The Zombie as a Mirror of Modern Mass Culture

Zombies were and still are one of the most important symbols of modern mass culture. The zombie discourse originated among African slaves brought to the sugar plantations in the Caribbean. In many ways, the narratives of the “living dead” were a reaction to the crisis phenomena of plantation life. This is evidenced by the rich comparative material presented on many peoples of the world. Such notions of invulnerability after formal death proved to be an important tool of resistance to new conditions caused by external threats. Termed “revitalization,” they were an important element of the Millennialist movements. While initially the sorcerers who could bring themselves back to life were central to these beliefs, in the following period the focus shifted to the victims of various manipulations, transformed into soulless beings. Leaving the environment of their original “habitat,” zombies took on a new life, occupying a firm place in modern mass culture. Having become a symbol of ruthless exploitation of man, relegated to the level of a machine appendage, zombies proved to be one of the most “productive” symbols. They reflected the main trends in the development of society and even began to function as instruments of philosophical reflection. All this allows us to consider zombies as an indicator of altered society, producing new “walking dead”. The metaphors associated with zombies allows us to conclude that the comprehension of zombies makes modern man begin to perceive them constructively, creating a new image, demonstrating the movement towards humanization.

Witchcraft in Colonial Latin America

The European ideas associated with witchcraft came to the Americas as a multipronged weapon of imperialism, a conception of non-Christian beliefs not as separate worldviews but as manifestations of evil and the reigning power of the devil over Indigenous peoples and, slightly later, African slaves and free people of African origins or heritage. To create this imperialist concept, colonizers drew from a late medieval demonological literature that defined witchcraft as ways of influencing one’s fate through a pact with the devil and the ritual of witches’ sabbaths. Through the court structure of the Holy Offices of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions, Iberian imperialists set up judicial processes that they designed to elicit confessions from their colonial subjects regarding their involvement in what was labeled witchcraft and witches’ sabbaths, but which was most likely either non-European beliefs and practices, or even popular European ideas of healing. Archival documents from the Holy Office fueled Europeans’ vision of themselves as on the side of cosmic good as well as providing some details regarding popular practices such as divination and love magic. Whatever ethnographic details emerge from this documentation, the use of the terminology of witchcraft always signals an imperialistic lens.

“Thirty Lashes, Well Laid On”

This chapter begins with the first importation of African slaves into colonial Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. As their numbers grew, and interracial sex produced mixed-race (called “mulatto”) children, White colonists responded with a law designating all mulatto children as slaves, overturning a grant of freedom to Elizabeth Key, a mulatto indentured servant who married a young English settler and had a child with him. The chapter discusses the Slave Codes that stripped Blacks of any rights. Slave states also banned the teaching of slaves to read and write, lest they read “incendiary” publications and revolt, as some did. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the personal conflicts over slavery felt by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, and the role of Madison at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 in crafting the Great Compromise that legalized slavery as the price of creating a federal government.

REFERENCES TO THE TITLE OF THE TURKIC RULERS WHEN DESCRIBING THE HISTORY OF THE GHAZNAVIDS IN “TABA’I’ AL-HAYYAWAN” BY AL–MARWAZI

Within the framework of this article, the focus is on the mention in al-Marwazi’s work “Taba’i’al-hayyawan” (“On the nature of animals”) of embassies from the Uighur and Khitan rulers to the court ofSultan Mahmud Ghaznаvi. This author also cites in his work the text of the messages that were sent to thissultan by both rulers. In the text of the letter of the Khitan emperor, the title “Qara-khan” is used in relationto Mahmud Ghaznavi, which could not but raise certain questions from researchers. In this article, we wouldlike to consider, first of all, the author’s explanation of the origin of such a title, as well as its application toMahmoud Ghaznаvi. Here it is necessary to analyze al-Marwazi’s instructions on the connection betweenthe title “Qara-khan” and African slaves in the Turkic nomadic environment, on which this author dwellsin detail. In addition, we will analyze the points of view of researchers, both on the origin of such title, andits existence in the political system of Desht-i Qipchak and neighboring regions. We hope that this articlewill be useful not only for researchers dealing with the history of the Ghaznavid dynasty, but also for a widerange of experts on the history of nomadic Turkic tribes, as well as the reflection of their history in medievalMuslim historiography.

