Wade Davis defines the ethnosphere as a cultural web of life which contains all thoughts, dreams, myths, ideas, and inspirations. Davis talks about the ethnosphere as something that is fueled by human imagination as well as humanity’s great legacy. The ethnosphere represents all that humanity is and all that humanity can be as a whole. Ethnocentrism is the idea that one’s own culture is the main standard by which other cultures may be measured. People make comparisons between cultures and judge other cultures based on their own. This allows a divide to form between cultures because it doesn’t allow for an ethnocentrist to accept or understand another culture because they will always think of their own cultures as normal while any other culture is not normal. …show more content…
Davis traveled to the Haitian countryside to research reports of zombies which is a part of Haitian folklore. He tried to obtain the poison associated with the process and examine it for potential medical use. Zombification is shown as a rational process within the context of the traditional Vodoun society. The threat of zombification works in Haitian culture because it is a form of social control that has acquired its power from repressed associations of Haiti’s violent history. It draws on the horrors of the past as well as the madness of rebellion; the zombie itself represents the worst possible fate for any black Haitian. The threat of zombification would not work in our culture because there is no association between our lives and the process. There is no fear related to the zombification process because in our times of distress, we have had other ideas emerge and zombification was not one of them. I personally do not believe in zombies because I consider myself to be a very scientific person and I would need evidence as well as to see zombies with my own eyes before I believed in