The current Big Man could be displaced at any time by another individual who was capable of giving away more and bigger gifts. Most Melanesian tribes followed a “Big Man” pattern in which political authority was held by the person best able to give away material gifts. The truth of the cargo cult myth lies in its attempt to tie how Melanesians viewed material wealth with their behavior after encountering industrialized society. But on the other hand, the author here is couching their opinion a little bit and saying, these people who came up with these, you can’t just dismiss them because they’re pretty serious academics. ![]() Note: We know the author is not a fan of this paternalism and materialism stuff. Each had a long and successful career as academic cultural anthropologists and their work, although dated, should not be wholly dismissed. An explosion of films, books, and scholarly articles followed, each further emphasizing the materialism and backwardness of the tribesmen.While contemporary eyes may be offended by the paternalism of this early work, is there any truth to it? Schwartz and Lawrence were no academic lightweights. This so-called documentary caught the public’s imagination. It was not until the 1962 “documentary” film Mondo Cane, however, that the cargo cult myth became widely known and the accepted discourse inside and outside of academia. They’re used to determining your stance and society on how much stuff you’ve had, and then the soldiers came in and they’ve got way more stuff. Note: We have these people of the islands. Lawrence focused on indigenous value systems that predated cargo cults, and suggested again that the materialism and provincialism of Melanesian tribes created the necessary preconditions for cargo cult development. The arrival of enormous quantities of material wealth from the cargo containers was jarring, demonstrating the vastly higher status of Japanese and American servicemen. Local chieftains were often the ones who could most ostentatiously display their status through goods. Schwartz wrote extensively on how the Melanesians had a great emphasis on demonstration of material wealth. Early publications made comparisons to children “playing house.” Theodore Schwartz and Peter Lawrence, two of the first anthropologists to study cargo cults, laid down what became the basic tenets of the cargo cult myth. Passage 2, Paragraph 3Īnthropologists and other Western observers first seeing this behavior, reacted with amused paternalism. Note: It’s actually pretty interesting how the Melanesian islands are pretending they’re in the military to try to get the airplanes back. They built mock airstrips in the jungle, began dressing in outfits designed to mimic soldiers’ uniforms, and even began parading around in imitation of military drills and formations. In response, tribesmen began performing religious rituals to bring the cargo back. To the Melanesians, only the gods could be powerful enough to bestow such amazing material wealth, so the soldiers were seen as priests who had some special power to please the gods and bring the cargo. Seeing large cargo planes dropping huge crates of supplies (often shared with the locals by the servicemen) created societal upheavals. The sudden contact with advanced industrialized society came as a shock to the Melanesians. Staging ground preparations in World War II saw an influx of Japanese and American soldiers into the islands. ![]() The Melanesian islands house groups of tribal peoples who, for thousands of years, had no contact with outsiders. And it’s important to recognize what it is that the author actually cares about. So we have these two parts of this Western imperialism and paternalism, which the author is not a fan of. ![]() Note: What the author cares about here is how this is related to the Western discourse on cargo cult. This myth represents an insidious form of Western imperialism with, at its roots, two pervasive facets of Western culture: materialism and paternalism. More important is the Western discourse that has grown up around cargo cults, which we shall simply call the cargo cult myth. Passage 2 (Questions 7-13)Ĭargo cult behaviors provide opportunity for cultural anthropologists examining millenarian legends. Listen to this podcast episode with the player above, or keep reading for the highlights and takeaway points. In the menu, click “MCAT,” then “Free Resources.” (That’s an affiliate link, so if you end up making a purchase from Blueprint later on, I get a small commission at no extra cost to you.) Get your FREE copy of Blueprint MCAT’s Full-Length 1 to follow along: Go to. If you would like to follow along on YouTube, go to. We’re joined by Phil from Blueprint MCAT, formerly Next Step Test Prep. Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts Session 198
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