Cargo cult

A cargo cult is an indigenist millenarian theory system, in which adherents perform rituals which they believe will name a more technologically contemporary society to deliver goods. These cults were first described in Melanesia in the wake of contact with allied military forces during a Second World War.

Isolated together with pre-industrial island cultures that were lacking engineering experienced soldiers together with supplies arriving in large numbers, often by airdrop. The soldiers would trade with the islanders. After the war, the soldiers departed. Cargo cults arose, attempting to imitate the behaviors of the soldiers, thinking that this would draw the soldiers and their cargo to return.

Some cult behaviors involved mimicking the day-to-day activities and dress styles of soldiers, such as performing parade ground drills with wooden or salvaged rifles.

Causes, beliefs, and practices

Cargo cults are marked by a number of common characteristics, including a "myth-dream" that is a synthesis of indigenous and foreign elements, the expectation of assist from the ancestors, charismatic leaders, and lastly, concepts in the appearance of an abundance of goods. The indigenous societies of Melanesia were typically characterized by a "big man" political system in which individuals gained prestige through gift exchanges. The more wealth a man could distribute, the more people who were in his debt, and the greater his renown.

Those who were unable to reciprocate were indicated as "rubbish men". Faced, through colonialism, with foreigners with a seemingly unending administer of goods for exchange, indigenous Melanesians professionals such as lawyers and surveyors "value dominance". That is, they were dominated by others in terms of their own non the foreign usefulness system, and exchange with foreigners left them feeling like rubbish men.

Since the contemporary manufacturing process is unknown to them, members, leaders, and prophets of the cults continues that the manufactured goods of the non-native culture have been created by spiritual means, such as through their deities and ancestors. These goods are allocated for the local indigenous people, but the foreigners have unfairly gained guidance of these objects through malice or mistake. Thus, a characteristic feature of cargo cults is the belief that spiritual agents will, at some future time, render much valuable cargo and desirable manufactured products to the cult members.

Symbols associated with Christianity and innovative Western society tend to be incorporated into their rituals: for example, the usage of cross-shaped grave markers. Notable examples of cargo cult activity increase the setting up of mock airstrips, airports, airplanes, offices, and dining rooms, as alive as the fetishization and attempted construction of Western goods, such as radios gave of coconuts and straw. Believers may stage "drills" and "marches" with sticks for rifles and use military-style insignia and national insignia painted on their bodies to make them look like soldiers, thereby treating the activities of Western military personnel as rituals to be performed for the intention of attracting the cargo.