Adherents of the cargo cult in Melanesia are building. What is a cargo cult, or how “airplane worshipers” harm science and society. Analogies in Western and Russian culture

12Aug

What is a Cargo Cult?

There are a huge variety of religions and gods in the world that people worship. Some people go to church, others to a mosque, synagogue or Buddhist temple. All these religions have huge amount followers and, in principle, well known to us.

There are also more exotic and even funny religions. Take, for example, faith in, but today we will not talk about it.

Have you thought about praying for planes?

No, seriously, build a replica of a transport plane out of trash, build a runway at the dacha. Rig a radar tower out of the trash and sit in it with headphones made from tin cans and wait for goodies and goodies from the perfume. I don’t know about the spirits, but the orderlies will appear sooner or later.

What is a cargo cult:

But in Melanesia ( these are islands in the Pacific Ocean) there is nothing surprising about this.

Local aborigines build from scrap materials ( Mostly palm trees, straw, and found garbage are used) entire air bases with mock-up aircraft, radio towers, hangars and other structures. After the construction of the so-called temple, religious services are held there to attract cargo planes. On board which will be various useful things.

Services in the cargo cult are conducted something like this:

• Several aborigines make something like headphones out of coconuts and put them on their heads. They climb onto the tower and, imitating air traffic controllers, look into the distance, fuss, in general, pretend to be a hectic activity.
• An equally interesting action takes place below. Aborigines decorated with orders and military insignia march on the parade ground. Instead of guns, they naturally have sticks. Such exercises take place with enviable regularity.

But the planes with cargo (CARGO) still don’t fly, but they don’t fly, apparently the spirits are angry. I think that you have already guessed that those who have no idea about production, economics, and even about modern world the natives simply imitate what they saw at the air bases of the “white people”.

The emergence of the cargo cult:

This all started back in the late 19th century and became more widespread in the 20th century, especially after World War II.

The Americans fought the Japanese. Accordingly, air bases were built on the islands, to which planes arrived with provisions and other necessary things. The supplies were so excellent that the American soldiers shared the “surplus,” so to speak, with the local inhabitants. Food, clothing, tents, tools and other oddities.

The Aborigines figured out the logical chain of origin of all these goodies, it led them to airplanes.

This is how “airplane worship” was born.

Transport planes that dropped cargo or delivered it upon landing came to be considered great spirits. Airbase personnel are priests who know how to appease spirits.

During the Second World War, on some islands of Melanesia (a collection of Pacific island groups), interesting cults arose - the so-called “cargo cults” (cargo - cargo transported on a ship), which appeared among local aborigines as a result of contact with civilized aliens, mainly Americans.

The Americans, who fought with the Japanese, placed their military bases on the Pacific islands. They built runways there for planes to land on. Sometimes the planes did not land, but simply dropped their cargo and flew back. In general, cargo flew or fell from the sky.

The islanders had never seen white people before, so they watched them with interest. Moreover, they had so many interesting things: lighters, flashlights, beautiful tins of jam, steel knives, clothes with shiny buttons, shoes, tents, beautiful pictures with white women, bottles of fire water and so on. The natives saw that all these items were delivered as cargo from the sky. It was all so amazing!

After observing for some time, the natives discovered that the Americans did not work to obtain all these fabulous benefits. They did not grind grain in mortars, go hunting or collect coconuts. Instead, they marked mysterious stripes on the ground, put on headphones and shouted incomprehensible words. Then they shined fires or spotlights into the sky, waved flags - and iron birds flew from the sky and brought them cargo - all these wonderful things that the Americans gave to the islanders in exchange for coconuts, shells and the favor of young natives. Sometimes the pale-faced ones lined up in even columns and for some reason stood in rows and shouted various unknown words.

Then the war ended, the Americans folded up their tents, said a friendly goodbye and flew away on their birds. And there was nowhere else to get lanterns, jam, pictures and especially fire water.

The natives were not lazy. But no matter how hard they worked, they couldn’t produce either tarpaulin tents, or beautiful clothes with patterns, or tins of stew, or flasks with a wonderful drink. And it was insulting and unfair.

And then they wondered: why did good things fall from the sky for the pale-faced, but not for them? What are they doing wrong? They turned millstones day and night and dug vegetable gardens - and nothing fell from the sky for them. Probably, to get all these wonderful things you need to do the same as the pale-faced ones. Namely, put on headphones and shout words, and then lay down stripes, light fires and wait. Probably all these are magical rituals and magic that the pale-faces have mastered. After all, it was quite obvious that all the beautiful things appeared to them as a result of magical actions, and no one had ever seen Americans do them themselves.

