Clairvius Narcisse
| Clairvius Narcisse | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 1, 1922 L'Estère |
| Died | 1964 |
| Nationality | Haiti |
| Citizenship | Haitian |
| Known for | Allegedly being a zombie |
Clairvius Narcisse (c. 1922 – 1964) was a Haitian man said to have been turned into a zombie by a Haitian vodou preparation, purportedly a combination of psychoactive substances (often times the paralyzing pufferfish venom and the strong deliriant Datura). The single greatest proponent of this possibility was a graduate student in ethnobotany at Harvard University, Wade Davis, who published two popular books based on his travels and ideas during and immediately following his graduate training. Subsequent scientific examinations (using tools of analytical chemistry alongside critical review of earlier reports) have failed to support the presence of a key, claimed pharmacologically active ingredient of the preparations (tetrodotoxin), that was central to the phenomena and mechanism reported by Wade. No further supporting evidence has appeared.
Based on the presumption that tetrodotoxin and related toxins are not always fatal, but at near-lethal doses can leave a person in a state of near-death for several days with the person remaining conscious, tetrodotoxin has been alleged to result in zombieism, and has been suggested as an ingredient in Haitian Vodou preparations. This idea appeared early, in the 1938 non-fiction book Tell My Horse by Zora Neale Hurston—reporting multiple accounts of purported tetrodotoxin poisoning in Haiti, by a Bokor (voodoo sorcerer)—and popularized by Harvard-trained ethnobotanist Wade Davis, but has been dismissed by the scientific community since the 1990s based on analytical chemistry-based tests of multiple preparations and review of earlier reports (see below).
After various anthropologic investigations of "zombie" stories in various cultures—including Narcisse and a handful of others—reports appeared that Narcisse received a dose of a chemical mixture containing tetrodotoxin (a pufferfish toxin) and bufotoxin (a toad toxin) to induce a coma that mimicked the appearance of death. He was then allowed to return to his home where he collapsed, "died", and was buried.
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