The Serpent and the Rainbow

The Serpent and the Rainbow
by Wade Davis, 1985

In 1982 ethnobotanist Wade Davis went on several trips to Haiti to discover the secrets of the “zombi poison” and learned about the Haitian and voudon cultures while he was there.

Fears of being buried alive:

“Many people were not about to take any chances. Hans Christian Andersen constantly carried a note in his pocket instructing what should be done with his body in the event of his death. The English novelist Wilkie Collins placed a similar precautionary note by his bedside table each night. So did Dostoyevsky, who urged that his burial be delayed five days lest his apparent death be but a trance… Fearing premature burial, the noted British antiquary Francis Douce requested in his will that the surgeon Sir Anthony Carlisle be permitted to sever his head from his body. …A well-known actress of the ear, Ava Cavendish, left instructions in her will that her jugular be sliced. Lady Burton, widow of the famous African explorer and writer Sir Richard Burton, provided that her heart be pierced with a needle.” p. 155-6

Theory on why we can no longer see Venus:

“Astronomers know the amount of light reflected by the planet, and we should be able to see it, even in broad daylight. Some Indians can. And but a few hundred years ago, sailors from our own civilization navigated by it, following its path as easily by day as they did by night. It is simply a skill that we have lost, and I have often wondered why.// Though we frequently speak of the potential of the brain, in practice our mental capacity seems to be limited. Every human mind has the same latent capabilities, but for reasons that have always intrigued anthropologists, different peoples develop in different ways, and the distinctions, in effect, amount to unconscious cultural choices. …In our society, for example, we now think nothing about driving at high speeds down expressways, a task that involves countless rapid, unconscious sensory responses and decisions which, to say the least, would have intimidated our great-grandfathers. Yet in acquiring such dexterity we have forfeited other skills, like the ability to see Venus, to smell animals, to hear the weather change.” p. 208-9

Anthropology (uses and abuses):

“At the time Franz Boas was in the process of revolutionizing the field of anthropology. In an era when British social anthropology was still an explicit tool of imperialism, he rejected arbitrary notions of progress and evolutionary theories that invariable placed Western society at the top of a social ladder. Instead he championed the need to study cultures because of their inherent value… Boas saw anthropology as a calling, an opportunity to herald the wonder of cultural diversity, while revealing the intricate weaves of the human fabric that binds us all together.” p 252-3 (Franz Boas was Zora Neale Hurston’s mentor)

Time (past, present, history, memory):

“In Haiti the present is the axis of all life. As in Africa, past and future are but distant measures of the present, and memories are as meaningless as promises.” p. 269

Photography:

“Besides money and an airline ticket there was one Polaroid photography, a dull image of a poor black peasant, whom a note identified as Clairvius Narcisse [an ex-zombi]. I found myself cradling his face in my hand astonished how a mere photograph could make the exotic seem intimate.” p. 25