What are natural materials? What is built from natural materials by the adherents of the cargo cult in Melanesia.

17.04.2019

Or cargo cult (English cargo cult - worship of cargo), also the religion of airplane worshipers or the cult of the Gifts of Heaven - a term that is called a group of religious movements in Melanesia. Cargo cults believe that Western goods (cargo, English cargo) were created by the spirits of their ancestors and are intended for the Melanesian people. It is believed that white people were dishonestly gaining control over these items. Cargo cults carry out rituals similar to the actions of white people to increase these items. The cargo cult is a manifestation of "magical thinking".

Cargo cults have been recorded since the 19th century, but they became especially widespread after the Second World War. Members of a cult usually do not fully understand the importance of manufacturing or commerce. Their concepts of Western society, religion and economics can be partial and fragmentary.

In the most famous cults of cargo from coconut trees and straw "replicas" of runways, airports and radio towers are being built. Members of the cult build them, believing that these structures will attract transport planes (which are considered messengers of the spirits) filled with cargo (cargo). Believers regularly conduct drill exercises ("drill") and some kind of military marches, using branches instead of rifles and drawing on the body of the order and the inscription "USA".

The first cargo cults were recorded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The earliest is the Tuka movement, which originated in Fiji in 1885. Other early cults originated mainly in Papua New Guinea - the Tarot cult in the north and the frenzy of Vailal.

Classic cargo cults were prevalent during and after World War II. A huge amount of cargo was dropped on the islands during the Pacific campaign against the Japanese Empire, which made a fundamental change in the life of the islanders. Industrialized clothing, canned food, tents, weapons and other useful things appeared in huge quantities on the islands in order to provide the army, as well as the islanders, who were the guides of the military and hospitable hosts. At the end of the war, the air bases were abandoned, and the cargo ("cargo") no longer arrived.

The islanders imitated the actions of soldiers, sailors and pilots in order to receive cargo and see falling parachutes, planes arriving or arriving ships. They made headphones out of wood and applied them to their ears while they were in control towers built of wood. They depicted landing signals from a runway built of wood. They lit torches to illuminate these lanes and lighthouses. The cult believed that foreigners had a special bond with their ancestors, who were the only creatures who could produce such wealth.

The islanders built life-size airplanes from wood, runways to attract airplanes. In the end, since this did not lead to the return of the divine planes with amazing cargo, they completely abandoned their previous religious beliefs, which existed before the war, and began to worship more thoroughly airfields and aircraft.

Over the past 75 years, most of the cargo cults have disappeared. However, the cult of John Froome is still alive on the island of Tanna (Vanuatu).

Other examples of cargo cults

A similar cult, the dance of spirits, originated with the contact of Indians and Anglo-Americans at the end of the 19th century. Prophet Vovoka of the Payute people preached that if you dance in a certain way, the ancestors will return by rail, and new earth will cover white people.
During Vietnam War part of the Hmong people believed in the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ, who would come dressed in camouflage at the wheel of a military jeep to take them to the promised land.
Throughout the history of the Mashon and Matabele uprisings in 1896-1897 against British colonization in Southern Rhodesia, messianic beliefs arose that resemble the cult of cargo. One of the leaders of the uprising, the priest Mkvati and his associates firmly adhered to the principle that their soldiers should kill Europeans, but should not take their things.
Some Amazonian Indians carved models of cassette audio players from wood, with which they spoke to spirits.

Based on materials from Wiki -

It would seem that religion has always been with humanity. Traces of religious cults and traditions have survived to this day in the most ancient excavations and burials. But nothing comes from anywhere, and faith in higher power in the same way, it could not arise from scratch. Perhaps the clue can be found by examining the most interesting religious phenomenon - the "cargo cult".

The twentieth century went down in history not only as the era of the development of science and the emergence of new technologies. At the same time, many new religious beliefs were formed at this time, and the process of their emergence, development and extinction took place literally in front of one or two generations of people. However, not all of the "new" religions quickly disappeared, some exist to this day, clearly not intending to disappear into oblivion. The most interesting of these cults, in my opinion, is the so-called cargo cult, which is still widespread on the islands of the Pacific Ocean.