When, a few years later, anthropologists reached the island, they discovered that a completely unprecedented religious cult had arisen there. There were pillars everywhere, connected to each other with hemp ropes. Some natives made clearings in the jungle, built wicker towers with antennas, waved flags made of painted mats, others, wearing headphones made of coconut halves, shouted something into bamboo microphones. And on the clearings there were straw planes. The dark bodies of the aborigines were painted under military uniform with the letters USA and orders. They marched diligently, holding wicker rifles.

The planes did not arrive, but the natives believed that they were probably not praying enough, and continued to shout into bamboo microphones, turn on the landing lights and wait for the gods to finally bring them the treasured cargo. Priests appeared who knew better than others how to march correctly and fiercely reviled those who shied away from performing all the rituals. With these activities, they no longer had time to grind grain, dig yams and fish. Scientists sounded the alarm: the tribes could die out of hunger! They began to receive humanitarian assistance, which finally convinced the natives of the correctness of their views, because the wonderful cargo finally began to fall from the sky again!

Adherents of the cargo cult usually have no knowledge of production or commerce. Their concepts of Western society, science and economics are very vague. They firmly believe in the obvious dogma that foreigners had a special connection with their ancestors, who were the only beings who could produce such wealth that cannot be produced on Earth. This means that we must observe rituals, pray and believe.

Cargo cults similar to each other independently arose on islands that were far from each other not only geographically, but also culturally. Anthropologists have recorded two separate cases in New Caledonia, four in the Solomon Islands, four in Fiji, seven in the New Hebrides, and more than forty in New Guinea. Moreover, as a rule, they arose completely independently of each other. Most of these religions claim that on the day of the apocalypse, a certain messiah will arrive along with the “cargo.”

The independent emergence of such a number of unrelated but similar cults indicates certain features of the human psyche as a whole. Blind imitation and worship - this is the essence of cargo cults - the newfound religions of our time.

Many cargo cults have died out, but some still exist today. For example, the cult of the messiah John Frum on the island of Tanna.

John Frum's cult of the messiah was described by Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion:

“One well-known cargo cult on the island of Tanna in the New Hebrides archipelago (called Vanuatu since 1980) still exists. Central figure cult - a messiah named John Frum. The first mention of John Frum in official documents dates back to 1940, however, despite the youth of this myth, no one knows whether John Frum actually existed. One legend describes him as a short man with a thin voice and whitish hair, dressed in a coat with shiny buttons. He made strange prophecies and made every effort to turn the population against the missionaries. He eventually returned to his ancestors, promising his triumphant second coming, accompanied by an abundance of “cargo.” His vision of the end of the world involved a “great cataclysm”: mountains would fall and valleys would be filled in, old people would regain their youth, diseases would disappear, white people would be driven off the island forever, and the “cargo” would arrive in such quantities that everyone could take as much as they wanted.

But most of all, the island's government was concerned about John Frum's prophecy that during the second coming he would bring with him new money with the image of a coconut. In this regard, everyone should get rid of currency white man. In 1941, this led to widespread waste of money among the population; everyone stopped working and the island's economy suffered serious damage. The colony administration arrested the instigators, but no action could eradicate the cult of John Frum. Christian mission churches and schools were deserted.

A little later, a new doctrine spread that John Frum was the king of America. As luck would have it, around this time American troops arrived in the New Hebrides, and - miracle of miracles - among the soldiers were black people who were not poor like the islanders, but had “cargo” in the same abundance as the white soldiers. A wave of joyful excitement washed over Tanna. The apocalypse was inevitably about to come. Everyone seemed to be preparing for John Frum's arrival. One of the elders announced that John Frum would be arriving from America by plane, and hundreds of people began clearing the bush in the center of the island so that his plane would have somewhere to land.

A control tower made of bamboo was installed at the airfield, in which “dispatchers” sat with wooden headphones on their heads. Model airplanes were built on the “runway” to lure John Frum’s plane to land.

