoted in the article as saying '"I actually feel this is an issue of fraud in science."

The Ways and Nature of the Zombi, Hans-W. Ackermann and Jeanine Gauthier
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 104, No. 414 (Autumn, 1991), pp. 466-494

This article presents a review of zombiism and our personal investigations on the hitherto little-known spirit zombi. The Haitian zombi is of African origin. Numerous references zombis or zombi-like entities are found in Equatorial and
to Central Africa and in the Caribbean. There are two types of zombis, the zombi
of the body, or living dead, and the zombi of the soul. Both are closely related to
the Haitian concept of a dual soul, which is also of African origin. Properties of
the spirit zombi are described. Zombi stories or sightings may be explained by the observation of vagrants or exploited mentally ill. The various "zombi powders" so far studied seem to belong to the domain of sympathetic magic, and their pharmacological effectiveness remains to beproved.

Hopefully that gives you the gist.

 

[Tacita]

I thought it was the burial and oxygen deprivation causing slight brain damage that made them do their masters' bidding.

 

[Blackwell]

I have nothing to add, except to say that I can't WAIT for the opportunity to bump this thread in about a year or so...

 

[Big Les]

I thought it was the burial and oxygen deprivation causing slight brain damage that made them do their masters' bidding.

I'm pretty sure some tested 'zombis' turned out to be brain-damaged, yes, but I can't think that's a reliable routine way of creating a docile supplicant. You'd have to judge when to dig 'em up without breaking them completely ("we lose more zombies that way...". Others have been found who were simply mentally ill.

More from the 'Way' article;

Davis's thesis is problematic in several respects: (1) many characteristics of the flesh-and-blood zombi can be explained by mental disorders, notably amnesia and catatonic schizophrenia (Bourguignon 1959; Dewisme 1957:138; Mars 1945, 1947; Metraux 1968:249; Simpson 1954); (2) one of his eight zombi powders did not contain any puffer fish; (3) only two zombi powders contained small, apparently innocuous, amounts of tetrodotoxin (Booth 1988; Davis 1988a:194, 1988b); (4) it is not clear which samples were studied in which laboratories and what the exact results were; (5) most samples contained human remains and a confusing variety of ingredients of weak or uncertain effect (Davis 1984, 1988a:107); and (6) the poison was administered in a seemingly ineffective way: in at least three instances, the powder was to be strewn on the ground in the path of the intended victim or on its doorstep, over a buried magic candle.

Amusingly, as the puffer fish toxin is apparently included deliberately only in small amounts, the authors say;

Zombification thus appears as a case of sympathetic magic, a kind of perverse homeopathy.

 

[NagP]

This article may help,

"Zombie fish eaters?"
Garlaschelli, L., Chemistry in Britain, nov. 2002
http://www.luigigarlaschelli.it/Altrepubblicazioni/zombie.htm

Also see,

"Tetrodotoxin and the Haitian zombie"
T. Yasumoto and C. Y. Kao, Toxicon Volume 24, Issue 8 , 1986, Pages 747-749

"Tetrodotoxin in “zombie powder”"
C. Y. Kao, T. Yasumoto, Toxicon Volume 28, Issue 2 , 1990, Pages 129-132

"Evidence for the presence of tetrodotoxin in a powder used in Haiti for zombification"
C. Benedek and L. Rivier, Toxicon Volume 27, Issue 4 , 1989, Pages 473-480

"Clinical findings in three cases of zombification"
Roland Littlewood and Chavannes Douyon, The Lancet, Volume 350, Issue 9084 , 11 October 1997, Pages 1094-1096

"Tetrodotoxin and the zombi phenomenon"
William H. Anderson, Journal of Ethnopharmacology, Volume 23, Issue 1 , May-June 1988, Pages 121-126