It is primarily interesting because it is a real "folk" religion with all its attributes. The fact is that most of the religions of the 20th century are in fact either some modifications of traditional confessions (for example, the Hare Krishnas are just a cosmopolitan version of the ancient Hindu confession of Vishnuism), or a kind of religious "postmodernism". It consists in the fact that someone, very well-read and educated, chooses pieces he likes from various faiths, skillfully sews them together and passes them off as a new "true faith." There are many examples of such teachings - "White Brotherhood", "Aum Shinrikyo", "Living Ethics" and so on, and so on.

However, they all have one characteristic feature- the name and biography of the founder of each particular religion is well known. And often his goal, which in most cases is both simple and unpretentious, is to ensure that he is popular among the masses in order to get rich. Therefore, these teachings, as a rule, do not last long, since already the second generation of adepts begins to think about what goals the founder pursues, and, in most cases, comes to the correct conclusions. With cargo cults, the story is completely different.

Despite the fact that most cargo cults appeared in the middle of the 20th century (although the first of them, the Tuka movement, appeared in Fiji as early as 1885), it is almost impossible to say who was the founder of each of them. In just 50-70 years, their names managed to be erased in the memory of the adepts. Accordingly, the original plans also managed to be forgotten - they were replaced by the religious ideology created by literally the whole world of adherents. Therefore, for scientists studying this phenomenon, it is already quite difficult to reconstruct the situations in which the key rituals and ideological attitudes of the new cult were born.

Secondly, cargo cults were a real gift for anthropologists and ethnopsychologists, who believed that their emergence represented perfect model describing the process of the emergence of religion. And what was their surprise when they saw that, according to this model, the emergence of religious beliefs is based not on irrational revelations, but ... clear logic. And, as expected, iron.

It's hard to deny the islanders' ability to compare facts and to deduce patterns on this basis. They are very observant, and since the colonization of their islands by Europeans, they have learned one simple truth - white people somehow have many useful things and tasty food, for which they do not need to spend any effort.

Indeed, depending on what the officials of the colonial administration or the military were doing, the natives could not remember that they would ever work, that is, they collected edible plants, hunted, fished, raised pigs or cultivated gardens - and this is exactly what is considered work from their point of view. Nevertheless, whites always have everything. A logical question arises - from where? Maybe all this is delivered to them by unknown deities?

Suspicion grew into confidence when the natives realized that the white most time they are engaged in absolutely meaningless (at first glance, and at the second - too) actions. They shift from place to place sheets of paper, while drawing something on them, press the buttons of strange devices, march in beautiful clothes with weapons. And from the point of view of the islanders, this meant only one thing - these actions are ritual, that is, they are religious ceremonies. It remained only to find out how the white deities answer the prayers of their flock. And this case soon presented itself.

In the 30-40s of the last century, in connection with the outbreak of the Second World War, military garrisons were deployed on many islands of the Pacific Ocean. They were supplied, fearing Japanese submarines, mainly by air, that is, they dropped cargo from aircraft. This was the answer to a question that had tormented the natives for a long time. Now two and two add up to four. They realized that after the whites had enough of running around with guns and pushing all sorts of buttons, the best of the flock went to a sacred place - to the airfield, and performed there the final ritual dance with flags. After all, the actions of signalmen from the outside can be interpreted so, right? As a result, an iron winged messenger arrives from the gods, who delivers everything you need, dropping a load by parachute. So, the mechanism of interaction of whites with their god became absolutely clear.

Then another discovery awaited the natives, which, in fact, led to the creation of cargo cults. The garrisons of the Allied forces included not only pale-faced, but also black soldiers. It was they who made up the majority of the aerodrome service personnel. From this, the islanders concluded that the white gods help not only them alone, but everyone who believes in them.

This is where it started mass occurrence cargo cults. They spontaneously appeared in New Guinea (there were as many as fifty of them!), The Solomon Islands, in Melanesia and Micronesia. The most famous, however, turned out to be a cargo cult in Vanuatu. Let's dwell on it in more detail.

At birth this cult on the islands of the archipelago, a local man named Manehivi announced that a prophet named John Froome had appeared to him. He said that if the natives abandon all aspects of European society (money, Western education, Christianity, work on coconut plantations), then the gods will arrange an "apocalypse", as a result of which all white people, including missionaries, will forever leave their land, and the indigenous the Melanesian population will receive the material benefits that the "white race" enjoys. The effect was amazing - in 1941, the followers of John Froom got rid of all their money, left missionary churches, schools, villages and plantations and moved to the interior of Tanna Island.

