Halloween-themed Signal Boost and PSA:

[capri0mni]

I'm collecting images from history of physically and mentally disabled, and their struggles against "The Normals" for a project I'm working on. And in my insomnia-driven quest Last Night/This Morning, I came across the following tidbit (from this website: The Sheredes Project: Spitalbrook Hospital):

(Quote)
The Living Dead

In the Middle Ages, if a person developed leprosy, they would be declared legally dead and lose all their possessions. They would have to leave their family, and go to live with other lepers in a place like the hospital at Spitalbrook. In Medieval times, this would have been outside the village of Hoddesdon.

Lepers were given special clothes, a begging bowl, and a bell or wooden clapper, so they could be clearly seen and to warn other people to keep their distance. They were given these in a ceremony that was modelled on the service for the burial of the dead and, in many places, the leper was actually required to stand in an open grave while the ritual, that marked them as outcasts from society, was performed above their head.
(Unquote)

Now, for the record: No, I don't believe the early makers of Grade B Zombie movies realized they were making entertainment based on historical instances of actual human rights violations. They probably thought the idea of "Living Dead" just sounded cool, and let their imaginations run wild.

But, you know. It's something for you to think about, when you're deciding what sort of entertainment to hoot, screech and laugh over, next week.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Good (if creepy) catch. Leprosaria, like schools for the deaf and blind, encouraged the development of strong communities. I've read half a dozen memoirs/community biographies from Carville (Louisiana) and Moloka'i (Hawai'i), as well as fictionalized items from Japan. (While I was Googling for this post, I encountered this title which is definitely going on inter-library loan: Leprosy and empire: a medical and cultural history, Rod Edmond, Cambridge UP, 2006)

[smw]

My first reaction to the idea of symbolically killing those with leprosy was "fascinating", then "goddamn, human beings". I won't denounce zombie media as a whole, but I am wistful for more nuanced depictions and examinations of what the living dead mean, not as sources of fear, humor, or apocalypse, but as outsiders/remnants. Which is not to say I'll condemn their use as entertainment, either -- I don't think doing so is entirely fair, and it discredits the discourse that has built up around the edges of the idea of living death.

Also, while I'm not certain how much the tradition you cited has played into the development of the pop zombie, even the Haitian inspiration brings up questions of appropriation and screwing up folklore in a depressing manner.

[spiralsheep]

I don't recall where I got this from or which illnesses it was in relation to but it was definitely about pre-reformation Catholicism in Western Europe....

I vaguely remembering an explanation for people with communicable diseases being given death and burial rites before they were considered too infectious (according to ideas of physical/spiritual danger localised in time and space, obv) to be ministerable to at close quarters by an apparently healthy (to localised definitions) priest. So they were supposedly being given a spiritual benefit sooner that would otherwise be denied to them later. The main perceived disadvantage was that if the ill person subsequently sinned then they had no remedy within the earthly church and would have to take their chances at post-mortem judgment.

Also, blah blah Haiti too, obv.