In the fifties, a young David Attenborough sailed to Tanna with cameraman Geoffrey Mulligan to investigate the cult of John Frum. They collected many facts about this religion and were eventually presented to its high priest, a man named Nambas. Nambas friendly called his messiah simply “John” and claimed that he regularly spoke to him on the “radio” (“Radio Host John”). It happened like this: an old woman with wires wrapped around her waist fell into a trance and began to talk nonsense, which Nambas then interpreted as the words of John Frum. Nambas said he knew David Attenborough was coming in advance because John Froom warned him "on the radio". Attenborough asked permission to look at the “radio” but was (understandably) refused. Then, changing the subject, he asked if Nambas had seen John Frum.

Nambas nodded passionately:
– I’ve seen him a lot of times.
-What does he look like?
Nambas pointed his finger at me:
- Looks like yours. He has a white face. He tall man. He lives in South America.

This description contradicts the legend mentioned above that John Frum was short in stature. This is how legends evolve.

John Froome is believed to return on February 15th, but the year of his return is unknown. Every year on February 15, believers gather for a religious ceremony to welcome him. The return has not yet taken place, but they are not losing heart.

David Attenborough once said to a Froome follower named Sam:
“But, Sam, it’s been nineteen years since John Frum said that the “cargo” would come, and the “cargo” still doesn’t come. Nineteen years - isn't it too long to wait?
Sam lifted his eyes from the ground and looked at me:
– If you can wait for Jesus Christ for two thousand years, and he does not come, then I can wait for John Frum for more than nineteen years.

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip visited the islands in 1974, and the prince was subsequently deified as part of the John Frum Take Two cult (again, note how quickly details change in religious evolution). The Prince is an imposing man, no doubt looking impressive in his white naval uniform and plumed helmet, and it is perhaps not surprising that he, rather than the Queen, was the object of veneration - the local culture did not allow the islanders to accept a woman as a deity .

The cargo cults of South Oceania represent an extremely interesting modern model of the emergence of a religion almost out of nowhere. What is especially important is that they point to four features of the origin of religions in general, which I will briefly outline here.

The first is the astonishing speed with which a new cult can arise.

Secondly, the details of the origins of the cult are being lost with amazing speed. John Frum, if he ever existed, lived very recently. Despite this, it is difficult to determine whether he lived at all.

The third feature is the independent emergence of similar cults on different islands. A systematic study of these similarities may reveal new insights into the human psyche and its susceptibility to religious belief.

Fourth, cargo cults are similar not only to each other, but also to earlier religions. It can be assumed that Christianity and other ancient religions now widespread throughout the world began as local cults like the cult of John Frum. Some scholars, such as Oxford University professor of Jewish culture Geza Vermes, have suggested that Jesus was one of many fiery preachers who appeared in Palestine at that time, surrounded by similar legends. No trace remains of most of these cults. According to this point of view, today we are dealing with one of them who managed to survive. Over the centuries, as a result of further evolution, it was transformed into a complex system - or even into an extensive set of hereditary systems that currently dominates most of the world. globe. The deaths of such fascinating modern figures as Haile Selasse, Elvis Presley and Princess Diana also provide an opportunity to explore the rapid emergence of cults and their subsequent memetic evolution.”

A student brought an article in which another esoteric guru writes that in order to attract a lot of money into your life, you need to behave the way rich people behave. Don’t limit yourself in anything, and then the money will feel that you are the very person they need.

It’s a cargo cult,” I simply shrugged, considering the conversation to be over.

What is a cargo cult?! - asked the girl.

Never heard of it? To be honest, I thought it was a very well-known psychological and cultural phenomenon. Okay, I'll write it sometime.

I keep my promise.

Imagine this picture: you are an ordinary Papuan, living a familiar, measured way of life on an island in the Pacific Ocean. You've heard something about people with pale skin who sometimes show up at your neighbors' houses, but you've never seen them. And if you saw it, then just briefly. Life goes on as usual, clouds float lazily across the warm blue sky, sometimes bursting into lightning and rain, the sun and heat are sometimes interspersed with coolness and strong wind... Everything is as always, as it was a hundred years ago, three hundred, a thousand...

And then, one amazing day, iron birds begin to circle over your island. Those same pale people jumped off some of them and began to clear part of the jungle, creating entire clearings in the dense forest with the help of magic tools. They built towers, fenced off the area with an iron rope, and these gray birds began to fly to this clearing. From their wombs fell huge boxes filled with wonderful things that would be useful in the household of any respectable Papuan: food in iron pumpkins, tasty water, iron nails, axes, saws... Clothes that were clearly created by spirits, because such fabric cannot be obtained from ordinary vegetable fiber... And much more.

