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A form of millenarian
movement (a belief in what is to come) found in the islands of Melanesia in the South
Pacific. The cargo cults involve the belief that ritual activities and observances will
lead to the arrival of free ‘cargoes’ of goods.
The cargo cults are a development from the indigenous belief that necessary goods and
animals for food and supplies are released by the gods or guardian spirits when the people
have completed proper ritual observances.
The cargo cults show the influence of the modern world in that the cargoes are expected
to arrive by boat or plane as do the goods and supplies used by white immigrants and
colonizers.
The cargo cults have proved to be enduring even when cargo does not materialize, since
this is seen as a sign that ritual observation and activity has been inadequate or
inappropriate.
Cargo cults and discursive madness
Oceania, Jun 2000 by Dalton, Doug
Understood as mimetic portrayals of the image of unlimited good projected by European
colonial culture, Melanesian `cargo cults' are therefore viewed as 'irrational' within
indigenous understandings. Consequently, Western anthropological discourse has sought to
functionally normalize and nativize `cargo cult' behaviors at the expense of denying their
nonrational character. The result has been a lexical and semantic uncertainty and
explanatory instability in `cargo cult' discourse that can be analyzed as a type of
discursive `madness.' A strategy of reading the 'madness' of `cargo cult' discourse is
outlined and applied to key anthropological texts, in particular Peter Worsley's The
Trumpet Shall Sound.
Ever since E E. Williams (1979a[1923], 1979b[1934]) characterized what was to be called
the `cargo cult' phenomenon as a kind of `madness,' even though this characterization has
been widely challenged by anthropologists, 'madness' has nonetheless continued to haunt
`cargo cult' discourse. Williams' essay was a plea to recognize and preserve the
functionality of traditional ritual, which he viewed as primarily an outlet for emotions
which, once denied ritual expression, found a liberation in cargo cult `madness.' Yet in
his view this 'madness' by definition did not have the same functionality as did
traditional ritual. He therefore thought that the useful aspects of 'traditional' culture
should be preserved while the bad ones, like those manifest in the liminal
dysfunctionality of `cargo cults,' should be done away with.
Williams' evolutionist notion that this deluded, irrational behavior would eventually give
way to greater rational comprehension was soon displaced by explanations that focused even
more on its functional utility and cultural sense, which had the advantage of at least
accounting for why so-called `cargo cults' never went away. What has been identified
(Lutkehaus 1995; Bruner 1986) as a transformation between two literary modes - from
`narratives of decline' to `narratives of resistance' - thus took place in anthropology
and, as Lindstrom (1993) has shown, what was originally thought strange was thereby
culturally and functionally nativized and normalized. Now often thought of as Melanesians'
standard way of doing things, it is widely held that `cargo cults' do not really exist as
discrete phenomena.
Capitalizing on Complicity: Cargo Cults and the Spirit of Modernity on Bali Island
(West New Britain)
Andrew Lattas: University of Newcastle
Abstract: Using the cargo cult movement of Dakoa on Bali Island (West New Britain), this
article explores the relationship between history and the other forms of human time
articulated in cult practices, beliefs, and myths of origins. This relationship often
entails the collapsing of historical time into biographical time. It involves Dakoa's cult
taking up Western notions of kingship and the Christian figures of God, Jesus, and
Moses—all of whom are merged with the heroic structure of traditional myths. New
mythological figures have emerged who encompass multiple identities and who resurface at
key historical moments so as to give a mythicmagical quality to the transformative
processes of government, mission, and commerce. Many of the cult's new important spirit
beings are extensions of the cult leader Dakoa, whose personhood embodies a history and
provides a model for a new, pacified Melanesian self capable of reincorporating the
globalizing processes of modernity. -
ethnohistory.dukejournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/52/1/47
Cargo Cult in a Western Town: A Cultural Approach to Episodic Change
Authors: Burns, Allen F.
Abstract: A social, cultural, and often religious movement directed at improving community
spiritual and material life, the cargo cult is discussed as a principle of community
organization effecting positive change. This article reviews the cargo cults of Oceania
and applies the concept to a small western town - eric.ed.gov |
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