Cargo Cults

These are religious beliefs born out of a confusion of the local native tribes when they come into contact with more advanced civilizations. Cargo Cults arise when natives believe they can induce cargo (that is modern tools, clothing, items) to arrive by mimicking the actions of the Westerns they observed.

A lot of this happened in the Melanesian world around the second World War. First the JApanese and later the Allied forces entered into contact with the natives. The natives became impressed with the Allies technology, some of which is shared with them. Then, when the war ends, the "cargo" stops coming. At that point, the natives start building imitations of airports, control towers, even airplanes, in the belief that their presence will cause cargo to appear.

A specific example of such a cult is the John Frum in Vanuatu. (And more locally in PNG, from what one of the missionaries has said.) Named after a mysterious GI (and likely misheard when saying "John from America/where ever").

Cargo cults are beginning to die out, though, as the magical thinking breaks down when cargo does not appear.

Going up to the Mountaintop

Today, we went to the mountaintop village of Konduk (/KOHN dook/) for a baptism there. We were told it'd be about an hour's walk up the mountain, but we had enough people going that we took one of the Landrovers instead. I'm glad we did, as the road started as a very uneven stone road and then we turned off it onto a dirt road. You can see one of the wooden bridges to the right. Some of the group decided to walk over the bridges rather than ride. I'm not entirely sure I blame them for that, as it was an interesting ride.



When we got there, they were doing a worship service before the actual baptisms. They had several people being baptized today, I believe I heard the number 16, but I'll admit I didn't get a full count. (And some were rededications, and just gave testimony, but more on that later.) It seems one of the elders in the church had recently died of leukemia and that death moved a number of his family to come to the church. The service was in the middle, though its order seemed similar to the Sunday services I've been to here (and elsewhere, to some extent, though I found similarities in worship services in Shinto shrines). They were singing English worship songs, some of which I knew or were similar enough to ones I knew. The spoken parts were a mixture of Tok Pisin and tok ples, that is one of the local languages. In the image, those in white tops and black pants or skirts were the baptisees. The congregation sat in two sides, the left side had most (all but one or two) of the men and a few women, the right was nearly all female. I'm not sure if it's a conscious decision to sit as such, the missionaries do not follow this tradition if it is one.

There was a sermon that I could almost follow in Tok Pisin in places, and then it would switch, I assume to the tok ples and I would be lost for a moment. It was on Matthew 4 and fighting agianst the temptations of Satan, even after baptism. When the sermon finished, we walked further up the hill, past where they were preparing the traditional Papuan feast in a mumu, an oven dug into the dirt, filled with hot rocks and then the food (pork) being cooked and covered with earth, straw and leaves. (See right.)


Up the hill, and past some of the town gardens was where they had dammed up a part of a stream (or it might have been a drainage ditch, or a wadi that only filled when it rained) as the baptismal font. They had thrown flower petals into the water. (This seems to be a tradition here with major events. The missionaries throw flowers for those leaving for extended periods or when they're leaving at the end of their terms. I suspect the missionaries adopted it from the locals, not vice-versa.) The area around the font was hilly and uneven (and muddy, as even in the dry season that the country is in now, it rains nearly daily). Yet, despite the lack of good views, it seems most of the village and likely several from nearby (such as ourselves) had turned out for the baptism. Thus, it was a bit crowded and the footing unstable in places, but everyone seemed helpful in getting through the bad parts and helping us to get a good view.

There was a second sermon here, this time from a woman preacher, which I found striking as almost all the rest of the church leadership I have witnessed here has been male. She preached mostly in tok ples, so I could follow very little of it, save for a few Pisin words that had made their way into it. During her scripture reading, someone read the the Scripture in Tok Pisin first, then she gave it in tok ples, a verse at a time.

What followed were the baptisms. One at a time, they came forward and gave a testimony. Some were rededicating their lives to the church, and thus didn't get immersed, but the others did go in and were immersed in what I can only assume was a cold mountain stream.

A bit of a side note: They are very unaware of the American culture behind a good bit of their clothing. A large amount of the clothing in Papua New Guinea is second hand from Australia and other Western nations. As you can see on the right, one of the elders doing the baptism has a South Park tie, and I will admit while I am fairly liberal in my faith, I am not certain I would wear that tie to a baptism in the US. Simiarly, there was a young man wearing a t-shirt for MTV's Jackass, with the title for the series prominently displayed on the front of the shirt. I doubt that the people here know the culture that these things represent. There was the knowledge that this is the sort of even that one wears a tie to, and I suspect there are not a large number of ties available. (And I doubt that South Park is well known here.)

As Miriam was getting a bit tired, we left about halfway through the immersions. On the way back to the car we did see them taking the pork out of the oven and getting ready for the feast. The natives here feast often, as food is usually abundant.

One other note, we did see the grave of the village and church elder who had died. He wanted to be buried near the church (it's the brown building in the background). This is the traditional grave for those who can afford it here. (Or those who are important enough that their families feel they should spend the money on such grave sites.) Inside the small house is the coffin, above ground, surrounded by flowers. I have seen other such graves along the roads here, both the stone and dirt roads up the mountain and the main road back into Mt Hagen. This is the traditional way to bury Big Men, that is civic leaders. (I need to ask how long the graves stay like this, as I have not seen more than one or two in a village.)

In all, a very interesting day.

Article Notes: Stewart, PJ and A Strathern

Female Spirit Cults as a Window on Gender Relations in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea
By P J Stewart and A Strathern
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 5.3 (Sept 9,
1999): p345.