Pale people share some things with you. For help (for example, as a guide), they generously give boxes. Life has become much easier, and you thank the spirits for sending these white people to help you.

But after some time the pale people disappeared, taking everything with them. And gray birds no longer circle over our islands, and there are no more these wonderful clothes, no nails, no food in iron pumpkins... What was that? And how can I get it back?

What was that? It was World War II. While fighting the Japanese in the Pacific Ocean, the Americans created bases and runways for their aircraft on numerous islands of Melanesia and New Guinea. To supply small garrisons, various military and civilian supplies were dropped, some of which ultimately went to local residents, Melanesians and Papuans, for some services, or simply as humanitarian aid. Items appear fairly quickly highly developed civilization among archaic tribes had a devastating impact on their culture. Some skills in making tools were lost, primitive agriculture fell into decline, losing out to canned food and dry rations. Therefore, when the war ended and the Americans left, the island tribes faced a real psycho-cultural crisis: the golden years, which were perceived as the reward of their ancestors, ended, and now it is not clear how to return them.

Similar psycho-cultural crises have happened before, where primitive tribes encountered representatives of Western civilization that were much superior in material development. However, after the Second World War, this phenomenon became especially widespread. Amazing people with their cargo (“cargo” in English) disappeared, and the old way of life was greatly disrupted. How to return what was? This is where the logic of myth comes into play. Often modern commentators (not related to science, as a rule), when describing what the Papuans and Melanesians began to do, attribute it to primitivism of thinking, the inability to establish a cause-and-effect relationship, and a thirst for freebies. However, there was a completely clear and understandable logic in what happened. Only the starting points of Papuan (mythological) logic were completely different from those of representatives of the post-industrial world.

The logic was this A. Observant islanders noticed that the pale people did not make anything themselves. Everything, absolutely everything, was brought to them by steel birds, and there was so much cargo that the locals also got it. And when the whites left, wise people thought about the way those who left got their cargo. And the answer lay on the surface: they performed magical rituals, calling on their ancestors, who made magical objects. A simple and great magical principle: perform a special ritual, say special words, use special objects, and the elements of nature (and the spirits of ancestors belong specifically to them) will obey. The whites knew excellent rituals, and then what prevents us from simply repeating them exactly?

Another principle of magic comes into play: like attracts like. Imitate someone else's ritual exactly - and then it will become genuine... Everything that the whites did on outdoors, was now endowed with magical meaning. And the islanders began to imitate. In the mornings, a flag-raising ceremony was held at the newly constructed flagpoles. Improvised soldiers marched on the parade ground - in a line, with dummy rifles on their shoulders. A black general with a gray beard and painted medal bars was reviewing the troops. Half-naked sentries climbed onto recreated observation towers. They looked into the sky - just like those white ones - and looked for flying iron birds in it with cargo from their ancestors.

However, they all did not fly... Mythological logic begins to look for ways to explain what happened, why it does not work... The first version of the explanation: we do not reproduce the rituals accurately enough. Even more precision is needed... And the bodies of the “soldiers” are painted to look like uniforms with the inscription “U.S.A.”, eyewitnesses recall even more details from the rituals of the whites. Models of “iron birds” are built from wood and reeds. They are installed on old runways, and they, looking into the sky, called on their brothers who had flown away to nowhere, begging them to return. In the evenings, the lights that once burned along the contour of the runway were imitated. And everyone watched and waited to see if the sound of an engine would be heard, if wings would sparkle in the evening sun.

In vain. What is happening, verified These methods don't work!? The best minds have wrestled with this question, various assumptions have been put forward. For the Papuans and Melanesians of that time, the whole world was their village, forested mountains and coastal strip. In the distance there are more islands, and then nothing. The planes did not fly from another, unknown land. Mythological consciousness does not tolerate emptiness, it explains everything, so the assumption that something is still unknown to us does not even occur to us. Therefore, one of the versions was this: iron birds fly to cities on large islands, where whites still live (we are talking about colonial settlements in New Guinea, like Port Moresby). That is, the rituals work, it’s just that pale people intercept what is not intended for them. And that in fact, even those cargoes that were brought by birds with the inscription “U.S.A.” to their home islands many years ago, were also intended for the islanders. White people are simply usurpers and scoundrels, liars and scoundrels.

