18155: Jepiem: Re: 18143: Corbett: Louis Mars on Zombi (1945 essay) Math Jay comments (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Jepiem@aol.com

Dr Louis Mars' account of the Felicia Mentor's case cited by Zora Neal
Hurston is most interesting in many respects. I haven't read Hurston's book to form
my own opinion as to the rigidity of her scientific reporting. However, Mars'
account strikes me as that of a typical Haitian bourgeois who flatly denies
anything apparently "non scientific" about haitian beliefs and traditions. I
know from personal contacts that he viewed the phenomenon of posession in vodou
as simply a manifestation of hysteria which could be easily dissolved with shot
of sedative. I wonder what he would say today about zombies in the light of
the observations of actual zombies during the 1970's including those by Davis
reported in his book "the Serpent and the Rainbow". I also wonder if the
current living psychiatrists and anthropologists and the modern day houngans on the
Haitian scene, including Dr Mars's psychiatrist collegues like Dr Jeanne
Phillipe or the Douyon brothers and also Dr Beauvoir would care to weigh in on this
interesting topic. That should make for some interesting discussion.

Math Jay