McElveen 1

Devan McElveen
Exploratory Essay
April 27th, 2015
From Cannibals to Zombies
In todays media, zombies have become a hot topic for their frightening acts of
sinking their decomposing teeth into a living human being. Many people have started to
believe in a possible zombie outbreak occurring in the near future, but why? A potential
cause for this belief is cannibalism, because of how similar cannibals and zombies are to
each other. The relationship between these two subjects is quite an obvious one, however,
both are extremely different. This essay compares the similarities and differences
between the act of cannibalism occurring throughout history and the belief of a zombie
outbreak occurring in the near future.
Understanding Zombies
Many people in our society are influenced by what they watch or read about in the
media, whether its important to them or not. One thing that many people have made a
big deal about in the media today is the topic of zombies. There are books written about
them, movies and television shows made, and rumors are always flying around social
media. The media has exaggerated the idea of zombies so much throughout history that
people actually believe in the existence of them in the near future. Often times, when
there is an outbreak of a serious disease or virus (for example, the Ebola virus), you will
come across a rumor of it having some sort of connection to the cause of a zombie
outbreak. People are oblivious to or ignore the fact that there has never been legitimate
proof of that disease or virus relating to zombies in any way.

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Zombies are (technically) dead humans that are still mobile and will eat whatever
human flesh they can get their hands on. They are usually made as the antagonists in
stories because they are so threatening to human lives. However, they are stories. They
dont actually threaten anyones lives because they dont exist in the real world. Scientists
and philosophers have all agreed that the laws of nature rule out the potential for a
zombie outbreak (Kirk 3). So what is it that makes us so fascinated in them? Maybe its
fear that comes from the unknown and the interest in life after death. Or maybe its just
the fear of being eaten alive. Either way, no matter how many times our society is told
that they dont and/or never will exist, the media will always keep the hype of zombies
alive.
It is also important to understand the physical and mental attributions of zombies.
They have mostly the same physical features as human beings, unless they look partially
decomposed and are covered in guts and blood, like most of todays media has made
them out to look like. However, they have no consciousness at all. They are completely
emotionless, fear nothing, and have no mentality whatsoever. Zombies are typically
referred to as the undead because of this.
Understanding Cannibals
On rare occasions, you may hear about a case of cannibalism that has occurred
somewhere in the world. For some reason, in todays society, its common for this topic
to be avoided and not spoken of. It even tends to be avoided on social media, where news
and rumors spread the quickest and easiest. This avoidance baffles me because
cannibalism has existed in our world all throughout history and a few cases have even
been publically reported. People seem to be uncomfortable with the reality of human

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beings eating their own kind because of how abnormal and uncommon it is. To give a
horrific example of a real-world case of cannibalism, Murali Balaji mentions in his book,
Thinking Dead, that a mother dismembered her (very) unfortunate 3-year-old son and
proceeded to eat his toes and even parts of his brain.
Cannibalism (or anthropophagy), defined as the eating of human flesh by
human beings, has often been called one of mans last taboos taboo in turn being
defined as something banned on grounds of mortality or [would you believe] taste,
(Askenasy 10). Its obvious that this act is completely and utterly frowned upon in
todays society, which seems to be one of the main reasons why its so rare to come
across nowadays. However, in the past, it wasnt unheard of for some cultures to practice
cannibalism. For example, when Christopher Columbus was in the midst of his
exploration many years ago, he came across some native Caribbean Indians who ate
most, if not all, of their male prisoners (Askenasy 13).
Cannibalism seems to be one of those topics that everyone knows about, yet no
one talks about. While its uncommon to hear about cases of cannibalism happening in
the United States, it occurs quite commonly in many small, native cultures in other
countries around the world. According to the Legal Information Institute at Cornell
University Law School, In the United States, there are no laws against cannibalism per
se, but the act of cannibalism would probably violate laws against murder and against
desecration of corpses.
Its obvious that this disturbing act is extremely taboo in our society because of
just how inhuman it is to eat each other. It is most definitely believed to be the epitome of
savage behavior. I believe that one of the main reasons why cannibalism is so taboo in

