Vampire mythologies have been around for centuries all over the world, from the African 'witch' to the Greek Lamia, they have stayed with humanity through the ages. Vampires have taken every form imaginable, from the grotesque monster with blood soaked fangs to the elegant nobleman who needn't bite to drain a victim of life. This of course leaves open the question as to why they are still around. Why we still believe them. Why even the word vampire arouses a reaction out of most people. Why the vampire is recognized, in one form or another, all over the world. The continued presence of vampire myths is due to the vampire's role as a scapegoat, as an object of emulation, as the star of literature and cinematography, and a natural product of the human psyche as guided by the brain's anatomy and human evolution.
A mythology must first be defined before it can be examined and pulled apart. Therefore, a working definition of what a mythology is must be developed before any further investigation. Webster's online dictionary defines mythology as, "Myths collectively; the body of stories associated with a culture or institution or person" Working with this definition, and classifying vampires of similar status as deities as far as myths are concerned, a working definition for this can be established. The definition of a vampire mythology for purposes of analysis and explanation shall be as follows: Any belief or set thereof which states the abilities, weaknesses, or methods of identifying vampires. With this working definition as a baseline, universal examination is made more expedient.
As for the term 'vampire,' a working definition is equally evident given sufficient example. A vampire, as defined by B.A. Robinson, is an "imaginary mythical creature who mainly inhabits horror movies and other works of imaginative fiction," this is perfectly valid in most instances, but it isn't as encompassing as is necessary (Robinson, Definitions). The seemingly universal definition would be "to drink the blood of others" is better, but still does not encompass vampires which do not drink blood but are vampires nonetheless (Melton, XXI). The flaw of that definition then becomes key to creating a new definition of vampire: A being, usually risen from the dead, who drains the life force of others, usually through the physical act of drinking blood. This definition encompasses all variations on vampires while honoring the typical portrayal thereof, thus granting it a utility the other definitions lacked.
With definitions established, the first step to discovering the reasons behind the continued existence of vampire myths is to first establish how they began. Although not the first vampire mythology, the Slavic beliefs regarding vampires are those which have taken the greatest foothold and therefore shall be used as their 'point of origin'. The belief in vampires likely began after the observation of a human corpse that had not been properly buried.
A human corpse in that area of the world, given a shallow grave as was common practice, decays in such a way as to appear 'fresh' or still alive. The skin loses moisture; thereby pulling back and making it appear as if the fingernails and hair have grown. The gums pull back as well, making the teeth appear elongated and fang-like. The blood, at least in cases of those who died suddenly, would liquefy from its coagulated state, thus giving the impression of being fresh. The bloating of the body often cited as proof of a living-dead vampire is the cause of gas buildup, a well known phenomenon which indicates decomposition (Barber, 102-119). Thus it was the ignorance of how a corpse decomposes which aided in the creation and 'proof' of vampires.
Also among the 'proof' used to establish vampire myths is the condition of rabies, which bears many similarities to Slavic vampirism, especially the adaptation thereof for the book Dracula. Hypersensitivity is a symptom of rabies, garlic and light set off this hypersensitivity and thus create the impression they are dangerous for the person. Also, "The vampire's voracious sexual appetite and nocturnal habits could be attributed to the effect of rabies on parts of the brain that help regulate sleep cycles and sexual behaviour" ("Rabies- the Vampire's Kiss"). Male rabies victims also display a tendency to bite when angered or aroused, thus further connecting the two. Common belief at the time stated that a rabid man would not be able to bear the sight of his own reflection, whereas the vampire has no reflection. A strong link was rapidly established and the line between those who would not look at their reflections and those who had no reflections, between sufferers of rabies and the mythological vampire of that region ("Rabies- the Vampire's Kiss").
Now that definitions to be considered and the origins of vampire myths have been examined, an in depth analysis of the vampire's role as a scapegoat and an object of emulation is possible. The vampire, prior to the twentieth century, was a being which served as the scapegoat of a society afraid of sin, death, evil, and sexuality. Be it Slavic regions under early Christianity or Victorian England, this role as a vessel for all which is despised is a universal trait of the vampire and a strong contributor to its continued existence.
Among its many symbolic meanings, the vampire is, first and foremost, a symbol of sin's manifestation. Those who become vampires in Slavic myth are:
Those that are different from the normal, those that are unpopular, or great sinners, form the most likely candidates ... to come back from the dead ... alcoholics are believed to be prime candidates for vampirism ... those who commit suicide are firmly believed always to come back from the dead .... In general, witches, sorcerers, the godless (atheists), the evil-doers, werewolves, robbers, arsonists, prostitutes, deceitful and treacherous barmaids, and other different and dishonorable (delinquent) people...(Dunn-Mascetti 13-14).
