Cargo cult

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Cargo cult is a term used to denote various spiritual and political movements that arose among indigenous Melanesians following Western colonisation of the region in the late 19th century. The stereotypical cargo cults were movements of Melanesian villagers revolving around a charismatic prophet figure who sought to induce "ancestral spirits or other powerful beings" to provide them with "cargo" through either reviving ancestral traditions and/or adopting new rituals, such as ecstatic dancing or imitating the actions of colonists.^[1] These prophets also often foretold a cataclysm and/or coming great change in society (a worldview known as millenarianism).^[1][2] Although anthropologists have described a number of movements where the desired "cargo" was Western material goods, which were conceived by the villagers as being produced by ancestral spirits, the term "cargo cult" has been used by anthropologists to "label almost any sort of organised, village-based social movement with religious and political aspirations", where "cargo" could also refer to spiritual salvation, or proto-nationalistic desire for independence from colonial authorities.^[1] Anthropologists see cargo cults as rooted in pre-existing aspects of Melanesian society, such as their focus on material wealth,^[2] as well as a reaction to colonial oppression and inequality disrupting traditional village life.^[1]

The term "cargo cult" was introduced to the field of anthropology by an issue of Pacific Islands Monthly in 1945 around the end of World War II, though similar previous phenomena, first documented in the late 19th century, had been labelled with the term "Vailala Madness".^[1] Following the coining of the term, groups under this label were subject to a considerable number of anthropological publications focusing on the phenomenon through the 1960s. Since the 1970s after Melanesian countries gained political independence, few new groups matching the term have emerged, with some surviving "cargo cult" groups transitioning into indigenous churches and political movements.^[1]

The term has largely fell out of favour and is now seldom used among anthropologists, though its use as a metaphor is widespread outside of the discipline of anthropology in popular commentary and critique.^[3] Recent scholarship on "cargo cults" has challenged the suitability of the term for the movements associated with it, with recent anthropological sources arguing that the term is born of colonialism and prejudice and does not accurately convey the diversity of movements included or the nature of the movements to which it refers,^[1] though some anthropologists continue to see the term as having some descriptive value.^[2]