The result is campaigns of civil disobedience, riots, and aggression. Humanitarian supplies, occasionally delivered to this edge of the world, only confirmed the rebels in their rightness.

There were also people who were not so aggressive. They were simply ready to wait for their ancestors to find ways to get around the whites. Sometimes this expectation of the iron bird was embodied in the expectation of a specific person, an analogue of the Savior, who would begin the golden age, drive away the whites, and then the ancestors would freely bring the treasured goods. The Savior had different names, the most popular of them was a certain John Frum. And many were ready (and are ready now) to wait for John Frum for a very long time. R. Dawkins cites the following dialogue between David Attenborough (a famous scientist and journalist) with one of the adherents of this cargo cult:

David Attenborough once said to a Froome follower named Sam:

“But, Sam, it's been nineteen years since John Frum said the 'cargo' was coming. He promised and promised, but the “cargo” still did not arrive. Nineteen years - aren't you waiting too long?

Sam lifted his eyes from the ground and looked at me:

- If you can wait for Jesus Christ for two thousand years, and he does not come, then I can wait for John Frum for more than nineteen years.

Over time, the prevalence of cargo cults began to decline. The Papuans and Melanesians gradually realized that the world was much larger than they thought. That iron birds do not come from heaven, but are created on earth. Some even visited large cities rather than colonial settlements. Some worked in factories and mills, and understood where all this “cargo” came from. The fairy tale is over. The world became huge and frightening, and there were fewer and fewer miracles in it. But there are still adherents of the belief that magic, ancestors and a savior will someday come to the rescue. This poignant video captures this sad expectation of a miracle by humanity, a miracle that will never happen... How human...

P.S. Currently, the word “cargo cult” has acquired an allegorical meaning: the imitation of any action or way of life without filling this imitation with content. And I think that it’s not for nothing that Steve Jobs became the new idol - who did not create new cargo. He simply gave them a beautiful shape. And he brought them to people thirsty for new cargo. Amen.

The natives, who still live in isolation in some places, are always greatly impressed by meetings with representatives of the civilized world. It is not surprising that the natives have many questions and in cases where their logic does not work, they use their imagination. During World War II, the interaction of Pacific Islanders with American soldiers led to the emergence of the cargo cult - a new religion for some and an interesting metaphor for others.

The phrase “cargo cult” can be heard when talking about a person who strives for luxury, is obsessed with shopping or air transportation of valuables. But that would be a mistake. In fact, the Pacific natives, the American military and one brilliant physicist are to blame for the fact that the expression “cargo cult” often appears in journalism and makes its way into our everyday communication.

Cargo (from Spanish cargo - load, loading) - cargo carried by a sea vessel. In foreign trade operations, this is the name for any cargo that does not have an exact name.

The cargo cult, or cult of airplane worshipers, is associated with the widespread belief among primitive tribes in the magical essence of airplanes and the cargo they deliver. This phenomenon arose in the century before last on some islands of the Pacific Ocean, which were in no way connected with each other. The heyday of a unique religion occurred during the Second world war. The Japanese, and then the Allies, were active fighting in this region, they built military bases and literally bombarded the islands with cargo that descended from the sky on white parachutes and shocked the natives, who had never seen anything like it. The soldiers surprised the local population with Zippo lighters, factory clothes, weapons, medicines, and alcohol. Of course, the aborigines had a rather vague idea of ​​​​modern production, so they had one explanation: containers in the sky are gifts from the gods and spirits, because no person, of course, has the power to create such miracles. White people, according to the savages, simply learned to lure and intercept messages that were actually intended for local residents. They did this with the help of special rituals: people followed each other, shouting something incomprehensible, waving bright flags and lighting lanterns along long roads along which metal birds took off and landed.

Carried away by the religion of imitation, the savages practically stopped farming and hunting. The new cult brought them to extreme distress

After the end of hostilities, the newcomers said goodbye to the aborigines and left the islands. At the same time, the messages from heaven also stopped. To return supplies of amazing things, the natives began to imitate the behavior and appearance of representatives of the civilized world: paint the insignia of the US Army on their bodies, put crosses on graves, march with sticks on their shoulders, build life-size airplanes from branches and palm leaves and put their fellow tribesmen in them. headphones made from coconut halves. Fascinated by the new religion of imitation, the savages believed that this would help them return their precious cargo, and they practically stopped farming and hunting.

