cargo cults

Groups believing that the gods will send wonderful cargoes to their followers, often native peoples in colonialized lands. Throughout parts of the world under colonial rulers, especially in the area of Indonesia and the South Pacifi c, religious movements have arisen based on the promise of a prophet that rich cargoes were on their way to the impoverished natives. Although comparable movements can be found as far back as prehistoric times, and some cargo cults are still active today, most fl ourished during the height of European colonialism, approximately from 1850 to 1950. They have much in common with millenarianism, or belief in the imminent and sudden oncoming of a world that was like paradise, and with movements like the 1890s GHOST DANCE of Native Americans by which oppressed indigenous peoples whose culture was being destroyed by white settlers sought to recover it through magical means. In cargo cults as such, typically a teacher arises within a colonialized native community who says that although the white rulers seem to have all the wealth and advanced technology now, our ancient gods and ancestors have not forgotten us. Sometimes this prophetic teacher is himself thought to be an incarnation or emissary of one of the old gods. Soon, he says, the gods will send a ship or, more recently, airplanes, laden with cargo for the natives, and this will be the beginning of a millennial age of happiness in which they and their ways will be vindicated. In order to prepare for the cargo, docks or airstrips must be built. At the same time, it is no longer necessary or appropriate to work for the old order or put stock in the old order's goods and money. At the height of cargo cult enthusiasm, natives have ceased working for their colonial overlords, and have stopped attending mission churches and mission or government schools. They have destroyed their property, killing their animals and throwing away money to make room, as it were, for the new cargo. Needless to say, all this was very disruptive of the colonial economy and brought stern reprisals from the European rulers. Although based in an updating of traditional religious beliefs, including millenarian themes, cargo cults were sometimes also infl uenced by Christian missionary teaching about the Day of the Lord and the KINGDOM OF GOD. It is clear they had political overtones as well. While on the surface destructive and backwardlooking, cargo cults sometimes in the long run clarifi ed native issues and leadership in ways that helped prepare for independence.