Suicide, murder, alcoholism, disbelief in the Christian God, worship of the Christian Satan, all sins for the Slavic people and as such they marked an individual for becoming a vampire. The status of vampires as sinners is important in that Slavic vampires were, as dictated by myth, monstrous. "Long nails that curve like claws; skin showing deathly pallor ... eyes often described as 'dead' ... rat-like fangs prepared for attack" (Dunn-Mascetti 11). This symbolic link is often used to examine literature, and since myths are examples of literature which conveys a way life should be lived, myths can be examined using this symbolic link between sin and a disfigured and monstrous afterlife. Since in Slavic myth vampires are monstrous, and vampires are almost always sinners, it served, at the time, to discourage sin in a manner similar to the concept of Hell. Thereby, the vampire was a scapegoat in that any vampire could be said to have been a sinner in life and illustrate a message that not only were all vulnerable to sin, but all could suffer from it, a message which in the days of early Christianity, priests felt necessary to convey.
Continuing with symbolic meaning of vampires as far as Slavic mythology is concerned; a secondary symbolic meaning is that of purging the group of evil and even redemption (McClelland). The act of slaying a vampire was seen as killing a great evil, a curse upon the village. This community activity, almost a celebration, was used to bind the community and give a sense of safety as the supposed vampire was slain. As for redemption, the vampire, in the early stages of its existence, is a phantom of sorts, intangible and only vulnerable through the corpse. The second stage is that of a rolling sack of blood, vulnerable to destruction by the smallest of thorns. The final stage is a return to normal human appearance and a return to normal human life, thus symbolizing that redemption is possible for all, another message Slavic priests wished to convey (McClelland). It is the expression of a vampire as the representation of evil in a community that aided its appeal to the Slavic masses.
Further into the symbolism of the vampire is its use, especially in the book Dracula, as a criticism of evolutionary theory (Great Books: Dracula). In the book, a vampire is able to turn into a wolf, bat, and smoke. This ability is representative of mankind's closeness with animals, an idea put forward strongly by evolutionary theory. Since this is seen with a character intentionally portrayed as evil, it demonstrates a criticism of how mankind is dehumanized by evolutionary theory (Great Books: Dracula). Also from Dracula the vampire is used as a criticism of sexuality and support of the repression thereof. It plays this role due to the feelings of those in Victorian England towards sexuality, an attitude where the repression of sexuality was viewed as ideal for society; therefore the appeal comes from mirroring the opinions of society. Dracula condemns sexuality in the same manner it does evolutionary theory, the character who displays sexual promiscuity is the villain of the story and ultimately meets his end, thereby reinforcing the negative connotation of sexuality (Great Books: Dracula). Thus it is the vampire's role as a scapegoat which contributes to its appeal, serving as an example and a commentary on society which speaks to those who create and believe the myths.
Serving to magnify this role to the general modern public are occurrences of crimes involving vampirism or cannibalism. On occasion when these crimes occur the perpetrators define themselves as, identify with, or aspire to be vampires. For the purposes of brevity, only two such occurrences shall be used as reference to this type of crime and its contribution to vampire's notoriety in modern times. Among such cases of vampiric crime is the American case of Rod Ferrell, who killed the parents of a girl he was bringing into his 'family' of 'vampires' (London, 245-259). In this case the criminal was a teenager who, through mistakenly thinking of a role playing experience as real, came to believe himself a vampire and attempted to bring others to the same way of thinking.
Nicolas Claux, a Parisian killer, graverobber, Satanist, necrophiliac, artist, and 'vampire' is one of the most well known of his ilk. His crimes, although only resulting in a twelve year sentence, were such to engender fear and revulsion of him by many and to further reinforce the idea of a vampire as an evil entity. A symbol of all which modern society dislikes or finds objectionable: cannibalism, Satanism, murder, decadence, etcetera. The he has come to symbolize, partly out of his own support for them, are commonly blamed for the ills of society much like the vampiric scapegoats of Slavic mythology. To increase the horror of his actions, and to defy the society in which he is confined, Claux was very frank and blunt about his actions, fully comprehending his deeds and going so far as to assert that he had been born a killer with a taste for the flesh of the dead (London 269-289). This frankness from an individual who comes to represent and embody evil increases society's dislike and strengthens certain aspects of common society, such as the standard of criminals repenting for their actions. Thus it is the vampire, through being a scapegoat, who enforces societal standards through its presence as a symbol.