After some time, anthropologists discovered that the new cult had brought the natives to extreme distress. Scientists tried to convince them that this behavior would not work, but to no avail. It was decided to support the wild tribes with humanitarian aid. When containers began to descend from the sky on parachutes again, the natives rejoiced and finally believed that their imitations were working, abandoned their daily activities and began to devote all their time to rituals with drills and lighting torches along the runway. The anthropologists left the islands, deciding that it was better not to interfere; no more cargo was delivered. Over the past 75 years, such religions have almost completely become obsolete, although giving up the worship of inexplicable but tangible miracles was not easy for savages.

An important component of the cargo cult was the psychological background. Among the Melanesian aborigines, authority was earned through the exchange of gifts: the one whose gift was more expensive received more respect. If a member of the tribe could not “give back” appropriately, he was a loser. So the soldiers who generously treated the savages with stew rose to the very top of the social hierarchy of the aborigines, and the local residents had nothing to give in return, and this humiliated them. All cargo cults were built around the personality of a charismatic tribesman or leader, who convinced others that gifts from heaven were messages from the spirits of their ancestors and that in order for the tribe to receive the valuable cargo due to it and no longer feel humiliated, it was necessary to repeat as accurately as possible all the actions of the whites people. The essence of the cargo cult is the belief that external attributes work regardless of the content.

A cargo cult can be classified as a political situation in which the attributes of a certain system nominally exist, but its principles do not work

The term “cargo cult” received a second, metaphorical and ultimately more common meaning after the speech of the famous American physicist and laureate Nobel Prize Richard Feynman to Caltech graduates in 1974. He drew an analogy between the belief of primitive civilizations in the effectiveness of imitation and pseudoscientific works, which in every way resemble full-fledged research, but mean nothing for the development of science. Cargo scientists imitate work that brings no results. Feynman called their research "the science of airplane worshippers."

After this, the concept of “cargo cult” began to arise in various fields. For example, this is the name given to computer software that contains a component that is unnecessary but successfully used in other programs. The term can also be used in relation to a subculture, when a person with external symbols of belonging to a group avoids its ideological component or corresponding lifestyle. A cargo cult refers to a political situation in which the attributes of a certain system nominally exist, but its principles do not work.

In 2010, after a blog post by political scientist Ekaterina Shulman, the term “ reverse cargo cult" This is what she called the situation in which ineffective public cargo institutions are built in the country and at the same time the belief is actively maintained that there are problems everywhere, because the original itself is ineffective. Conventionally, an aborigine with a coconut shell on his head is sure that the Japanese soldiers also use a fake and all the planes are actually made of straw, just someone portrays them a little better, so they sometimes fly.

How to speak

Wrong: “When she travels abroad, she buys herself tons of clothes, for her it’s just a cargo cult.” Correct: fetishism

Correct: “For Fyodor, working in a hospital is a cargo cult: he is always in an ironed robe, wears a stethoscope around his neck, is proud of his status as a physician, but understands nothing about medicine.”

That's right: “In our office, we have a cargo cult of active work activity: everyone sits at computers with businesslike, they shift papers from table to table, but the results from this are zero.”

If you happen to find yourself on the islands of Melanesia, then, while enjoying the natural beauty of these places, you may suddenly stumble upon a structure that vaguely resembles an airfield control tower. Or replicas of airplanes made of wood and straw. And if you’re really lucky, you’ll meet a local resident wearing coconut headphones, talking intently into a bamboo microphone. You shouldn’t be afraid of this, but you shouldn’t laugh at it either, because this is nothing more than a religious ritual, with the help of which local residents ask the gods to send them “iron birds” with food, tools, clothing and medicine.

John Frum's cargo cult and movement flags. Melanesia. Photo: wikipedia.org

This unique religion of the Melanesians was called the “cargo cult.”

It is impossible to say with absolute certainty when it began. Some researchers believe that in 1774, when Tanna landed on the Melanesian island famous traveler John Cook.

For local residents, who had lived in isolation and had lived for centuries by fishing, raising pigs and gardening, Cook's visit was a real shock.

White people, from the point of view of the aborigines, did nothing, but had supplies of food, comfortable clothing, and weapons, which they willingly shared with them for small services.

Following Cook, other Europeans began to appear on the island, also bringing with them all sorts of useful items. But then, not finding anything interesting on the island, Europeans stopped coming.

