Operation Aswang

The operation was a truly ingenious one that was coordinated by a certain Major General Edward G. Lansdale. Born in 1908, Lansdale served with the U.S. Office of Strategic Services during the Second World War. Then, in 1945, he was transferred to HQ Air Forces Western Pacific in the Philippines; and, in 1957, he received … Read more

Vampirism and posthumanism in Octavia Butler’s “Fledgling”.

Pramod K. Nayar, University of Hyderabad, India Octavia Butler’s Fledgling (NY: Grand Central, 2005), according to one critic, shows how vampiric and human agency can induce change (Ali Brox, “‘Every Age has the Vampire it Needs‘: Octavia Butler’s Vampiric Vision in Fledgling“, Utopian Studies 19.3 [2008]: 391-409). This vision of change, the present essay argues, … Read more

The Animistic Vampire in New England

From The American Anthropologist,  Vol. IX, No. 1, January, 1896 The belief in the vampire and the whole family of demons has its origin in the animism, spiritism, or personification of the barbarian, who, unable to distinguish the objective from the subjective, ascribes good and evil influences and all natural phenomena to good and evil … Read more

Bioarcheological and Biocultural Evidence for the New England Vampire Folk Belief

From The American Journal of Physical Anthropology No. 94 (1994) Many cultures have developed folk beliefs to explain the natural phenomena associated with death and disease (Aries, 1981). The folk belief in vampires, found in many cultures, incorporates interpretations of death and disease. The vampire image found in contemporary Euroamerican culture is based solely on … Read more