cargo cult

One of a number of religious movements, chiefly in Melanesia, that first appeared in the late 19th century but were particularly prevalent during and after World War II with the apparently miraculous dropping of supplies from aeroplanes. Adherents believe in the imminent arrival of European material goods, or ‘cargo’, by supernatural agents such as tribal gods or ancestral spirits. In anticipation, landing strips, wharves, warehouses, and other elaborate preparations for receiving the cargo are often made, and normal activities such as gardening cease, stocks of food are destroyed, and current customs abandoned. These preparations herald the end of the old order and the arrival of a new age of freedom and plenty.

When conversion failed to produce the ‘cargo’ and the expected millennium of a new life free from trouble and fear, some cults took on a more political and activist form, similar to most of the millenarian movements of European history. Because of the economic losses and the political implications of these movements, they were suppressed by the colonial authorities. It has been suggested that cargo cults arose as a result of either colonial oppression or because of the relative deprivation.