Melanesian. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Return of Divine Gifts

This was a new shock for the island's residents. Why did the good gods, who sent white people to them with beautiful and useful things, suddenly become angry with them?

Having decided that it was possible to return “manna from heaven” only with the help of the right prayers, the aborigines began to try to repeat the behavior of the whites, believing that it was these “rites” that promised well-being.

Residents of other Melanesian islands, where Europeans visited, experienced something similar.

European researchers noted the existence of such strange beliefs back in late XIX century.

However, they manifested themselves in full force during the Second World War.

The fight against Japan forced the US military to create many military bases in Pacific Ocean, including in Melanesia.

Frame youtube.com

For fans of the new cult, the arrival of the American military was tantamount to the “second coming.” They prayed correctly, and the whites returned, now not only with ships, but also with flying “iron birds” that brought delicious food, clothing, medicine, as well as completely unprecedented things like flashlights and radios.

White people willingly and generously paid for assistance in construction and for the services of guides, and the life of the Melanesians became, in their understanding, happy and carefree.

But then the war ended and the whites left. The “iron birds” no longer flew in, there were no more generous “gifts from the gods.”

The priests of the new religion, which now has a huge number of fans, explained that the Melanesians do not pray to the gods well enough, which is why they no longer send them “gifts from heaven.” And the Melanesians began to beg the gods even more diligently to “send down iron birds.”

Another look

Those who hear about the “cargo cult” for the first time often smile knowingly - this is how “freebies” spoil people. However, this is not entirely true.

To understand the behavior of Melanesians, you need to look at the world through their eyes. The white people who come to the islands do not do or produce anything themselves, but they have everything. Where do they get everything from? Of course, they get everything from the gods. Why are the gods generous to white people? Because they know the correct prayers and rituals. And if you repeat them, the “iron birds” will fly again with gifts.

The natives began to build runways and control towers, put on homemade headphones, and began shouting into bamboo microphones, but the planes did not appear. This means that we are not repeating everything accurately enough, the priests said. The Melanesians stubbornly reproduced the actions of the whites, even began to hold unique parades, but there was no effect.

Traditional dance of the Melanesians. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

But the new religion has an explanation for this case: the “iron birds” actually fly, they are simply intercepted by white people on other islands (some airfields continued to function, since American settlements remained there). And in general, those “iron birds” that were at first were sent by the gods for the aborigines, and the vile whites simply “stole someone else’s.”

Why is John Frum worse than Jesus?

When anthropologists a couple of decades later reached the islands on a scientific mission, they were horrified by what they saw.

The “cult of cargo” (worship of cargo) captured the Melanesians so much that their traditional economic sectors fell into decline. The islanders began to face real famine. Anthropologists and psychologists tried to convince the Melanesians and explain to them that they were wrong, but the aborigines met these explanations with hostility. In their opinion, the whites, intercepting the “gifts of the gods,” simply wanted to deceive them again.

Village of followers of John Frum. Photo: wikipedia.org / Flickr user Charmaine Tham

Realizing that it was not so easy to cope with the “cargo cult,” scientists called for at least humanitarian assistance to be provided to the islanders.

But the appearance of this help for the adherents of the “cargo cult” became confirmation that they were right, which is why the new religion only strengthened.

The situation began to change when people from local tribes began to visit the civilized world more often, where they began to understand what was really happening and how.

The “cargo cult” began to decline, but did not die at all.

On the island of Tanna, where it all began, a cult flourishes John Frum- some higher being, similar to a soldier of the American army during the Second World War, who will come, drive out the dishonest whites and return the “gifts of the gods.” In order to bring the “golden age” closer, it is necessary to abandon such aspects of European civilization as money, work on plantations, school education, preserving the worship of wooden models of aircraft towers and straw models of airplanes.

John Frum's ceremonial cross of the cargo cult, Tanna Island, New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), 1967. Photo: wikipedia.org / Tim Ross

The cult of John Frum has proven surprisingly resilient. His followers even created their own political party to defend their interests.

It is believed that the “cargo cult” has experienced its heyday and will eventually fade away. One of the scientists who worked with fans of the John Frum cult once asked one of them:

— Many years have passed since John Frum promised that the “cargo” would come. Why do you still believe in him?

The Melanesian looked carefully at the scientist and said:

— You Christians have been waiting for the second coming of Christ for 2000 years and still have not lost faith in him? Why should I lose faith in John Frum?