The Serpent and the Rainbow

Record summary

Wade Davis’s The Serpent and the Rainbow investigates Haitian zombie beliefs, alleged zombification powders, and the case of Clairvius Narcisse, combining ethnobotany, anthropology, and travel narrative. It matters for comparison because it became one of the most influential modern accounts linking Vodou, pharmacology, death-like states, and occult interpretation. Its conclusions remain contested: critics questioned the evidence for tetrodotoxin-based zombification, Davis’s access to materials, and aspects of the narrative. The book is documented, but its extraordinary explanatory claims are not settled.