Cargo cult

Cargo cult is a name given to several religions. There are many cargo cults in Melanesia and New Guinea. These religions started when tribal societies saw Western things like radios. These things are called cargo. The tribespeople did not know how the things they saw worked, or how they were made.  

The tribespeople copied the things they saw the Westerners do. They did this because they hoped gods would send them more cargo. Also sometimes, for example on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu, cult members worshipped Americans who brought the cargo.

During the age of colonialism, the people came in contact with many societies who had less technology than they did. The first cargo cults were seen in New Guinea, and other countries of Micronesia, Melanesia and the West Pacific Ocean. 

The people who are part of the cargo cults think that the cargo was created by their deities and ancestors. They think that the cargo was made for the members of the cargo cult, but the foreigners have it instead. For this reason, the efforts and rituals of cargo cults are so that the foreigners get less of these goods and the cult members more of them.

Related pages
Vailala Madness - a cargo cult active between 1919 and 1922, possibly the first known cargo cult.
Ghost Dance - a similar thing that happened when Native Americans saw European settlers.

References

Other websites
 Vanuatu cargo cult marks 50 years (BBC News)
 Information on the Jon Frum Cargo Cult (still active) 
 Contemporary Cargo Cults by John FitzGerald
 Western Oceanian Religions 

 Cargo cults  includes a bibliography
 Account of a Visit to a Jon Frum Village in 2005 
 Air Force Magazine , January 1991, Vol. 74, No. 1. Summary from the guys who fly those Cargoes.

Category:New religious movements