Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality

Description

In this engrossing book, Paul Barber surveys centuries of folklore about vampires and offers the first scientific explanation for the origins of the vampire legends.  From the tale of a sixteenth-century shoemaker from Breslau whose ghost terrorized everyone in the city, to the testimony of a doctor who presided over the exhumation and dissection of a graveyard full of Serbian vampires, his book is fascinating reading. “This study’s comprehensiveness and the author’s bone-dry wit make this compelling reading, not just for folklorists, but for anyone interested in a time when the dead wouldn’t stay dead.”—Booklist “Barber’s inquiry into vampires, fact and fiction, is a gem in the literature of debunking… [and] a convincing exercise in mental archaeology.”—Roy Porter, Nature “A splendid book about the undead, illuminated by the findings of morbid anatomy…. The main value of this most interesting book is to remind us how far we have come in our ability to explain the world and how this has released us from at least some terrors.”—Anthony Daniels, Spectator “This book is fascinating reading for physicians and anthropologists as well as anyone interested in folklore.”—R. Ted Steinbock, M.D., Journal of the American Medical Association “A fascinating and pain-staking (sorry!) thesis, which welds together folklore, epidemic panic, communal stupidity, and forensic and funereal science.”—Huw Knight, New Scientist Contents Preface to the 2010 Edition Preface Introduction I. Peter Plogojowitz II. The Shoemaker of Silesia III. Visum et Repertum IV. De Tournefort's Vrykolakas V. How Revenants Come into Existence VI. The Appearance of the Vampire VII. Apotropaics I VIII. Apotropaics II IX. Search and Destroy X. The Vampire's Activity XI. Some Theories of the Vampire XII. The Body after Death XIII. Actions and Reactions XIV. Hands Emerging from the Earth XV. Down to a Watery Grave XVI. Killing the Vampire XVII. Body Disposal and Its Problems XVIII. The Soul after Death XIX. Keeping Body and Soul Apart Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index