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The Serpent and the Rainbow (book)

 

 
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The Serpent and the Rainbow (book)
 
 
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The Serpent and the Rainbow is a 1985 book by Wade Davis
Wade Davis

Edmund Wade Davis is a noted Canada anthropology, ethnobotany, author and photographer whose work has focused on worldwide indigenous cultures, especially in North and South America and particularly involving the traditional uses and beliefs associated with psychoactive plants....
 investigating the process of making zombies via ethnobotanical
Ethnobotany

Ethnobotany is the Scientific method of the relationships that exist between person and plants.Ethnobotanists aim to reliably document, describe and explain complex relationships between cultures and plants: focusing, primarily, on how plants are used, managed and perceived across human societies ...
 poisons and the poisoning of Clairvius Narcisse
Clairvius Narcisse

Clairvius Narcisse was a Haitian man said to have been turned into a living zombie with the use of a combination of drugs. His case attracted considerable interest and some scientific investigation at the time....
 in Haiti
Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Haitian Creole language- and French language-speaking Caribbean country. Along with the Dominican Republic, it occupies the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antilles archipelago....
. It was made into a horror film in 1988 which was very loosely based on the book.








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The Serpent and the Rainbow is a 1985 book by Wade Davis
Wade Davis

Edmund Wade Davis is a noted Canada anthropology, ethnobotany, author and photographer whose work has focused on worldwide indigenous cultures, especially in North and South America and particularly involving the traditional uses and beliefs associated with psychoactive plants....
 investigating the process of making zombies via ethnobotanical
Ethnobotany

Ethnobotany is the Scientific method of the relationships that exist between person and plants.Ethnobotanists aim to reliably document, describe and explain complex relationships between cultures and plants: focusing, primarily, on how plants are used, managed and perceived across human societies ...
 poisons and the poisoning of Clairvius Narcisse
Clairvius Narcisse

Clairvius Narcisse was a Haitian man said to have been turned into a living zombie with the use of a combination of drugs. His case attracted considerable interest and some scientific investigation at the time....
 in Haiti
Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Haitian Creole language- and French language-speaking Caribbean country. Along with the Dominican Republic, it occupies the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antilles archipelago....
. It was made into a horror film in 1988 which was very loosely based on the book.

Criticism


Davis' claim has been criticized for a number of scientific inaccuracies. One of these is the unlikely suggestion that Haitian witchdoctors can keep "zombies" in a state of pharmacologically induced trance for many years.

However the case of Narcisse, a man who had been a zombie for 18 years, shows that the zombification process is more likely the result a complex interaction of the Tetrodotoxin and society.