Editing Cargo cult (section)

== Examples ==
=== First occurrences ===
Discussions of cargo cults usually begin with a series of movements that occurred in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century.<ref name="PIM1946-11">{{cite web| work= XVII(4) Pacific Islands Monthly |title= How "Cargo-Cult" is Born|date =18 November 1946|url= https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-316133697/view?partId=nla.obj-316170445#page/n16/mode/1up| access-date=29 September 2021}}</ref> The earliest recorded movement that has been described as a "cargo cult" was the Tuka Movement that began in [[Fiji]] in 1885 at the height of the colonial era's [[plantation]]-style economy. The movement began with a promised return to a golden age of ancestral potency. Minor alterations to priestly practices were undertaken to update them and attempt to recover some kind of ancestral efficacy. Colonial authorities saw the leader of the movement, Tuka, as a troublemaker, and he was exiled, although their attempts to stop him returning proved fruitless.<ref name="Worsley-1957"/>{{rp|17-31}}

Cargo cults occurred periodically in many parts of the island of New Guinea, including the Taro Cult in northern [[Papua New Guinea]] and the [[Vailala Madness]] that arose from 1919 to 1922.<ref name="PIM1946-11"/><ref name="White-1965"/>{{rp|114}} The last was documented by [[Francis Edgar Williams]], one of the first anthropologists to conduct fieldwork in Papua New Guinea. Less dramatic cargo cults have appeared in [[western New Guinea]] as well, including the [[Asmat Regency|Asmat]] and [[Dani people|Dani]] areas.

=== Pacific cults of World War II ===
[[File:John Frum flag raising.jpg|thumb|Members of the John Frum cult at a ceremonial flag-raising.]]
The most widely known period of cargo cult activity occurred among the [[Melanesians|Melanesian islanders]] in the years during and after [[World War II]]. A small population of indigenous peoples observed, often directly in front of their dwellings, the largest war ever fought by technologically advanced nations. [[Empire of Japan|Japanese]] forces used their foreknowledge of local cargo cult beliefs, intentionally misrepresenting themselves as the ancestors of the Melanesians and distributing goods freely in order to acquire compliance and labor.<ref name="PIM1946-11"/> Later the [[Allies of World War II|Allied forces]] arrived in the islands and did this as well.<ref name="White-1965"/>{{rp|133|quote=When the Americans expelled the Japanese from Biak and Hollandia in 1944, they were in turn hailed as the true deliverers and precursors of Mansren. Cult followers still firmly believed that the mountains of food, clothing and miraculous equipment that the Americans brought was merely a first installment of the great Cargo to come. When the Americans went, the true believers would inherit all this vast wealth.}}<!-- Better source still needed. This source supports that the belief in Japanese as bringers of cargo was swapped out for Americans, however it does not support that the Americans invited this belief deliberately. -->

The vast amounts of military equipment and supplies that both sides [[airdrop]]ped (or airlifted to airstrips) to troops on these islands meant drastic changes to the lifestyle of the islanders, many of whom had never seen outsiders before.<ref name="White-1965"/>{{rp|134}} Manufactured clothing, medicine, canned food, tents, weapons and other goods arrived in vast quantities for the soldiers, who often shared some of it with the islanders who were their guides and hosts. This was true of the Japanese Army as well, at least initially before relations deteriorated in most regions.

In the late 1930s, the [[John Frum]] movement emerged on [[Tanna (island)|Tanna]] in Vanuatu. This tradition urged islanders to resume dancing and [[kava]] drinking (which had been suppressed by missionaries) and to maintain historic traditions. The movement predicted American assistance, which as foretold arrived in 1942. The movement's rituals were influenced by Christianity, and also included similar elements to other cargo cults like "marching and drilling, flags and poles, and flowers".''<ref name="Lindstrom-20182" />'' The John Frum movement has come to be described as the "archetypal" cargo cult.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lindstrom |first=Lamont |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv9zcktq |title=Cargo Cult: Strange Stories of Desire from Melanesia and Beyond |date=2019-03-31 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |isbn=978-0-8248-7895-5 |doi=10.2307/j.ctv9zcktq.10|jstor=j.ctv9zcktq }}</ref>

=== Postwar developments ===
With the end of the war, the military abandoned the airbases and stopped dropping cargo. In response, charismatic individuals developed cults among remote Melanesian populations that promised to bestow on their followers deliveries of food, arms, Jeeps, etc. The cult leaders explained that the cargo would be gifts from their own ancestors, or other sources, as had occurred with the outsider armies.<ref name="White-1965">White, Osmar. ''Parliament of a Thousand Tribes'', Heinemann, London, 1965</ref>

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 military personnel use. Cult behaviors usually involved mimicking the day-to-day activities and dress styles of US soldiers, such as performing parade ground drills with wooden or salvaged rifles.<ref name="White-1965"/> The islanders carved [[headphone]]s from wood and wore them while sitting in fabricated control towers. They waved the landing signals while standing on the [[runway]]s.  They lit signal fires and torches to light up runways and lighthouses.<ref>{{cite video |title=[[Mondo cane]] |date=30 March 1962}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=Citation is a mondo film|date=October 2020}}

In a form of [[sympathetic magic]], many built life-size replicas of airplanes out of straw and cut new military-style landing strips out of the jungle, hoping to attract more airplanes.<ref name="PIM1950-6">{{cite web| work= XX(10) Pacific Islands Monthly |title= They Still Believe in Cargo Cult|date =1 May 1950|url= https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-322270499/view?partId=nla.obj-322562760#page/n82/mode/1up| access-date=30 September 2021}}</ref> The cult members thought that the foreigners had some special connection to the deities and ancestors of the natives, who were the only beings powerful enough to produce such riches.

Cargo cults were typically created by individual leaders, or [[Big man (anthropology)|big men]] in the Melanesian culture. The leaders typically held cult rituals well away from established towns and colonial authorities, thus making reliable information about these practices very difficult to acquire.<ref name="PIM1960-9">{{cite web| last =Inder| first = Stuart | work= XXXI(2) Pacific Islands Monthly |title=On The Trail of the Cargo Cultists|date =1 September 1960|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-322674114/view?partId=nla.obj-322815347#page/n57/mode/1up| access-date=2 October 2021}}</ref>