Attempts by the colonial authorities to arrest the ringleaders and liquidate this "harmful" religion from their point of view did not bring results - on the contrary, the cargo cult of John Froom had the first "martyrs", which further stimulated its development. His followers built a symbolic airstrip on the island and placed mock planes made of wood and straw there to lure John Froome's divine plane to the island. They also built symbolic towers on which "dispatchers" were on duty, wearing dummy headphones on their heads.

The connection with the prophet was carried out as follows - the newly minted priests of the cult, seeing the negotiations of the whites with each other on the radio, skillfully imitated this kind communication. For this, women were selected who were easily amenable to suggestion, their waists were wrapped with wires, after which they fell into a trance and began to pronounce incomprehensible words... The priest "translated" these incoherent cries to all the islanders and interpreted them. So in the new religion, which until now was based on an exclusively rational approach, a mystical-irrational element appeared (and, mind you, at a fairly late stage).

Who is this John Froome, who to this day is revered in Vanuatu as the prophet of the new religion? Scientists have never been able to establish his identity. There is speculation that the name "John Frum" is a distortion of the expression "John from (America)" that is, "John from (America)". It is possible that they called themselves so american soldiers introducing himself to the natives. And since in a number of Vanuatu dialects "o" turns into "y" during transliteration, so Froome was born. Interestingly, this surname is quite rare both in the United States and in the UK and Australia. Therefore, it was easy enough to establish that there was no such soldier or official on the islands at the indicated time.

The cargo cult of John Froome, most likely, would have died out a few years after its inception (as was the case with many similar cults on other islands), but the allies, unwillingly, supported him by the fact that after the end of the war, upon liquidation military bases distributed to the natives a lot of things and products from military warehouses. Some experts in the history of religion compare this act with the collapse of the Roman Empire, which led to the rapid spread of Christianity in the Mediterranean, for the original dream of the adherents of this religion came true. And the cult continued to develop.

In 1957, one of the leaders of the new religion named Nakomakha created the "Tanna Army" - an organization uniting the most diligent adepts. They began to hold symbolic military parades in which participants wore T-A USA (Tanna Army USA) T-shirts. Since then, parades have been held annually on February 15, the day on which, according to the followers of the cult, John Frum is supposed to appear to the islanders.

Several times Christian missionaries challenged the adherents of the cargo cult to religious disputes in the hope that victory in the discussion would help them return their lost flock. However, the result always turned out to be the opposite - the ignorant, seemingly, cargo cult fans easily won the arguments of sophisticated theologians. These public disputes further strengthened the position of the cargo cult, and the phrase "If you have been waiting for your coming of your Jesus Christ for 2 thousand years, why don't we wait another 50 years for what John Froome promised?" became one of the popular slogans of the new religion.

In the 70s of the last century, in the previously unified religion in Vanuatu, "heretical" movements arose. After the British Prince Charles visited the islands, some of the residents decided that he was the incarnation of John Froome. They formed their own "church", which still exists in parallel with the main one. Interestingly, there have not been any religious wars between these two directions so far.

These days, the cargo cult in Vanuatu is experiencing a new phase of recovery. This is due to the fact that the new religion is actively promoted in the European and American media, which arouses the interest of tourists in it. Which, of course, pay adepts well for the opportunity to watch ceremonies and participate in rituals.

So, let's summarize. The cargo cult, which emerged more than 50 years ago, not only has not died, but also continues to develop and attract new adepts. At the same time, it has long been performing the function of interethnic religions like Christianity, Islam or Buddhism, uniting representatives of different tribes and clans into a single community. So it has every chance of becoming the main religion of the peoples of Oceania over time.

In conclusion, I would like to note once again that the cargo cult very clearly showed that religion is born not from mystical revelations, but from a person's ability to analyze the results of his observations. Of course, in this case, the analysis was based on the wrong, from our point of view, premises - the natives did not know where the whites were actually getting all these things from. However, can anyone say with absolute certainty that he knows true reasons of things? And let not iron birds fly to the call of the cargo cult adepts, but tourists with a "long dollar" - it turns out that their rituals work, that is, they bring them the coveted canned food and Coca-Cola.

In this article you can find out all the answers in the game "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" for October 7, 2017 (10/07/2017). First, you can watch the questions asked by the players Dmitry Dibrov, and then all the correct answers in today's intellectual TV game "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" for 7.10.2017.

