What exactly is a zombie?

A zombie is a person who has been put under under a spell by a witch docter or voodoo, they are buried and raised at night to used for manning the feilds or some other chore, they can be brought out from under this spell with sea water

(American mythology)

A soulless body. In the Voodoo cult of Haiti, a zombi is the slave of a magician. The soul may have been removed by magic from a living person, or the body of someone recently deceased may have been brought up out of the grave after the soul had been separated from it by regular rites of death. As the lord of the dead, Ghede has the power to animate corpses as zombis.

Source: Answers.com

In films a zombie is a person who has been infected through the bite of another zombie and becomes a zombie themselves after they die.

In More 21st Century Terms There may be 3 reasonings. 1, An infection could be plagueing the area and it may cause the person to have a need to have undead symptoms and the need to eat people(28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later). 2, An already member of the undead may attack a normal person(Dawn of The Dead), 3, A witch or something of mystic power may alter a person and turn them into the undead. A zombie is something that cannot be killed with mortal weapons and has the need to eat of its original kind (humans) so that it may continue to live.

In real life you can say that a person who has been buried alive and then the person wakes up without any nutrition and the person only roams around(this really happens in the country Haiti)

First answer by ID1198433551. Last edit by Cybergohan. Contributor trust: 0 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 16 [recommend question]