A
cargo cult is any of a group of
religious movements appearing in tribal societies in the wake of interaction with technologically-advanced, non-native
cultures—which focus upon obtaining the material wealth of the advanced culture through
magical thinking as well as religious
rituals and practices—while believing that the materials were intended for them by their
deities and ancestors.
Although not the only locations,
New Guinea and other
Micronesian and
Melanesian countries in the southwest
Pacific Ocean are locations where these religious movements became documented after initial contacts following
exploration,
colonization,
missionary efforts, and international
warfare. The English, French, Russian, German, Australian, Japanese, and American material goods seen in contacts with these cultures have served to generate this religious behavior.
Vanuatu, in what was then
New Hebrides, is a prime example because it is well documented.
Members, leaders, and
prophets of Cargo
cults maintain that the manufactured goods (
"cargo") of the non-native culture have been created by spiritual means, such as through their deities and ancestors, and are intended for the local
indigenous people, but that, unfairly, the foreigners have gained control of these objects through attraction of these material goods to themselves by malice or mistake.
Cargo cults thus focus on efforts to overcome what they perceive as the undue influence of the others attracting the goods, by conducting rituals imitating behavior they have observed among the holders of the desired wealth, and presuming that their deities and ancestors will, at last, recognize their own people and send the cargo to them instead. Thus a characteristic feature of cargo cults is the belief that spiritual agents will at some future time give much valuable cargo and desirable manufactured products to the cult members.
In other instances such as on the island of
Tanna in
Vanuatu, cult members worship certain Americans, who brought the desired cargo to their island during World War II as part of the supplies used in the war effort, as the spiritual entity who will provide the cargo to them in the future.
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Famous examples of cargo cult activity i
nclude the setting up of mock airstrips, airports, offices, dining rooms, as well as the fetishization and attempted construction of western goods, such as radios made of coconuts and straw. Believers may stage "drills" and "marches" with sticks for rifles and use military-style insignia and "USA" 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 purpose of attracting the cargo. The cult members built these items and 'facilities' in the belief that the structures would
attract cargo intended to be sent to them.
[...]
The Madness of Religion in its lowest moral degree!
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Originally Posted by Boeing