PREVALENC OF LOIASIS, AND ITS DISTRIBUTION IN NDOKWE WEST L.G.A, DELTA STATE

Loa Loa is transmitted to humans by deer vectors, the vectors are bloodsucking and diurnal bites, and are found in rainforest areas in western and central Africa. After infection, a human will mate and produce more microfilariae, assuming the presence of mature male and female worms in the host. Although it has no major complications, the high microfilariae load may cause some neurological symptoms and discomfort in the ocular system may make patients uneasy. Loiasis, also known as African eyeworm, is caused by the parasitic worm Loa-Loa. Infection with this microfilaria worm causes an itchy swelling on the body, also known as Calabar bumps which prefers the rainforest-like environment of western and central Africa. Endemicity is particularly high in Cameroon, Congo, Nigeria, Gabon and the Central African Republic. One area of great concern is the fact that the endemicity of Onchocerciasis with Onchocerciasis as a bulk ivermectin therapy can lead to serious adverse effects in patients with high Loa Loa microfilariae densities and loads. This fact requires the development of more specific diagnostic tests for loa-loa so that areas or individuals at higher risk for neurological outcomes can be identified prior to microfilaricidal therapy. Although diethylcarbamazine, the standard treatment method, gives good results, it can cause serious complications when administered in standard doses to patients with high microfilariae load. A few years later, in 1778, Francois Guyost noticed worms in the eyes of West African slaves on a French ship bound for America and successfully removed the worm from a man's eye. Treatment of loiasis includes chemotherapy, in some cases surgical removal of adult worms, followed by systemic therapy.

Migration of Garifuna

This chapter examines the causes and consequences of migrations as well as population expansions and reductions of the Garifuna (also known as the Black Caribs), and the Carib and Arawak Native Americans from South America to the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean. In the 1600s, African slaves were brought by the British to the Lesser Antilles and admixed with Indigenous Native Americans to establish the Garifuna populations. British colonial takeover of St. Vincent (called Yurumein by the Garifuna) from the French resulted in conflict over land ownership with the Black Caribs, a war, and the forcible relocation of the Garifuna from St. Vincent to Baliceaux Island, Bay Islands, and eventually to the coast of Central America-- Honduras. From two founding communities established near Trujillo, Honduras, the Garifuna populations expanded through fission to form 54 villages distributed along the coast of Central America from Belize to Nicaragua. The evolutionary consequences of these migrations included an exceptional fertility in the founding populations, high genetic variability in some communities due to admixture between Native American and African populations, and resistance to malaria due to genes brought by the parental populations. The Garifuna provide an evolutionary success story driven by their unique history of migrations and genetic ancestry.

Health and Health Systems in the United States

The long history of Islam in the United States is not well understood. The first Muslims to come to this country were African slaves followed by Muslims from the Ottoman Empire. As time went by, other Muslims from different parts of the world followed suit. Today, Muslims form part of the sociocultural and religious diversity of US society. A unique feature of this community is its diversity, a function of different schools of thought as well as different migration trajectories in terms of ethnicity, gender, age, class, and countries of origin. Its diversity has generated a rich body of knowledge on health care that can enrich the American biomedical model. Yet, this knowledge has been subjugated and remains unrecognized owing to structural exclusion of Muslims exacerbated by 9/11. The aim of this article is to highlight health beliefs and practices of American Muslims with the view to recognizing their contribution to American society, leading to greater acceptance of this community. In sum, beyond addressing systemic exclusion, it is important to recognize that American Muslims have a long history and richness in understanding health in diverse sociocultural milieus in Islam that can and should be recognized in clinical care.