Contradicting their role as a scapegoat and object of abomination is the vampire's simultaneous role as an object of emulation, something to be admired and representing a goal of sorts to be achieved. In modern society the vampire has one meaning, one connection which is evident above all others and perhaps is the key to the vampire's prevalence in twenty-first century society: its sex appeal:
- "... Perhaps the vampire serves as a necessary defense mechanism against impotence... most male vampires are not portrayed as having normal intercourse." (Dresser 147).
- "Essential to understanding the appeal of the vampire is its sexual nature" (Melton 614).
- "Their [vampires] heightened senses empower them to exploit, with finely tuned skill, the mechanisms of arousal. To victims (and sometimes to each other) they are seductive, charming and irresistible, and move with feline grace" (Ramsland, Vampire 381).
- "We play the role over and over again in our minds; we become the victim in this erotic fantasy" (Einhorn).
- "The pulsing, aggressive sexual overtones of the vampire hunger among adolescents" (Ramsland, "Hunger").
"... We all desire power in some degree. To be a vampire is to have power; power to bring death and have eternal life" (Einhorn). The vampire's expression of power, as a being without serious limits or weaknesses, is a highly enchanting detail. It is natural to revere and even emulate individuals who are fictional but regarded as paragons nevertheless. In addition to the power over life and death, as mentioned above, in a majority of vampire mythologies they have superhuman strength, agility, and sometimes senses. This is in addition to instant regeneration of almost all wounds. This power comes at a limited price, sometimes no price at all depending on the mythology, in some mythologies the vampire has unique weaknesses such as sunlight and garlic to compensate for their strength, but in others they are not limited in any way. "[People] emulate the behavior of the vampire are doing so because of the power it gives..." (Dresser 41). Through the vampire's power and sex appeal, it plays a crucial role as an object of emulation, sometimes just the status but also the ideals behind vampires and vampirism are romanticized and thus contribute to the appeal.
Much of this romanticizing comes from the vampires portrayed in literature and cinematography. In books such as the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice and the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyers, vampires are portrayed as extremely beautiful and powerful, with Rice's vampires vulnerable only to flame and sunlight and Meyers's vampires vulnerable to nothing. Also the Vampire Hunter D series by Hideyuki Kikuchi has an extremely handsome half-vampire as the main character with all other vampires equally handsome. In each series, at least one vampire is portrayed in a favorable light, as a being of good. Although this is often antihero in nature, the vampires who are supposed to be good always have some kind of ideal or guiding goal behind them. In the Vampire Chronicles it is little more than the need to survive and the desire to be happy, the desire to be happy being a goal most could align themselves with. In the Twilight series it is the repression of 'dark' or evil urges, the suppression of an evil nature, a concept strongly enforced within society. In the Vampire Hunter D books, the main character is driven not only by his wages, but also out of a desire to do good to the point of sacrificing himself, a goal highly encouraged. It is seen that the vampire has maintained popularity in literature from its role as a hero which can be identified with but simultaneously stands for a more abstract cause, elevating it to the level of an emulable ideal.
In movies however vampires take on the opposite role, often portrayed as soulless and villainous. In one of the first vampire movies, Nosferatu, the vampire was a hideous beast, a mix of bat features and human features. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the vampires had contorted faces, full of ridges and feral in appearance. In the movie Van Helsing, the vampires were portrayed as large bat-like creatures when in true form. In 30 Days of Night the vampires, although mostly human, acted like a pack of wolves in their behavior and hunting methods. This grants the appeal of the clear villain, mostly serving to highlight the heroism of other characters. It is a matter of making good appear better by pairing it with easy to hate evil. Thus it is the vampire's role in literature and cinematography as both ideal villain and antihero which keeps the vampire a well known figure.
A trend that can be observed in cinematography and literature is that the more hideous the vampire, the more evil they are supposed to be. A quick glance at the vampires in literature will show that they are beautiful and more often than not good when that is the case. Movies show the other end of the spectrum, with monstrous vampires being evil more often than not. This relates to the attractiveness bias built into the human mind, where the aesthetically pleasing is put above the aesthetically displeasing (Newberg 254). With this in mind, it is past due time to examine the vampire as a creature with foundations in the subconscious of the human mind.
Human beings, when gathered in groups larger than 150 people, begin to require methods to enforce ethics amongst themselves. This leads to the creation of hierarchies, religion, and mythology (Shermer, Science 42). The idea behind the creation of these is to enforce what is called "blind altruism" where no reward is expected for a kind deed. This is due to the fact that human beings have no biological or evolutionary drive to help others beyond the family, thus requiring a system to provide incentive. With the need for incentive, either the threat of punishment or the promise of reward, came the provider of incentive; religion (Shermer, Science). Within religion we find myths and figures intended to strengthen moral messages, such as the Christian Satan. The vampire serves much the same purpose in the base of the human mind, to regulate behavior away from certain aspects. This is similar to its role as a scapegoat, but goes below a cognitive level.
