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I know that there’s a wide variety of zombies. Now my question is what are the versions of them & how are they stopped from attacking the living? Zombies are (now these days) considered mindless undead with (rotting) flesh on them.

For future reference I know that salt is one way of stopping zombies, I would like to know if there’s alternative ways to do so.

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  • What do you base your awareness of "a wide variety of zombies" on? Are you sure they are all derived from mythology and folklore?
    – Spencer
    Sep 17, 2018 at 13:57
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    There’s more than 1 type of zombie in mythology & motion pictures besides the classic drugged human. At least that’s my understanding. As for my statement I’m going on what my sister has stated in the past. Sep 17, 2018 at 13:59
  • @AbrahamRay Well, as for the motion picture stuff, it's out of scope for Mythology SE. Given that, can you edit into the question why you'd consider anything that's not from Hatian tradition a "zombie"?
    – Spencer
    Sep 17, 2018 at 20:08
  • I just did @Spencer Sep 17, 2018 at 20:27
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    I like this question about a modern mythological tradition. Answers should be supported by links to source material though, to keep it academic.
    – DukeZhou
    Oct 3, 2018 at 20:23

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Jiang Shi meaning "Stiff Corpse" is a kind of zombie from Chinese Mythology.

The Jiang Shi can be stopped by throwing rice or coins on the ground, as they will not pursue their target until they have picked up all the grains of rice or coins, allowing the target to escape or can be "deactivated" by placing a sacred piece of paper/Taoist talisman on their foreheads.

It is the conventional wisdom of feng shui in Chinese architecture that at the threshold a piece of wood approximately 15 cm high, be installed along the width of the door at the bottom to prevent a Jiangshi from entering the household.

The Ancient Greeks might have been the first civilization terrorized by a fear of the undead. Archaeologists have unearthed many ancient graves which contained skeletons pinned down by rocks and other heavy objects to prevent the dead bodies from reanimating or leaving the grave when they did.

In kamarina in south east Sicily they found a lot of evidence in a cemetery. The town had once been a Greek colony in Sicily, which is now part of modern day Italy and housed a cemetery known as Passo Marinaro that was used from the fifth to the third centuries BC.

In two of the tombs, the skeletons found appear to have been buried in specific ways to keep them in the grave. Their bodies where completely covered by large fragments of amphora.

A reproduction of a sketch by Sicilian archaeologist Giovanni Di Stefano of one of the unusual burials. Notice the large amphora fragments on the individual's head and feet. Credit: Drawing by D. Weiss from G. Di Stefano's excavation journals.

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