Questions to the first pair of players

Yuri Stoyanov and Igor Zolotovitsky (200,000 - 400,000 rubles)

1. What fate befell the house in the fairy tale of the same name?
2. What does the chorus of the song in Svetlana Druzhinina's film call for the midshipmen?
3. What button cannot be found on the remote control of a modern elevator car?
4. What expression means the same as “walking”?
5. What is stroganin made of?
6. Under what operating mode washing machine is centrifugal force especially important?
7. What is the phrase from the film “ Magic lamp Aladdina "became the name of the album of the group" AuktsYon "?
8. Where do the sailors of the sailing ship take their places on the command "Whistle all up!"?
9. Which of the four portraits in the foyer of the theater on Taganka was added by Lyubimov at the insistence of the district party committee?
10. The flag of which state is not tricolor?
11. Who can rightfully be called a hereditary sculptor?
12. What is the name of the human body model - a visual aid for future doctors?
13. What was inside the first easter egg made by Carl Faberge?

Questions to the second pair of players

Svetlana Zeynalova and Timur Solovyov (200,000 - 200,000 rubles)

1. What people create in social networks?
2. Where, if you believe catch phrase, is there a road paved with good intentions?
3. What is used for sifting flour?
4. How to correctly continue Pushkin's line: "He made himself respect ..."?
5. What has appeared this year for the first time in the history of the Confederations Football Cup?
6. In which city is the unfinished Sagrada Familia located?
7. How does the line of the popular song end: "The leaves were falling, and the blizzard of chalk ..."?
8. What kind of creativity did Arkady Velurov do in the film "Pokrovskie Vorota"?
9. What is considered to be the addition of the bastard plant?
10. What did the Parisians see in 1983 thanks to Pierre Cardin?
11. Who killed huge snake Python?
12. What title did the 50 Swiss franc note receive in 2016?
13. What is being built from natural materials cargo cultists in Melanesia?

Answers to the questions of the first pair of players

fell apart
keep your chin up
"Go!"
on foot
salmon
spinning
"Everything is calm in Baghdad"
on the upper deck
Konstantin Stanislavsky
Albania
Alexandra Rukavishnikova
phantom
golden chicken

Answers to the questions of the second pair of players

profile
And I could not have imagined it better
video replays for judges
in Barcelona
Where have you been?
sang verses
of money
play "Juno and Avos"
Apollo
the most beautiful
runways

During the Second World War, on some of the islands of Melanesia (a set of Pacific island groups) interesting cults arose - the so-called "cargo cults" (cargo - cargo transported on a ship), which appeared among the local aborigines as a result of contact with civilized aliens, mainly with Americans.

The Americans, who fought with the Japanese, set up their military bases on the Pacific islands. They built runways there for aircraft to land on. Sometimes the planes did not land, but simply dropped their cargo and flew back. In general, cargo flew in or fell from the sky.

The islanders had never seen white people before, so they watched them with interest. Moreover, they had so many interesting things: lighters, flashlights, beautiful cans of jam, steel knives, clothes with shiny buttons, shoes, tents, beautiful pictures with white women, bottles of fire water, and so on. The natives saw that all these items were delivered in the form of a cargo from the sky. It was all so amazing!

After observing for a while, the natives discovered that the Americans did not work to obtain all these fabulous benefits. They did not grind grain in mortars, did not go hunting and did not collect coconuts. Instead, they marked mysterious stripes on the ground, put on headphones and shouted incomprehensible words. Then they shone fires or searchlights into the sky, waved flags - and iron birds flew in from the sky and brought them cargo - all these wonderful things that the Americans gave to the islanders in exchange for coconuts, shells and the favor of young natives. Sometimes the pale-faced lined up in even columns and for some reason stood in rows and shouted various unknown words.

Then the war ended, the Americans turned down their tents, said goodbye in a friendly way and flew away on their birds. And there was nowhere else to take lanterns, jam, pictures and especially fire water.

The natives were not lazy. But no matter how hard they worked, they did not get either canvas tents, or beautiful clothes with a pattern, or cans of stew, or a flask with a wonderful drink. And it was offensive and unfair.

And then they asked the question: why did good things fall from the sky for the pale-faced, but not for them? What are they doing wrong? Day and night they turned millstones and dug gardens - and nothing fell from the sky. Probably, to get all these wonderful things, you have to do the same as the pale-faced. Namely, put on your headphones and shout the words, and then lay lanes, light bonfires and wait. Probably all of this - magic rituals and the magic that the pale-faced have mastered. After all, it was quite obvious that all beautiful things appeared as a result of magical actions, and no one had ever seen the Americans do them themselves.

