Cargo cult

A cargo cult is a religious movement that can develop in some less-advanced societies upon contact with more technologically advanced cultures. The phenomenon was especially prevalent in the South Pacific during World War II (1939-1945) when native islanders encountered thousands of Japanese and American soldiers. Some natives believed the supplies flown in by the newcomers were gifts from a divine source and reasoned that by performing the proper rituals, they also would be blessed by the gods with wealth. When the soldiers left after the war, some islanders even tried to call back the gifts from the sky by constructing their own crude replica airplanes and runways.

Most cargo cults disappeared in the decades after World War II, but some have persisted into the twenty-first century. The residents of the small Pacific island of Tanna still worship a legendary American soldier who they believe will return one day bearing riches.

Background

The term cargo cult originated shortly after World War II in reference to the cargo shipments of goods used by Allied soldiers. The concept, however, goes back centuries and has its roots in the first contact between islanders and European explorers. The Spanish and Portuguese were the first Europeans to sail to the South Pacific in the sixteenth century. They encountered and colonized some of the region's larger islands such as the Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Marquesas Islands. During the next two centuries, the Dutch, French, and British began exploring the South Pacific and battling for control of the region.

The native people of the islands viewed the foreigners in different ways. Some warlike cultures were openly hostile to the Europeans, while others saw them as messengers from the land of their dead ancestors. As the Europeans began to colonize the region, religious movements began among some cultures prophesizing the return of an ancestral messianic figure who would remove the white settlers and bring about an age of prosperity for the native inhabitants. The earliest of these movements occurred in 1885 when a native priest in British-controlled Fiji declared the return of the ancestors was imminent and the days of foreign rule were numbered. Participants in the Tuka movement, as it was called, performed rituals that combined traditional and Christian elements. The rituals were meant to deliver the goods of the white invaders into the hands of the islanders and bring the people eternal life. Similar movements sprang up on other islands in the region.

Overview

Despite having had some contact with Europeans, many inhabitants of the more remote islands maintained a traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle little changed for hundreds of years. In the 1930s, as air travel expanded across the globe, airplanes began to appear in the skies over the South Pacific. The native islanders of the mountains of New Guinea saw these flying objects as giant birds from heaven and interpreted the sound of their engines as an angry message from the ancestors. Fearing divine retribution, the native people performed rituals to appease the enraged spirits of the sky.

The onset of World War II in the Pacific in the 1940s brought hundreds of planes along with thousands of soldiers to the islands. The Japanese moved in first and were followed by American forces in an effort to gain a foothold in the region. The Americans in particular established numerous airfields, hospitals, and military bases, transporting in tons of goods and supplies for the hundreds of thousands of troops sent to fight the war. The native people saw this endless activity and interpreted it as the work of a divine force. To them, these foreigners could summon up radios, candy, vehicles, medicine, and refrigerators seemingly by magic. While native people were at times in conflict with the Japanese, the Americans were especially generous with their supplies and shared them with the native inhabitants.

Some natives began to mimic the actions of the troops, believing it was a way for them to call upon the generosity of the gods and bring in even more wealth. In the island nation of Vanuatu, at the time called the New Hebrides, the native people built airfields and docks in the hopes the good American king "Rusefel"—a mistranslation of President Franklin Roosevelt—would bring them magic objects. In time, some islanders questioned why their gods would bestow their blessings on the intruders and not them. They began to see the cargo as gifts from their dead ancestors that were being intercepted by the foreigners.

After the war ended in 1945, most of the troops left the islands and returned home. With them went the magical shipments of cargo that had been arriving almost constantly for years. Some islanders desperately sought a way to make the soldiers and the gifts return. They offered sacrifices to airplanes made of wood and bamboo and built makeshift military barracks, piers, and runways. Some believed these actions would convince the Americans to come back, while others thought their efforts would attract the attention of their gods who would shower them with wealth. But the gifts did not come, and cargo cults slowly faded in most places in the years after the war.

On one part of Vanuatu, however, the practice has not only persisted but become part of the native culture. Each February 15, the island of Tanna, home to more than twenty-nine thousand people, honors a divine being the people see as a mystical American soldier named John Frum. The name is thought to have originated from the practice of American soldiers introducing themselves as "John from" America. Believers carry the American flag, paint "USA" on their chests, and parade around holding bamboo rifles in the annual ceremony. Hundreds of people take part in the ritual, hoping that their prayers will be answered and Frum will return as promised, bringing with him gifts and prosperity.

Bibliography

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