Was talking with some flip boys the other night and started making fun of the papua new guinians, with their modern day cannibalism and their cargo cults. The latter had to be explained the non-islanders at the table - and so I thought about it some more today, as its such a rich concept.
Cargo cults - the surface aspects of WWII reinterpreted into some surreal response to colonialism. And ahh, when the Papuans and the Vanuatans found out, that planes are made in Michigan and fueled in Houston and only come when the command is from folks like George W. Bush - or Lyndon B. Johnson - the poor natives. Its hard not to share the heartbreak. Freud writes that we each harbor the uncanny demons of our primitive past. If so, what modern man in life has not felt like they've been carving walkie-talkies and sitting in fabricated control towers, waving landing signals on runways, searching a field of broken dreams for a plane that is not scheduled to land?
Or... not. Maybe Freud is wrong. Maybe all that sympathetic magic, prayers for rain, is simply the nessecary precursor not for cargo planes, but for decision. For realizing that the missionaries have been bad matais, and that the ritual of plantation, church, school, is stupid if theres no reciprication of effort from the leaders of the village, who just write magic signs on slips of paper, and steal all the cargo. All that hope and ritual is simply reclamation, a return to roots, anger, independence, freedom, action.
Isn't that how it happened for Ray Kinsella? Once Kinsella believed that
Shoeless Joe Jackson, He Mus Come, he plowed under his cornfield and carved the baseball diamond to attract dead baseball players. And didn't Kev get free medical care for his daughter and find the mojo to tell the bankers and the reposessors after his land to fuck off. Thats right. Hell yeah.
In other news, 8.1 in Tonga! No one hurt. Coast-dwelling Samoans felt the shaking, ran up the mountain, no tsunami warning needed. Yay.
- Ms. Bling
fave cargo cult story is about the prophet Yali. Excerpts from the bbc link above...The greatest of all Cargo Cult prophets was Yali, who was mentioned in the introduction to Jared Diamond's book Guns, Germs, and Steel. Unlike his contemporaries, he remained loyal to Australia during the war. As a reward, after the war ended he was taken to Australia on a grand tour.
He became fascinated by the Queensland Museum, which contained many of the New Guinea gods which had been seized by missionaries, apparently being worshipped by thousands of Australians and tended by priests in white coats. The conclusion was clear - the Australians had stolen the New Guinea gods and were using them to get cargo.
While in Brisbane, Yali made another startling discovery: the Australians kept hundreds of animals in the Brisbane Zoo, which they carefully fed and tended. He also noticed the large number of dogs and cats kept as pets in homes. It wasn't until a conference in Port Moresby5 that he was able to solve this puzzling behaviour. The solution came when he witnessed a book which showed a succession from monkeys into humans. It became clear the depth to which the missionaries had lied: they had claimed Adam and Eve were men's ancestors when they clearly believed that their ancestors were animals who needed to be treated with respect. It was obvious the missionaries had made up such lies in order to hide this truth from the New Guineans, who had held such beliefs before their arrival. Upon returning home, Yali was convinced by the prophet Gurek that the Queensland Museum was actually Rome, that the gods had been taken captive there, and that in order to lure them back the natives had to stop their foolish acceptance of the lies of Christianity.
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That was fun. Tune in next week for: C.H.I.M.P.