Indios, Sambos, Mestizos, and the Social Construction of Racial Identity in Colonial Central America

The Miskitu, a group indigenous to the Caribbean Coast of Central America, have long been recognized for their racial diversity. In the mid-seventeenth century, a ship of African slaves wrecked on the Mosquito Coast and subsequently intermarried with the Miskitu population. Since then, there have been two groups of Miskitu: the “pure” indios and the racially mixed sambos. This article argues against this neat divide. Race during the colonial period was not fixed and could be influenced by a number of factors that included not only one’s ancestry but also their behavior. When Spanish writers assigned a racial category to the Miskitu, the context of the encounter often shaped perceived racial origin. When Miskitu-Spanish relations were hostile, Spaniards more often chose the racial label sambo. During times of peace, indio was more common, and mestizo was sometimes used to refer to Miskitu rulers. By focusing on the complexity and malleability of colonial racial rhetoric, this article argues that Spanish officials strategically selected racial labels for the Miskitu depending on the colonial policy they were trying to promote.

The Spanish Language in Latin America during the Colonial Period

Language was an essential tool in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Starting in 1492, a series of Iberian fleets arrived in the so-called New World with horses, gunpowder, and the printed word in their possession. These artifacts served a major role in the submission of the native population, not only physical but intellectual and spiritual. To appreciate the spread of el español in the newly found territories, it is important to look at how Spanish was perceived by medieval philologists such as Antonio de Nebrija, author of Gramática de la lengua española; to appreciate the registers in Christopher Columbus’s journals (as edited by Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas); to analyze the status of native tongues like Nahuatl, Quechua, and scores of others, as well as the selection Spanish missionaries made of a few of those languages—called lenguas generales—for pedagogical instruction; to look at translators like La Malinche, Melchorejo, and Julianillo; to consider the role the printing press and translations of the Bible played in indoctrinating the indigenous population; to listen to the parlance of African slaves brought from the early 16th century onward; and finally to appreciate the verbal and aesthetic evolution of Spanish in the pens of Sor Juana Inés de La Cruz and many other important Spanish-language colonial authors.

Guamá's cyber-humor in exile: Aboriginal-Afrocuban identity and politically incorrect translationese working for another Cuba

Guamá is a graphic humor online publication and an outstanding Cuban cultural phenomenon in exile. It’s creator, Alen Lauzán Falcón, was born in Cuba in 1974, and before he managed to escape the Castros' island, he had already had a successful career in the field of graphic humor. What followed was astonishing for the whole Cuban Diaspora. Upon his arrival in Chile, where he remained, working for and inspired by the graphic humour style of The Clinic, a popular Chilean humoristic publication, he created his own online journal, adopting the name of the most known Cuban aboriginal fighter against Spanish conquistadors. Through incisive and constant “politically incorrect” humour Lauzán Falcón have been ridiculing the majority of the Castroist publications through spicy comments and upturned Cuban propaganda slogans. This became a kind of creative ‘translationese’. His efforts are significantly contributing to criticizing and redirecting the meaning of Castroist ideological indoctrination concepts – efforts enriched with a strong flavour of Cuban Aboriginal (Taíno) and Afro-Cuban humour. Lauzán Falcón aimed to show a critical perspective on Cuban affairs for Cubans, and for anyone else who can feel and understand the Cuban situation and show solidarity with the difficulties of the people living under the longest-running extreme-left-wing regime in Latin America. In this article, I will first analyze the ‘translationese’ phenomenon from a Complexity point of view, meaning, historically and culturally rebinding of the Cuban study case to the historical antecedents of ‘translationese’. Second, I will analyze ten graphic Guamá ‘front pages’ (satiric imitations of Castroist publications), published by Lauzán Falcón between 2008 and 2014 in his eponymous blog, starting with the main banner of Guamá itself. Third, I will operate a complex rebinding of the results demonstrating that the same spirit of creative resistance that the Taíno and African slaves showed in Cuba during more than five centuries, is still in action today in Cubans’ efforts to deal with the consequences of a long-lasting extreme-left-wing regime. A selected glossary of Guama’s Afro-Cuban words and expressions analyzed here will appear at the end of the article.