When, a few years later, anthropologists reached the island, they discovered that a completely unprecedented religious cult had arisen there. Pillars were stuck everywhere, connected by hemp ropes. Some natives made clearings in the jungle, built wicker towers with antennas, waved flags of painted mats, others in headphones made of halved coconuts shouted something into bamboo microphones. And on the paved paths were thatched planes. The swarthy bodies of the aborigines were painted under military uniform with letters USA and orders. They marched diligently, holding their wicker rifles.

The planes did not arrive, but the natives believed that they probably did not pray enough, and continued to shout into the bamboo microphones, light the landing lights and wait for the gods who would finally bring them the coveted cargo. Priests appeared who knew better than others how to march correctly and furiously reviled those who avoided performing all the rituals. During these activities, they already had no time to pound grain, dig sweet potatoes and fish. Scientists have sounded the alarm: the tribes could die of hunger! They began to receive humanitarian aid, which finally convinced the natives of the correctness of their views, because the wonderful load finally began to fall from the sky again!

Cargo cultists are usually unaware of manufacturing or commerce. Their concepts of Western society, science and economics are very vague. They firmly believe in an obvious dogma to them - foreigners had a special connection with their ancestors, who were the only creatures who could produce such wealth that cannot be produced on Earth. So, you need to observe rituals, pray and believe.

Similar to each other cargo cults independently originated on islands that are far from each other not only geographically, but also culturally. Anthropologists have recorded two separate cases in New Caledonia, four in the Solomon Islands, four in Fiji, seven in the New Hebrides, and over forty in New Guinea. Moreover, as a rule, they arose completely independently of each other. Most of these religions claim that on the day of the apocalypse, a certain messiah will arrive with the "cargo".

The independent emergence of such a number of unrelated but similar cults indicates certain features of the human psyche as a whole. Blind imitation and worship are the essence of cargo cults - the newfound religions of our time.

Many cargo cults have died out, but some still exist today. For example, the cult of the messiah John Froome on the island of Tanna.

Translated from English, cargo means cargo. And the essence of religion lies in worshiping the planes and ships that deliver it, which (according to the adepts) were sent by the spirits of their ancestors.

Similar cults have been recorded since 19th century... They arose independently of each other (geographically and culturally) and were found on most of the remote islands of the Pacific Ocean - in the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, etc ... But they got especially strong distribution during the Second World War and after it on the island of Tanna (Republic of Vanuatu).

During the campaign against the Japanese Empire, the American army began to build its military bases in Pacific Ocean near Australia. In order to provide for the soldiers, a myriad of equipment, clothing, provisions and weapons came to the islands ...

Local residents were deeply impressed by the huge amount of unprecedented treasures falling from the sky on the heads of Americans: bright tin cans with Coca-Cola, canned food, cigarettes in colorful boxes, military uniforms, photographs of half-naked blond beauties, folding knives, watches, lighters, flashlights, miraculous medicines in boxes with a red cross ... And what can we say about refrigerators, radios, motorcycles and jeeps !?

Most of this cargo was shipped by air. The sight of mysterious planes and parachutes fascinated the natives. They considered it a message from the gods - gifts from above.

For the so-called civilized person, the behavior of the natives often seems ridiculous and ridiculous. For the islanders, the actions of the light-skinned invaders were filled with magical meaning. Foreign people shone in the sky with artificial lights, marked long and wide stripes on the ground, talked with unknown devices, wore strange helmets on their heads, lined up and walked in orderly rows ... All these actions attracted giant iron birds that brought wonderful gifts.

The islanders watched the white people with interest, wondering how they manage to receive so many different gifts without doing anything special for this. The natives sincerely did not understand why the pale-faced were destined to be the owners of fabulous and outlandish things. While others have to farm, fishing and hunting to feed themselves.

To industrious natives, this course of things seemed offensive and unfair. Lazy Americans cannot have all the blessings of this world! Beautiful things should belong to all people equally. Plus, no one has ever seen the Yankees do anything with their own hands.

And it was then that the inhabitants of the islands realized: the cunning pale-lice were dishonestly appropriating a cargo intended for the Melanesian people. White people have secret knowledge and sacred rites that summon the spirits of their ancestors, and those, in turn, send magic cargoes to the earth. So, you need to steal the secrets of the rituals and do the same!

