On the Day of the Dead, lawyer and former senator Jean Renel Sénatus presented his book “Droit mortuaire, de la mort à la Zombiphobie” (Mortuary law, from death to zombiphobia) at a signing in a Pétion-Ville hotel on Sunday, November 1, Vant Bèf Info reported.

The book, which grew out of his doctoral research, examines the links between death, popular beliefs about zombification and the law in Haitian society. It discusses the belief that a person can be biologically alive yet regarded as a zombie, and the fear among some families that a dead relative could be turned into one, a fear that sometimes leads them to mutilate or burn the body.

Sénatus, rector of the Université Soleil d'Haïti, draws on popular beliefs and biblical references and places his work at the crossroads of anthropology and legal science. For some communities, he argues, “after death, not everything is over.”

Many readers lined up to buy the book. Former Justice Minister Carlos Hercule and former Marigot deputy Déus Deronneth were among those at the signing.