Archaeologizing Zombies: Between Caribbean Monsters And Cinetific Creatures

entre monstros caribenhos e criaturas científicas

Abstract

By carrying out a literature review with the theoretical and methodological support of Foucauldian archaeogenealogy, this research investigates the society-science relationship during the early representations of zombies, highlighting how this relationship had an impact on the consolidation of these characters through an agricultural/folkloric bias to the detriment of scientific conceptualizations. As a result, it was possible to observe that the scientific discourses went through a process of erasure, because at first, due to being part of a model of disciplinary society, they were used as a control technique that aimed to legitimize the demonization of Haitian voodoo in the Western imagination. However, due to socio-economic differences and the strong impact of the so-called "popular arts" among the American periphery, scientific discourse gave way to fantasy through an episteme that determined power relations which, by envisioning American ethnic and economic hegemony, caused transformations in society's relationship with the natural sciences, This shows that the representation of agricultural zombies did not put into circulation new meanings about the sciences, but only reinforced a conception about the sciences that was already socially pre-established.