Over this last week we've been researching the treatment of "revenant" corpses over the last millenium or so. It's amazing to see the kinds of superstitions that arose over the treatment of corpses. In the Ukraine, it was believed that wind passing over an unburied body was enough to reanimate it; the Gypsies believed that any living being crossing over a corpse awaiting burial would be enough to create a revenant. So it makes sense that a similarly varied tradition appeared after the Dark Ages to respond to this "Vampire problem."
There were numerous peoples who believed that vampires exhibited what we might now call OCD behaviours--that they could not cross scattered millet or a dog's body because they could not count every grain or hair by sunrise. Certain woods were believed to have exceptional vampire-taming properties, and strong-smelling herbs such as juniper were utilized by the Gypsies to repel the troublesome revenants. The use of garlic, which we typically think of today as the vampire repellant, was employed by the Romanians.
Tragically, it seems this could have been avoided had our modern science been around to explain the decaying corpse. The apparent growth of hair and nails post-mortem, and the process of decomposition were confused to be the product of an evil force, and as a result numerous bodies were mutilated in response to a perceived supernatural presence. So it seems even more necessary that we remember that our case studies deal with real people, likely with still-living descendants.
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