Cargo!

This is coolbert:

Perhaps one of the most curious and surprising phenomenon to emerge from World War Two [WW2] was the cargo cult.

A phenomenon confined to but widespread in New Guinea and Melanesia [black man's islands].

A "religion" [??] based upon the perceptions and observations made by the "natives" during WW2.

"A cargo cult is any of a group of religious movements that occurred in Melanesia, in the Southwestern Pacific. The Cargo Cults believe that manufactured western goods ('cargo') have been created by ancestral spirits and intended for Melanesian people. White people, however, have unfairly gained control of these objects. Cargo cults thus focus on overcoming what they perceive as undue 'white' influences by conducting rituals similar to the white behavior they have observed, presuming that the ancestors will at last recognize their own and this activity will make cargo come."

Persons ["natives"], who had been previously living a stone age existence for tens of millenniums undisturbed, suddenly and without warning came into contact with outside forces that were way beyond their knowledge or understanding. Persons who had led lives basically unmolested and undisturbed for tens of thousands of years came into contact with the 20th Century.

This was a profound shock for them.

New Guinea in particular became a battleground of importance in World War Two [WW2]. A place on earth that was until that time an unexplored and unknown backwater overnight became of great importance.

New Guinea, mostly because of geography, was intensely isolated from the rest of the world.

Running the length of the island of New Guinea is the Owen Stanley Mountains. Rising to 15,000 feet in some places, jungle covered, trackless. IT WAS NOT UNTIL THE WAR THAT A SMALL DETACHMENT OF AUSTRALIANS, FLEEING THE JAPANESE, WERE ABLE TO CROSS THE MOUNTAINS, FROM ONE COASTLINE TO ANOTHER [NORTH TO SOUTH]. PRIOR TO THIS, NO KNOWN CROSSING OF THE OWEN STANLEY MOUNTAINS HAD BEEN MADE.

[if "natives" had done so, there was no record of it. Doubtful if any "natives" had ever done so. They would not have had a need to!!]

The members of the cargo cults believe that by performing the proper rituals, "cargo" will arrive. To be discharged from airplanes and ships. "Cargo" sent by "white men" called either John Frum or Tom Navy.

These rituals are based upon the observations made of U.S. military personnel performing duties that would land aircraft or bring ships to dock.

A man [John Frum [???]] at a control tower would "talk" to a "bird" [a cargo plane]. The cargo plane would land at an airport and other white men would emerge from the "bird", and unload cargo.

[please keep in mind that the natives do not realize that this "bird" is a mechanical apparatus. They DO THINK it is some sort of bird. A real live natural bird, not a machine.]

"The most famous examples of Cargo Cult behavior have been the airstrips, airports, and radios made out of coconuts and straw. The cult members built them in the belief that the structures would attract transport aircraft full of cargo. Believers stage "drills" and "marches" with twigs for rifles and military-style insignia and "USA" painted on their bodies to make them look like soldiers."

The natives evidently had also observed "Tom Navy", a navy signalman, signaling to a landing craft that was offshore. This landing craft would then beach, troops would disembark, and cargo offloaded.

"In attempts to get cargo to fall by parachute or land in planes or ships again, islanders imitated the same practices they had seen the soldiers, sailors and airmen use. They carved headphones from wood, and wore them while sitting in fabricated control towers. They waved the landing signals while standing on the runways. They lit signal fires and torches to light up runways and lighthouses. The cultists thought that the foreigners had some special connection to their own ancestors, who were the only beings powerful enough to produce such riches.

In a form of sympathetic magic, many built life-size mockups of airplanes out of straw, and created new military style landing strips, hoping to attract more airplanes. Ultimately, though these practices did not bring about the return of the god-like airplanes that brought such marvelous cargo during the war, they did serve to eradicate the religious practices that had existed prior to the war."

Whoa, this stuff is really strange. Was originally brought to the attention of the western public in a famous Italian movie, "Mondo Cane" [Dog's World].

"Plot Outline: The original "shockumentary" consisting of a collection of mostly real archive footage displaying mankind at its most depraved and perverse, displaying bizarre rituals, cruel behavior, and animal violence."

Well, it is a strange world, with "bizarre rituals" is it not??

Now, about that bird I want to have land in my backyard. I want cargo too!

coolbert.