People, at times, do sickening, bestially violent, criminal things. Since ancient times, there is the belief among various people that blood is a sacred, life-giving fluid. If a person is suffering from severe physical ailments; especially during times of plague and pestilence; most believed drinking blood will help such a person to heal or even to be cured. In Europe, for instance, for many centuries, there was a belief that to cure epilepsy, one would take a white dove, cut its throat, and then drink the blood.
of course, people would not be willing to give their blood, so the human vampire would try to physically overpower the victim or wait to suck blood while the victim slept. Often times, bite marks mixed with salvia from the human blood sucker would give the unfortunate individual a certain amount of the same disease the vampire would suffer from. The vampire would attack a vein in the person’s neck to suck blood and to incur such a vein injury is dangerous, especially under unsanitary conditions to the poor individual.
Stories of people who sleep in their cffins and then arise might be based in a simple fact. Perhaps so sick from strong diseases or injuries these individuals are worried that they will die in their sleep. So such vampires sleep in their coffins; so if they do die in their sleep then no-one would have the gruesome task to put them in their coffins. Also, such vampires would wear their good or best clothes in case that occasion arises.
People who eat meat; folks who go to butcher shops to buy meat; the meat has lots of blood on it and in butcher shops many years ago floors would be covered with saw dust to absorb the blood. The meat would be washed to help clear the blood. Consuming large quantities of blood from sushi and meat is actually poisonous, and this blood is not fresh blood.
There are remnants of vampirism in various countries today reflected in abhorrent foods certain people eat. There is blood pudding eaten by people in Europe and in countries of a high percentage of Europeans. Blood pudding is sometimes known as ‘black pudding’ is a type of sausage made with animal blood. In Asia there are a number of foods cooked in pig’s blood. Several examples are in Taiwan there is pig’s blood cake. Korea has seonjiguk, the Philippines have dinuguan. Indonesia has sangsang(savsang).
There are many, many examples of foods all over the world containing blood from goats, geese, snakes, and other creatures. When bloody food has been completely cooked, usually it is not dangerous or harmful as malevolent bacteria dies in the great heat.
Even with cooked pig blood food, excessive consumption may cause iron poisoning, as well as hinder the absorption of other minerals. Hence, people who eat pig’s blood should not eat such cooked food no more than twice a week and not to be consumed with soya bean or kelp which can produce indigestion and constipation respectively.
The idea of people being vampires can also be based on people who suffer from certain diseases in which blood comes up from the mouth; as in cases of tuberculosis and during the pneumibic form of the bubonic plague when lung tissue deteriorates to the point where blood would appear at the lips.
Also, many people, especially centuries ago, assume once a dead body is buried in a coffin, the dead body rapidly decomposes. Actually, if the interred body is placed in a good, strong; highly protective sealed coffin during the winter, putrefaction might be delayed by weeks or months. If the grave happened to be dug up for some reason; the body exhumed; and the body is seen as looking rather good in appearance from its preservation and looking bloated in which the decomposing intestines have forced the blood up to the mouth, people can assume the corpse is a vampire who magically has the ability to leave the grave, suck blood, and then return to the grave.
For more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_as_food
http://www.livescience.com/24374-vampires-real-history.html
http://m.wisegeek.org/what-is-blood-pudding.htm
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_blood_curd