In an effort to overcome the glaring injustice, the indigenous islanders began to copy the "rites" of soldiers, sailors and pilots. They made life-size replicas of cargo planes from wood and straw.

Also, from the materials at hand, they built control towers and beacons, pulling vines-wires between them. They cut down the forest and cleared the runways, lighting torches or bonfires along them, thereby imitating landing lights. They made headphones from coconut halves, and microphones and walkie-talkies from bamboo. The natives regularly carried out a semblance of drill exercises and military marches, waving improvised rifles and painting their dark bodies like military uniforms with shoulder straps, orders and medals ...

All these amusing actions were carried out with one single purpose - to lure the divine planes and ships full of the treasures of the capitalist world.

The war ended ... The air bases were abandoned, the Americans retired, and the heavenly cargo never arrived.

But how can this be? After all, white strangers managed to find a common language with the Gods, meditating in front of boxes with flashing lights. Maybe prayers and rituals aren't enough? Then the inhabitants of the "Isles of Bad Luck" set to work with tripled strength. Round the clock, members of the tribe were on duty along the "runways", burned torches, and tirelessly repeated their prayers in wicker boxes-receivers. In order for the requests to reach Heaven as soon as possible, the islanders came up with a special rite with Mama-radio. The thickest, and therefore the most beautiful woman villages were wrapped with wires-ropes. While dancing, she went into a trance, and the native "radio operator" shouted at her navel in the unknown language of the pale-faced cherished incantations: "Base! Base! Welcome! How do you hear? " When Mama-radio, being in trance madness, muttered something, the high priest interpreted her words as a message of the messiah ...

Months and years passed, and the planes still did not land ... The natives were so carried away by their new religion that they completely abandoned their daily affairs. In an attempt to achieve unity with the spirits of their ancestors, they drank kava (a drink made from the roots of a local hallucinogenic plant) to unconsciousness, stubbornly signaling the spirits with flags from painted mats. Soon, the islanders plunged into a state of continuous drug delirium, and the local economy was covered to hell.

Having found the negligent airplane worshipers in such a deplorable state, scientists and anthropologists of the world sounded the alarm - the tribes could disappear from the face of the earth. To prevent the would-be natives from starving to death, they were urgently provided with humanitarian aid. Seeing the coveted gifts pouring down from the sky, the “Papuans” were finally convinced of the correctness of their deeds - finally, the Gods became supportive of them!

Over the past half century, most cargo cults have disappeared. However, in some places this religion is still alive and well. Today, the Mecca of the cult of Heavenly Gifts can be safely called the island of Tanna - one of the 80 green islands of the New Hebrides archipelago.

It is here, at the world's most accessible active volcano, locals worship their messiah and savior - John Froome. This movement is celebrated in different parts of the island and has become one of the most interesting components of Vanuatu's multifaceted culture.

Back in the distant thirties, Mr. Froome appeared to the islanders in the form of an American soldier in an elegant white uniform with shiny buttons. Many legends are associated with the name of this man, and today, with all the desire, it is impossible to get to the bottom of the truth and understand whether he really existed, because the surname "Frum" is practically not found in English-speaking countries. But there is an assumption that the name John Frum is a distorted derivative of "John from (America)". Translated from of English language- "John from (America)".

Some adherents of the omnipotent Froome see in him the good spirit of their ancestors, others - God, others - the messenger of the country of dreams and "the king of a prosperous America" who descended to the land of the Melanesian people. But everyone believes that one day he will appear again, bringing with him countless cargoes, and will make his followers rich and happy.

The second coming of John Froome is expected on February 15th. When exactly this will happen remains a mystery. Therefore, every year on this day, the islanders organize grandiose festivities in honor of their messiah. The morning begins with a solemn march of a detachment of local youths, who proudly march with bamboo rifles at the ready. The bayonets of the fake weapon are painted with blood-red paint for intimidation. On the chest and backs of the guys, the letters "USA" are flaunted, and shoulder straps are drawn on the shoulders. They are all dressed in jeans worn out by time main character America.

The parade is led by a gray-haired bearded leader in a blue military tunic with gold epaulettes.