This article examines three cults based around female spirits in the PNG highlands: one in Hagen, one in Duna, and one in Pangia. The cults generally are/were practiced by groups of men worshiping a female spirit, asking for success in reproduction and other things (varied by cult).

Duna, which was the more geographically removed of the three focused on acquiring powers for the individual. Such powers might be detecting witches through divination, healing, etc. Each parish had its own maternal spirit.

Hagen was more group oriented in its goals, stressing alliances through exchanges. Pangia was similarly group-focused.

Christianity has since its introduction influenced these beliefs. Many of the menstral rituals were abandoned, cult practices were dissuaded and it promoted monogamy rather than the polygyny (and some polyandry) practiced by these groups.

Hagen's cult was extant from 1964 through 1984. Pangia's began in the 1920s, but died out within a generation, no longer present when Christian missionaries arrived in 1967. Duna the cults slowly vanished in the 1960s as Christianity came into the region. That said, the middle aged and older adults are still influenced by some of the cult beliefs today.

Hagen's cult was around Amb Kor. The tribe would invite allies to participate in the rituals. They divived the men into 2 groups, rapa (men's house) and amb-nga (women's house). One man from each group would be paired together in the ritual. Women stayed outside of the ritual grounds and sex was avoided during the ritual. However, women provided the food and sacrifices for the rituals. After preparations were complete, there would be a ritual dance and a feast.

The Pangia cult was around Laiyeroa. It placed limits on menstrating women. Also limited which foods could be consumed and involved a ritualized cooking. Sex again was avoided during the ritual. There was a fear about injesting menstral blood. It was believed that doing so could make a man pregnant. As gender confusion is greatly feared in the culture, any such injestion was greatly feared and the rituals protected the men from the power of menstral blood.

In Duna, Payame Ima was worshiped. Married men were also excluded with the women. The rituals were for a coming-0f-age for boys into manhood. However, the ability to divine witches was also received through the rituals. This was believed to help protect the boys from witchcraft.

Major Themes:
1) Women's work was integral to the cult.

• cults needed both genders to collaborate
• women provided needed food/sacrifices (pigs)
• Also made netbags (which symbolized the womb)
  

2) Observing Taboos

• both genders have to keep taboos
• even the exclusion taboos needed to be kept for the rituals potency
• ritutals benefited both genders

3) Reproductive Symbolism

• Hagen/Pangia had visual elements that inferred sexual activity and the procreative outcome
• used reproductive organs of sacrificed sows
• Duna had male and female elements merged in a hut (womb)
  

4) Menstral Taboos

• Blood -> fertile woman, no blood (yet) -> Not fertile
• Absence of blood in a fertile woman was a good sign
• Taboo due to 'power of menstral blood' and the fear of male -> female gender changes
  

5) Collaboration vs Trickery

• narratives stress that achieving procreation (or at least wives) through trickery leads to problems
• Rituals require the collaboration of the genders
  

6) Incest, cosmos, exchange

• Incest both frowned upon and common
• Boys today "spend too much time with their mothers", implied that it might lead to incest
• everyone helps with brideprice for sons to avoid incest
• Daughters' brideprices used often to pay off father's debts paying for the mother

Conclusions:

• Male cults have collaborative elements and themes
• Male exclucivity obscures both female agency in the rituals and symbolization of gender relations
• Gender alliances stressed rather than male dominance
• Both separation and conjuction stressed
  

Article Notes: Bartle, Neville

Basic Themes of Melanesian Worldview
Published: self published (?)

Major themes/concepts:
Life is clan-centered

• Tribe first, self/others later
• leads to corruption in govt and business
• resources should be used to help tribe
  

Life is balanced

• A gives B a gift. B now owes A one, A can ask for it
• No giving vs selling, all trade
• Share the wealth (means lots of people owe you)
• Pols spread money/projects for votes.
• A injures B, B can extract revenge from A
• Modern courts confuse this, causing problems with law/order
• Friends will pay back/give gifts
  

Male > Female

• Males stay and give to tribe
• Females give to another tribe
• Males -> Gardener, Females -> Garden
• Homosexuality is rare/non-existant
• Sex not mentioned, marriage a way of "sharing the wealth" and making someone owe you
  

Life's goal is to be "Big Man"

• Big Man has a lot of people who owe them
• Happens in Politics lots
• Pols switch sides as it suits them
• Polygamy -> lots of people, children, also allies with wives' tribes

Life is measured in events, not a timeline

• Time is neither linear nor cyclic
• Series of "nows"
• "Do you have a headache" will be answered in the affirmative if they have -ever- had a headache
• Tok Pisin does not have true tenses
• Little planning for future (food always available, no need)
• Some remembering of past
  

Goal of life is well-being & harmony

• Live in now
• Life abundant
• no spirit/physical duality
• Appease spirits to right physical issues
  

Power should have results

• All power should produce
• Less stress on religious doctrine, more on what it does for the adherent
• pragmatic life view
• no need for future planning (food available year round)
  

Dead live on as spirits

• Similar to Shinto beliefs
• Dead influence physical
• need appeased via sacrifice
• blood sacrifices have become rare
• no traditional heaven/hell analogue
  

More sources of power -> good

• Polyreligous tendancies
• "Cover all bases"
  

Life is to be celebrated

• Like to feast
• No indiginous methods of food storing
• Rather, when abundant, share with everyone. Then they owe you