Africa
Various regions of Africa have folktales featuring beings with vampiric abilities: in West Africa the Ashanti people tell of the iron-toothed and tree-dwellingasanbosam,[82] and the Ewe people of the adze, which can take the form of afirefly and hunts children.[83] The eastern Cape region has the impundulu, which can take the form of a large taloned bird and can summon thunder and lightning, and the Betsileo people of Madagascartell of the ramanga, an outlaw or living vampire who drinks the blood and eats the nail clippings of nobles.[84]
The Americas
The Loogaroo is an example of how a vampire belief can result from a combination of beliefs, here a mixture of French and African Vodu or voodoo. The term Loogaroo possibly comes from the French loup-garou (meaning "werewolf") and is common in the culture of Mauritius. However, the stories of theLoogaroo are widespread through theCaribbean Islands and Louisiana in the United States.[85] Similar female monsters are the Soucouyant ofTrinidad, and the Tunda and Patasola ofColombian folklore, while the Mapucheof southern Chile have the bloodsucking snake known as the Peuchen.[86] Aloe vera hung backwards behind or near a door was thought to ward off vampiric beings in South American superstition.[27] Aztec mythology described tales of the Cihuateteo, skeletal-faced spirits of those who died in childbirth who stole children and entered into sexual liaisons with the living, driving them mad.[23]
During the late 18th and 19th centuries the belief in vampires was widespread in parts of New England, particularly inRhode Island and Eastern Connecticut. There are many documented cases of families disinterring loved ones and removing their hearts in the belief that the deceased was a vampire who was responsible for sickness and death in the family, although the term "vampire" was never actually used to describe the deceased. The deadly diseasetuberculosis, or "consumption" as it was known at the time, was believed to be caused by nightly visitations on the part of a dead family member who had died of consumption themselves.[87] The most famous, and most recently recorded, case of suspected vampirism is that of nineteen-year-old Mercy Brown, who died in Exeter, Rhode Islandin 1892. Her father, assisted by the family physician, removed her from her tomb two months after her death, cut out her heart and burned it to ashes.[88]
Asia
Rooted in older folklore, the modern belief in vampires spread throughout Asia with tales of ghoulish entities from the mainland, to vampiric beings from the islands of Southeast Asia.
South Asia also developed other vampiric legends. The Bhūta or Prét is the soul of a man who died an untimely death. It wanders around animating dead bodies at night, attacking the living much like a ghoul.[89] In northern India, there is the BrahmarākŞhasa, a vampire-like creature with a head encircled by intestines and a skull from which it drank blood. The figure of the Vetalawho appears in South Asian legend and story may sometimes be rendered as "Vampire" (see the section on "Ancient Beliefs" above).
Although vampires have appeared inJapanese cinema since the late 1950s, the folklore behind it is western in origin.[90] However, the Nukekubi is a being whose head and neck detach from its body to fly about seeking human prey at night.[91]
