Overview

During WWII, American soldiers arrived on Pacific islands with massive amounts of “cargo”—canned food, clothes, radios. The indigenous people, who had never seen factories, interpreted this wealth as supernatural. When the soldiers left, the cargo stopped. To bring it back, the islanders built mock airstrips, wooden planes, and marched in formation, hoping to lure the “cargo gods” back.

Core Idea

The core idea is mimetic ritual. The logic was: “The white men do these rituals (marching, talking into radios) and the cargo comes. If we do the same rituals, the cargo will come to us.” It was a rational attempt to understand and control a baffling new reality using their existing religious framework.

Formal Definition

A millenarian movement (expecting a major transformation of society) in Melanesia that focuses on obtaining the material wealth (the “cargo”) of the advanced industrial nations through magic and religious rituals and practices.

Intuition

Imagine you are a medieval peasant. A spaceship lands. Aliens give you magic boxes that make food. Then they leave. You build a wooden spaceship and pray to the sky, hoping they return. You aren’t “crazy”; you are trying to reverse-engineer the technology using the only tool you have: religion.

Examples

  • John Frum Cult (Vanuatu): Devotees believe that an American serviceman named John Frum (possibly “John from America”) will return on February 15th to bring wealth and freedom. They still march with bamboo rifles and raise the US flag.
  • The Vailala Madness (Papua New Guinea): An early movement (1919) where people destroyed their traditional sacred objects and spoke in “tongues” (imitating English) to prepare for the arrival of the cargo.

Common Misconceptions

  • It’s just greed: It wasn’t just about stuff. The cargo symbolized power and dignity. The colonizers had cargo and power; the locals had neither. They wanted the cargo to restore the balance and end colonial rule.
  • “Cargo Cult Science”: Richard Feynman used this term to describe bad science that looks like science (lab coats, graphs) but lacks the rigorous method. It’s a metaphor for form without substance.
  • Millenarianism: The belief in a coming apocalypse that will destroy the current corrupt world and establish a paradise. Cargo cults are a form of this.
  • Revitalization Movements: Anthony F.C. Wallace’s term for deliberate, organized attempts by some members of a society to construct a more satisfying culture (often in response to stress/colonization).
  • Fetishism of Commodities: Marx’s idea that we treat goods as if they have magical value. Cargo cults just make this fetishism literal.

Applications

  • Development Aid: Understanding that “aid” can be misinterpreted as “cargo” (unearned wealth from powerful outsiders) helps NGOs design better programs that emphasize local agency.
  • Tech Hype: Modern “crypto bros” or AI evangelists often exhibit cargo cult behavior—using the jargon and rituals of success without understanding the underlying mechanics.

Criticism / Limitations

  • The Term itself: Many anthropologists now reject the term “Cargo Cult” as derogatory and colonial. It frames complex political resistance movements as silly superstitions. They prefer terms like “adjustments movements.”
  • Rationality: It ignores that the cults often did succeed in organizing people politically against colonial rule, even if the planes never landed.

Further Reading

  • Worsley, Peter. The Trumpet Shall Sound. 1957.
  • Lindstrom, Lamont. Cargo Cult: Strange Stories of Desire from Melanesia and Beyond. 1993.
  • Burridge, Kenelm. Mambu: A Melanesian Millennium. 1960.