richard_dawkins_-_the_god_delusion
T H E ROOTS OF RELI G I O N 203They build tall masts with wires attached to them; they sitlistening to small boxes that glow with light and emitcurious noises and strangled voices; they persuade thelocal people to dress up in identical clothes, and marchthem up and down - and it would hardly be possible todevise a more useless occupation than that. And then thenative realizes that he has stumbled on the answer tothe mystery. It is these incomprehensible actions thatare the rituals employed by the white man to persuade thegods to send the cargo. If the native wants the cargo, thenhe too must do these things.It is striking that similar cargo cults sprang up independently onislands that were widely separated both geographically andculturally. David Attenborough tells us thatAnthropologists have noted two separate outbreaks inNew Caledonia, four in the Solomons, four in Fiji, sevenin the New Hebrides, and over fifty in New Guinea, mostof them being quite independent and unconnected withone another. The majority of these religions claim that oneparticular messiah will bring the cargo when the day ofthe apocalypse arrives.The independent flowering of so many independent but similarcults suggests some unifying features of human psychology ingeneral.One famous cult on the island of Tanna in the New Hebrides(known as Vanuatu since 1980) is still extant. It is centred on amessianic figure called John Frum. References to John Frum inofficial government records go back only as far as 1940 but, evenfor so recent a myth, it is not known for certain whether he everexisted as a real man. One legend described him as a little man witha high-pitched voice and bleached hair, wearing a coat with shiningbuttons. He made strange prophecies, and he went out of his wayto turn the people against the missionaries. Eventually he returnedto the ancestors, after promising a triumphal second coming, bearingbountiful cargo. His apocalyptic vision included a 'great
204 T H E G O D D E I... U S 1 O Ncataclysm; the mountains would fall flat and the valleys would befilled;* old people would regain their youth and sickness wouldvanish; the white people would be expelled from the island never toreturn; and cargo would arrive in great quantity so that everybodywould have as much as he wanted'.Most worryingly for the government, John Frum alsoprophesied that, on his second coming, he would bring a newcoinage, stamped with the image of a coconut. The people musttherefore get rid of all their money of the white man's currency. In1941 this led to a wild spending spree; the people stopped workingand the island's economy was seriously damaged. The colonialadministrators arrested the ringleaders but nothing that they coulddo would kill the cult, and the mission churches and schoolsbecame deserted.A little later, a new doctrine grew up that John Frum was Kingof America. Providentially, American troops arrived in the NewHebrides around this time and, wonder of wonders, they includedblack men who were not poor like the islanders butas richly endowed with cargo as the white soldiers. Wildexcitement overwhelmed Tanna. The day of theapocalypse was imminent. It seemed that everyone waspreparing for the arrival of John Frum. One of the leaderssaid that John Frum would be coming from America byaeroplane and hundreds of men began to clear the bush inthe centre of the island so that the plane might have anairstrip on which to land.The airstrip had a bamboo control tower with 'air trafficcontrollers' wearing dummy headphones made of wood. Therewere dummy planes on the 'runway' to act as decoys, designed tolure down John Frum's plane.In the 1950s, the young David Attenborough sailed to Tannawith a cameraman, Geoffrey Mulligan, to investigate the cult ofJohn Frum. They found plenty of evidence of the religion and wereeventually introduced to its high priest, a man called Nambas.* Compare Isaiah 40: 4: 'Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain andhill shall be made low.' This similarity doesn't necessarily indicate any fundamentalfeature of the human psyche, or Jungian 'collective unconscious'. These islandshad long been infested with missionaries.
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cataclysm; the mountains would fall flat and the valleys would be
filled;* old people would regain their youth and sickness would
vanish; the white people would be expelled from the island never to
return; and cargo would arrive in great quantity so that everybody
would have as much as he wanted'.
Most worryingly for the government, John Frum also
prophesied that, on his second coming, he would bring a new
coinage, stamped with the image of a coconut. The people must
therefore get rid of all their money of the white man's currency. In
1941 this led to a wild spending spree; the people stopped working
and the island's economy was seriously damaged. The colonial
administrators arrested the ringleaders but nothing that they could
do would kill the cult, and the mission churches and schools
became deserted.
A little later, a new doctrine grew up that John Frum was King
of America. Providentially, American troops arrived in the New
Hebrides around this time and, wonder of wonders, they included
black men who were not poor like the islanders but
as richly endowed with cargo as the white soldiers. Wild
excitement overwhelmed Tanna. The day of the
apocalypse was imminent. It seemed that everyone was
preparing for the arrival of John Frum. One of the leaders
said that John Frum would be coming from America by
aeroplane and hundreds of men began to clear the bush in
the centre of the island so that the plane might have an
airstrip on which to land.
The airstrip had a bamboo control tower with 'air traffic
controllers' wearing dummy headphones made of wood. There
were dummy planes on the 'runway' to act as decoys, designed to
lure down John Frum's plane.
In the 1950s, the young David Attenborough sailed to Tanna
with a cameraman, Geoffrey Mulligan, to investigate the cult of
John Frum. They found plenty of evidence of the religion and were
eventually introduced to its high priest, a man called Nambas.
* Compare Isaiah 40: 4: 'Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and
hill shall be made low.' This similarity doesn't necessarily indicate any fundamental
feature of the human psyche, or Jungian 'collective unconscious'. These islands
had long been infested with missionaries.
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