Editing Cargo cult (section)

== Theoretical explanations ==
Anthropologist [[Anthony F. C. Wallace]] conceptualized the "Tuka movement" as a [[revitalization movement]].{{full citation needed|date=May 2013}} [[Peter Worsley]]'s analysis of cargo cults placed the emphasis on the economic and political causes of these popular movements. He viewed them as "proto-national" movements by indigenous peoples seeking to resist colonial interventions.<ref name="Worsley-1957"/>{{rp|168}}<!-- proto-nationalist mentioned several times, 168 is just an example, alongside 58, 182, 193 --> He observed a general trend away from millenarianism towards secular political organization through political parties and cooperatives.<ref name="Worsley-1957"/>{{rp|231}}

Theodore Schwartz was the first to emphasize that both Melanesians and Europeans place great value on the demonstration of wealth. "The two cultures, broadly speaking, met on the common ground of materialistic, competitive striving for prestige through entrepreneurial achievement of wealth."<ref name="Schwartz-p174" /> Melanesians felt "relative deprivation" in their standard of living, and thus came to focus on cargo as an essential expression of their personhood and [[Agency (sociology)|agency]].<ref name="Schwartz-p174" />{{rp|178}}

[[Peter Lawrence (anthropologist)|Peter Lawrence]] was able to add greater historical depth to the study of cargo cults, and observed the striking continuity in the indigenous value systems from pre-cult times to the time of his study. [[Kenelm Burridge]], in contrast, placed more emphasis on cultural change, and on the use of memories of myths to comprehend new realities, including the "secret" of European material possessions. His emphasis on cultural change follows from Worsley's argument on the effects of capitalism; Burridge points out these movements were more common in coastal areas which faced greater intrusions from European colonizers.<ref name="Otto-2009"/>{{rp|85}}

Cargo cults often develop during a combination of crises. Under conditions of social stress, such a movement may form under the leadership of a charismatic figure. This leader may have a "[[Vision (spirituality)|vision]]" (or "myth-dream") of the future, often linked to an ancestral efficacy ("[[Mana (Oceanian mythology)|mana]]") thought to be recoverable by a return to traditional morality.<ref name="Burridge">{{cite book|last=Burridge|first=Kenelm|title=New Heaven, New Earth: A study of Millenarian Activities|publisher=Basil Blackwell|year=1969|location=London|page=48}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Burridge|first=Kenelm|title=Contemporary Pacific Societies: Studies in Development and Change|publisher=Prentice Hall|year=1993|editor1-last=Lockwood|editor1-first=V. S.|location=Englewood Cliffs, NJ|page=283|editor2-last=Harding|editor2-first=T. G.|editor3-last=B. J.|editor3-first=Wallace}}</ref> This leader may characterize the present state as a dismantling of the old social order, meaning that social hierarchy and ego boundaries have been broken down.<ref name="Worsley-1957"/>

Contact with colonizing groups brought about a considerable transformation in the way indigenous peoples of Melanesia have thought about other societies. Early theories of cargo cults began from the assumption that practitioners simply failed to understand technology, colonization, or capitalist reform; in this model, cargo cults are a misunderstanding of the systems involved in resource distribution, and an attempt to acquire such goods in the wake of interrupted trade. However, many of these practitioners actually focus on the importance of sustaining and creating new ''social'' relationships, with material relations being secondary.<ref name="Otto-2009"/>{{rp|93-4}}

Since the late twentieth century, alternative theories have arisen. For example, some scholars, such as Kaplan and Lindstrom, focus on Europeans' characterization of these movements as a fascination with manufactured goods and what such a focus says about [[consumerism]].<ref name="Lindstrom">{{cite book|last=Lindstrom|first=Lamont|title=Cargo Cult: Strange Stories of desire from Melanesia and beyond|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|year=1993|location=Honolulu}}</ref> Others point to the need to see each movement as reflecting a particularized historical context, even eschewing the term "cargo cult" for them unless there is an attempt to elicit an exchange relationship from Europeans.<ref name="Otto-2009"/>{{Page needed|date=September 2024|reason=Possible synth}}

=== Discourse on cargo cults ===
According to Ton Otto, the most forceful criticism of the term ''cargo cult'' comes from Nancy McDowell, who argues that cargo cults don't really exist as a distinct phenomenon, but rather reflect a general bias in some observers to view change as sudden and complete rather than gradual and evolutionary. Otto disagrees, arguing that McDowell overly focused on just one aspect of the term (the perception of change), and that the term remains a valuable analytical and comparative tool because it encapsulates a range of features that, when combined, allow for useful comparisons of [[social movement]]s that frequently shared similar characteristics, even if not all features were present in every case.<ref name="Otto-2009"/>{{rp|86-7}}

Otto also summarizes Lamont Lindstrom's analysis and examination of "cargoism", the discourse of Western scholarship about cargo cults. Lindstrom's analysis is concerned with Western fascination with the phenomenon in both academic and popular writing. In his opinion, the term ''cargo cult'' is deeply problematic because of its pejorative connotation of backwardness, since it imputes a goal ([[cargo]]) obtained through the wrong means ([[cult]]); the actual goal is not so much obtaining material goods as creating and renewing social relationships under threat. [[Martha Kaplan]] thus argues in favor of erasing the term altogether, though Otto argues the term remains useful.<ref name="Otto-2009"/>{{rp|87-9}} The term ''cargo cult'' is increasingly avoided in the field of [[anthropology]] for failing to represent the complexity of Melanesian beliefs.<ref name="jarvis">{{Cite web|last=Jarvis|first=Brooke|date=2019|title=Who Is John Frum?|url=https://www.topic.com/who-is-john-frum|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190418154125/https://www.topic.com/who-is-john-frum |archive-date=2019-04-18 |access-date=|website=Topic}}</ref>

In the late 1990s, religious scholar [[Andreas Grünschloß]] applied the term "cargoism" to adherents of [[UFO religions]] regarding their [[Millenarianism|millenarian beliefs]] about the arrival of [[Extraterrestrial intelligence|intelligent aliens]] on technologically advanced [[spacecraft]]s on planet Earth, in comparison to the [[Melanesians|Melanesian islanders]]'s faith in the return of [[John Frum]] carrying the cargo with him on the islands.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Grünschloß |first=Andreas |author-link=Andreas Grünschloß |date=December 1998 |title=«When we enter into my Father's spacecraft». Cargoistic hopes and millenarian cosmologies in new religious UFO movements |url=https://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/ep/0004/article/view/3771/3587 |journal=[[Marburg Journal of Religion]] |publisher=[[University of Marburg]] |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=1–24 |doi=10.17192/mjr.1998.3.3771 |issn=1612-2941 |access-date=6 October 2024}}</ref>