The Anthropology of Zombies: Frontiers of the Reanimated West

Public talk given for the Anthropology Graduate Student Association at the University of Oklahoma on October 18, 2013.

Zombies occupy a variety of liminal spaces wherein contemporary social tensions are reflected and refracted.

These tensions, however, have historical and ongoing parallels with images of “Indians.” Zombies reveal societal ambivalence about race, class, gender, ethnicity, political power, agency, and other aspects of social reproduction.

In other words, zombies touch upon all the anxieties commonly associated with colonialism.

Speaker: Dr. Shaawano Chad Uran