A similar point was reiterated decades prior by the anthropologist Melford E. Spiro who, in a paper for American Antrhoplogist, stated that human beings are driven by social pressures and needs rather than biological. Human beings, rather than having the desire for biological survival as key instincts, rely upon the desire for social survival for instinctual actions. Spiro's case in point: Jews in the Nazi concentration camps did not revert to biological drives, but rather crafted a society amongst themselves to give much needed comfort and consolation (Spiro). Thus it seems that man is a social animal and the vampire is a catalyst for a social society, for a society that works together. Victimized communities unite against whoever deals them harm. Since the Slavs blamed vampires for most of their troubles, it served to unite the people. The vampire still serves this role, but to a far lessened degree. Although the term 'vampire' is rarely used in such cases, an individual who drains the group's assets and energy is often rebelled against as a 'vampire' of the group. The term 'vampire' has been replaced with the actual causes, but the reaction is the same nonetheless. Through the centuries of vampire myths, the vampire become a staple of western culture, even colloquialisms betray the vampire's presence in the subconscious, such as the colloquialism common in the 1990's of using the phrase "bite me" (Dresser 164).
With vampires so prevalent in the human mind, it is natural to now look to neuropsychology and the anatomy of the brain to find answers regarding their appeal and creation. The preference for the creation of myth lies deep in the back of the brain, in the limbic system (Newberg). It is this emotional part of the brain which forms the base for religion, for mythology. Vampires are raw and visceral beings; they are almost pure emotion and thus appeal directly to the emotional parts of the human mind.
Vampires also find support in the personification bias of the brain. This is the human tendency to give unexplained occurrences human traits or humanoid causes (Newberg 256). Although this serves more to explain how vampire myths began, as a way to explain inexplicable deaths within a village, it does show that the brain is predisposed to the creation of beings similar to vampires.
The perseverance bias is where the core of vampires' survival is found. The perseverance bias is where the brain has held a belief for long enough it is difficult to banish completely (Newberg 256). Thus the oral traditions of the Slavs passed down vampire myths and engrained them into the minds of future generations, but in more modern times any child that comes to believe in vampires will always have the idea of the vampire in their mind. Although the regard for the reality of vampires will shift with age, the ideas formed as a child will remain in the human mind through the individual's life.
Children would not be so gullible without the evolutionary benefit of obeying elders. Due to the vulnerability of small children, those who listened to their elders about not playing with fire or staying away from predators survived, thus creating the evolutionary instinct in small children to listen to elders. This evolutionary trait was and still is necessary for survival but can misfire since children do not draw distinctions between true and false unless explicitly told what is true and false (Dawkins). As such any idea presented to a child as truth, or a fictional story that the child fails to recognize as fictional, results in a belief that is difficult to dislodge. Such is the nature of religion's survival as well as the vampire's (Dawkins).
Vampires are also part of the human evolutionary drive to believe what complements prior thought and experience. This 'wishful thinking' which fuels vampire belief also fuels conspiracy theories. Vampires serve to explain what people otherwise could not; vampires are used to show that there is reason behind deaths and tragedies that are products of nature. They are based off of the comfortable idea that there is always a system by which events are driven; that a horrible occurrence is caused by a horrible creature (Dawkins). This is similar to the conspiracy theorist's creation of grand plots to achieve remarkable ends ("Conspiracy Theories").
The assignment of a mission or goal to a being that may or may not exist is a byproduct of the 'intentional stance'. The intentional stance is a mode of thinking, one highly useful to human ancestors, which assigns a desire or goal to whatever requires attention. This evolutionary trait is demonstrated most in 'fight or flight' responses but also results in religion and mythology, among which resides the vampire (Dawkins). Again this is where the vampire is used as the being behind the intent. Due to mysterious unexplained deaths, usually of the young and family members of the recently deceased and often attributed to supernatural evil, people needed something they could understand to explain these actions and to give them a reason for occurring. The intentional stance manifests itself in this instance in that the intent was demonstrated but people failed to have a criminal, so the vampire filled in that space.
With its massive superficial appeal and its deep seated psychological base, the vampire will not leave. It will continue to change, as trends in history have shown, to suit the time which creates it. The vampire is the antithesis of all that is human, but exists to be a mirror unto all that is human. Be they ugly or spellbindingly handsome, good or breathtakingly cruel, almost human or completely paranormal, the vampire in all its guises is a product of the human mind, the need to create more. Thus it is human nature to create that which is not human, that which stands against life and feeds off of the living: the vampire.
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I am quite pleased with at least the last paragraph. ^_^