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our society is the spread of religion, in particular, Christianity. Christianity has always
been a religion that believes in morals and to them, cannibalism is just morally wrong. I
believe that another reason why cannibalism may be so taboo in our society is the fact
that humans have evolved to cooperate with and help each other. To me, it seems that
acting on cannibalism goes against our humanity. It seems as though humans who
participate in the selfish act of cannibalism go against our own kind.
What is it that causes human beings to turn to cannibalism? Throughout history,
its been most common for cultures to practice cannibalism because their religion either
allowed or encouraged it, sometimes as a form of sacrifice (Constantine 5). Many cases
of cannibalism have occurred in history as a way of showing control or victory over their
enemies. If a case of cannibalism were to show up in our society today, many people
would assume that the cause comes from psychological issues because of how inhuman it
is to knowingly eat our own kind. On extremely rare occasions, there could also be cases
where cannibalism becomes the only source of survival; human flesh may be the only
source of protein available (Constantine 5).
Zombies and Cannibals in the Real World
Most people are aware that a zombie outbreak happening in the future is pretty
unrealistic; yet there are many people who still believe in the possibility of a zombie
outbreak becoming real. On the other hand, as stated previously, the realism of cannibals
has been proven. This leads us to the connection that people like to make between the two
they both eat humans, therefore, zombies could become just as real as cannibals are,
right? Wrong.

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The issue is that the actions of cannibals relate so closely to that of zombies that
people ignorantly think cannibals ARE zombies. Physically, zombies and cannibals are
similar, but psychologically, they are completely different. Humans are consciously
aware that its unethical to eat each other. Then there are cannibals - humans who have
the state of mind that, in some way, its okay to eat other humans. And zombies, lacking a
conscious all together, only eat human beings out of instinct. The idea is that zombies
are conceivable; beings that look like us and behave like us in all ways, but for which 'all
is dark inside, (Geirsson).
Zombies and Cannibals in the Media
If research was conducted to prove which one of the two is the most popular in
todays media, it could easily be predicted that zombies would beat cannibals by a long
run. Zombies seem to be all over the media lately; in movies, books and TV shows. They
even have groups of crazed fans (or as I like to call them, zombie geeks) who become
obsessed with everything zombie-related. They also usually admit to believing in a
potential outbreak and/or apocalypse happening in the future. Because of all the hype
zombies get from the media, the exaggeration of them has been continuously increasing
ever since the idea was first introduced.
The most popular zombie entertainment in todays society is the AMC TV show,
The Walking Dead. The show is based on a group of survivors who are trying to live
through a zombie apocalypse. The zombies, referred to as walkers, are exaggerated to
be gruesome savages who will do anything to get their hands on living flesh. Sometimes
the physical attributions of the walkers are exaggerated so much that its hard to keep
your eyes on the screen.

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Cannibals on the other hand, are a lot less popular in todays media. Though most
people know about them, they dont get nearly as big of a hype that zombies do. A
popular movie that shows cannibalistic acts is the 1993 movie Alive. The storyline is
based upon a group of survivors that have just been involved in a plane crash. As the
movie progresses, the starving passengers decide to eat the flesh of their dead
companions in order to survive. This movie also shows a realistic example of people
turning to human flesh as their only source of survival, as previously mentioned in this
essay.
In terms of the media, fear is one of the biggest appeals to zombies and cannibals.
They each inflict different levels of fear in humans in our society. Zombies seem to
provide a fear that comes with a rush of adrenaline; the same type of fear that people
would normally get from watching a scary movie. Whereas cannibals seem to provide a
more realistic and legitimate fear. They inflict the type of fear that people normally try to
stay away from, which could be a reasonable explanation as to why our society avoids the
topic of cannibalism as a whole. The medias likening of these cannibalistic attacks to
zombies does not heighten their horror; it lessens or masks it, (Balaji 56). So if people
have been influenced by the media to be afraid of zombies, then people should be just as,
if not more afraid of cannibals.

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Works Cited
Askenasy, Hans. Cannibalism: From Sacrifice to Survival. Amherst, NY: Prometheus,
1994. Web.
Balaji, Murali. Thinking Dead: What the Zombie Apocalypse Means. N.p.: Lexington,
2013. Print.
Constantine, Nathan. A History of Cannibalism: From Ancient Cultures to Survival
Stories and Modern Psychopaths. Edison, NJ: Chartwell, 2006. Print.
Geirsson, Heimir. "Conceivability and Coherence: A Skeptical View of Zombies." Springer. N.p., 01 Feb. 2014. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.
Kirk, Robert. Zombies and Consciousness. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005. Print.