Environmental Illness May Have Contributed to the Origins of Transylvanian Vampire Myths

Authors

Catherine L. Zeman, University of Northern IowaFollow
Ioan Seuleanu, Babes Boyai University
Miheal Sinca, Institutes of Public Health, Romania
Alin Sinca, Institutes of Public Health, Romania
Daniella Moga, Institutes of Public Health, Romania
Mariana Vlad, Institutes of Public Health, RomaniaFollow

Document Type

Research

Abstract

Field and ethnographic data are utilized to illustrate that significant contamination of rural wells with nitrates, bacteria and protozoa both currently and in the past are fertile ground for the development of myths surrounding spirit and blood stealing mythical creatures. The very real problem of methemoglobinemia, an environmentally induced hypoxia, in rural Transylvania is an ideal situation for physiological confirmation of and, perhaps, cultural etiology determination of the myth of vampirism. Ethnographic accounts of vampire and werewolf myths are correlated with the field data.

Publication Date

2005

Journal Title

International Journal of Global Health and Health Disparities

Volume

3

Issue

2

First Page

29

Last Page

39

Copyright

©2005 International Journal of Global Health and Health Disparities

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Recommended Citation

Zeman, Catherine L.; Seuleanu, Ioan; Sinca, Miheal; Sinca, Alin; Moga, Daniella; and Vlad, Mariana (2005) "Environmental Illness May Have Contributed to the Origins of Transylvanian Vampire Myths," International Journal of Global Health and Health Disparities, 3(2), 29-39.
Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/ijghhd/vol3/iss2/4