Analysis of the Cargo Cults - Essay Example

? Cargo Cults Your Full Your “A” Number The & Number of the The of your (The the Paper is Submitted) December 7th, 2013 Cargo Cults Cargo cults are a kind of a Melanesian revitalization movement that were created as a consequence of the locals coming in contact with the colonial societies, especially those of Australia. With various forms of cargo cults emerging in Melanesia, there are quite a few similarities that are borrowed from the native or traditional mythology of the Melanesian and are then extended to, perhaps, make sense of the new world that they encounter now with the new people and their new and alien customs. Even though cargo cults continue to be discovered, they ceased to exist as a phenomena “as soon as anthropologists figured out how to explain” it (Dalton 2000:345), however, they can be seen as a successful (in certain aspects) revitalization movement for the indigenous population, who often needed to vent out their frustration with the new way of life under the colonizers. Cargo cults, as the specific millenarian movements in the Melanesian region are called, were not studied very closely before the twentieth century; after F. E. Williams published The Vailala Madness and the Destruction of Native Ceremonies in the Gulf District in 1923, interest as well as publication on them have increased (Long 1974:403). Usually, a cargo cult is formed when some member of the tribe has a dream (a myth-dream) whereby the rest of the tribe is instructed to follow certain orders, which can include touching things or ritualistic destruction objects, or not going to their garden to work, or dance around open altars (Stephen 1997:1) or even baptism and insistence on giving up local culture in favor of the European (Long 1974:410); what is more, as Worsley notes, there is also the “cultivation of large gardens and the building of stores, sheds, jetties and landing-grounds for the reception of good which will never come” (Dalton 2000:358). According to the native rituals and social norms of the Melanesians, anyone who could give a lot of material gifts to others was automatically someone to be respected and looked up to. With the arrival of colonials, who brought with them many material products, the natives saw their material wealth and automatically assumed that the colonizers were respectable people. As, on the converse side, the person who could take gifts but could not give anything comparable in return was frowned upon according to the same norms, therefore, the Melanesian, based on their own cultural norms, lost respect in their own eyes. The products that the colonials brought with them were things that the natives wanted, but which the natives, in their lack of exposure to technology, had no idea how to produce even though they had been seeing them delivered to piers and landing strips. Certain cargo cults were formed, whereby certain mythological stories were exchanged to make sense of just why nothing that arrived was for them but for the colonizers. As per this explanation, the ancestors of the natives were busy making things for their descendants, both within the volcanoes that the locals worshipped, and living amongst the lands of the colonizers, disguised as white men. These ancestors were sending all the cargo that they had accumulated and manufactured to the locals, however, the white colonizers, entrusted with the transport of the cargo, were robbing the natives by changing the labels of the cargo to steal it and claim it as their own (Long 1974: 409). It can be argued that the irrational rituals were created in a bid to get the wealth of the colonials (Lindstorm 2000:296). Clearly, this shows a sense of resentment on the part of the natives who felt not only threatened by the colonization but also used and abused. As Burridge puts it, the natives have their own rituals and ways for proving “their integrity as men. But faced with a white man, the moment passes them by. They feel themselves children of sin” (Lindstorm 2000:297). The native economic system is slowly but surely taken over by that of the colonizers. Due to becoming the mercantile centers for the West, the indigenous cultures have lost their own centers (Long 1974:406). What is more, Long also posits that not only do the colonizers disappoint the natives by not only being useless in cosmic renewal but also by being hypocritical when it comes to the Christian philosophy that they are trying to preach to the natives (1974:407). It is felt very clearly that while the white man teaches equality, and professes to practice it, he does not really embrace it when it comes to his relationship with the natives. The description of revitalization movements set out by Wallace and why they come about clearly states that one reason is the dissatisfaction of the old myths in coming to terms with the new reality facing most of the individuals in that society (1956). This is very clearly the case here, and this is perhaps why the natives, in their naivety or in keeping with their old religious practices, started and maintained cargo cults. The cargo cults usually do not have religious symbols per se, however, perhaps because of the works of missionaries in the colonies, have incorporated the cross, which they sometimes use to demark graves; there is also, as stated above, an inclination towards building piers and landing strips; and also, there are altars made of culturally taboo objects, with ritual dancing around them, perhaps to show the impotency of the objects in the new life. However, there are no set symbols that are used across all the cults. Even though quite a few anthropologists have claimed that a certain sort of “madness” exists in the cargo cults, and that they are quite irrational that could be termed as mass hysteria (see for instance Dalton 1974, Lindstorm 2000 for views of various anthropologists), however, as per Stephen, the practices of the cult have “some very positive aspects for the individual participants and the group” (1997:334). The two fold advantages of the practices, as per Stephen, are that first they can get over the fear that they have for their “traditional repositories of sacred power” (Stephen 1997:334), and second that if they find their new practices to be futile, they can easily revert back completely to their old beliefs with total conviction. This is very helpful in “facilitating individual and group adaptation to environmental, social, and cultural change” (Stephen 1997:335). With the help of the hysteria-like practices, the cultists, in a way, purge themselves, by completely letting go of the taboos that they hold about holding certain objects, or coming into indirect contact with them. This is their way of letting go of their earlier beliefs which they feel are not sufficient to make sense of the colonized world where barter has no meaning and the acquisition of material wealth (a native preference, as much as colonial) is considered to be out of their reach completely. The altar of such objects is danced around in a show of defiance of sorts. However, interestingly, the cultists, who form part of the tribe, find it very easily to completely revert to their old practices after the cult is proven to be non-viable, or when it can no longer be sustained. Thereby it is ensured that the tribe is not broken down or forced to separate once the cult stops existing. This clearly shows that the cargo cults are a successful revitalizing movement in that they not only help the natives deal with the new world that confronts them, and thus give them an outlet for their fears and apprehensions, but that they also ensure that the cohesion of the tribe is maintained, with there being no need to leave the tribal land, or to leave the tribe for the cultists. References Cited Dalton, Doug 2000 Cargo Cults and Discursive Madness. Oceania 70(4 A Critical Retrospective on ‘Cargo Cult’: Western/Melanesian Intersections):345-361. Jonathan G. Andelson 2005 Review of Reassessing Revitalization Movements: Perspectives from North America and the Pacific Islands. Anthropological Quarterly 78(3):773-777. Lindstrom, Lamont 2000 Cargo Cult Horror. Oceania 70(4 A Critical Retrospective on ‘Cargo Cult’: Western/Melanesian Intersections):294-303. Long, Charles H. 1974 Cargo Cults as Cultural Historical Phenomena. Journal of the American Academy of Religion 42(3):403-414. Stephen, Michele 1997 Cargo Cults, Cultural Creativity, and Autonomous Imagination. Ethos 25(3):333-358. Wallace, Anthony F. C. 1956 Revitalization Movements. American Anthropologist 58(2):264-281. Read More