At his command, a faded American banner is hoisted over a bamboo flagpole. Smaller flags waving nearby: the national flag of Vanuatu and the flag of the Australian Aborigines, supported by Tanna residents in the struggle for racial equality. Also, contrary to common sense, there are flags of former missionary colonists - Great Britain and France. But the flag of Switzerland is the most honorable, for the main sacred symbol the cargo cult is the red cross - the emblem of an international humanitarian organization.

In honor of the holiday, the women of the island dress in elegant dresses, echoing the colors of the raised banners, and dance to modern American music.

All day, the brave warriors of the island of Tanna praise their God, bring flowers and ask him for wealth. They play guitars and sing songs praising John Froome and his "apostles" cowboys Jimmy and Jerry. They also remember another lyric character- Sailor Tom.

In one of the inconspicuous reed huts of the village of Lamacara, there is even a chapel dedicated to John Froome. Inside, on a black board, are the commandments that the prophet commanded the islanders to observe. The meaning of these instructions is reduced to calls to lead righteous life, do not kill each other and do not eat. Indeed, in Vanuatu, quite recently, some gourmets traded cannibalism!

Every week, on the night from Friday to Saturday, general vigils begin at the sacred hut, accompanied by a friendly drinking of intoxicating kava and singing of praise. And, of course, every song comes down to the same refrain: “We are waiting for you, John! When will you come with the long-awaited cargo? "

So naive but stubborn natives are waiting for the second coming of their Froom ... And no reasonable arguments are able to dissuade them.

You Christians have been waiting for the return of Jesus for over two thousand years, and we are only sixty!

Airplane worshipers proudly declare.

However, not only the mythical John Froome from distant fabulous America became the object of worship of the adherents of the cargo cult. In the pantheon of deities of the inhabitants of the island of Tanna, there are much more real hero- Prince Philip, he is the Duke of Edinburgh, he is also the current 91-year-old husband of the British Queen Elizabeth II.

The villagers of Yaohnanen (where men wear nothing but a bundle of grass in a causal place, and grow marijuana and wild tobacco) are convinced that Prince Philip is a divine man and brother of John Froome.

They consider him a descendant of a magical spirit living in sacred grief Tukosmera overlooking the village. In their opinion, if Philip was born neither in England, nor in France, nor in the United States, then his homeland can only be the island of Tanna. Greek origin a monarch means nothing to the natives.

According to one of the legends, one day the young prince left the island of Tanna and went to the distant lands to mysterious country England, look at the queen. The queen turned out to be an influential and domineering woman and therefore made Philip king.

When Philip was a small child, the priests of our island predicted that he would be the ruler of the whole world.

Explains one of the village elders.

Buckingham Palace is aware of the so-called "Prince Philip Movement". British anthropologists have carefully studied this phenomenon and found that the inhabitants of Tanna began to deify the Duke of Edinburgh after he visited the New Hebrides in 1971.

Since then, the royal couple Great British Empire regularly sends gifts to his humble admirers, as well as autographed portraits of Prince Philip and his family. At the same time, the monarchs themselves are not very eager to set foot on the lands of Vanuatu again.

But the villagers do not doubt for a second: old legend the return of the white-skinned son to his historical homeland will certainly come true.

“Our children know Philip and know his children - they saw them in the picture. We all hope that someday he will be here. One day he will return and bring with him some wild sex parties and a lot of cargo. And then death and disease will end, ”says Jack Naiva, head of the village.

In retrospect, it is not easy to give an exact answer as to when the first cargo cult emerged. According to the documents, the earliest precedent was a phantasmagoric performance in Papua New Guinea, dated late XIX century, which was later dubbed "the madness of Vailal."

But, if you dig deeper, then the first cargo deity can be safely called the great English navigator and captain James Cook. It was he who discovered the island of Tanna to the Old World in 1774, turning the life of the unfortunate and innocent natives upside down. This is how tiny island religions began to emerge, where such incomprehensible, but so attractive goodness was deified, which for unknown reasons the white people took possession.

The popularity of the cargo cult can be judged by the desire of the American military to disown it. In an attempt to end the mass insanity and reason with the local population, educational missions were undertaken several times, invariably ending in a complete fiasco. Oh yeah! It was an absolute and humiliating failure of the representatives of Western civilization. The fight against the cult only strengthened the belief of the locals that the pale-faced want to appropriate all divine gifts for themselves.

Moreover, the Americans themselves added fuel to the fire when, at the end of the war, on the neighboring island of Espiritu Santo, bulldozers pushed unnecessary jeeps, motorcycles and aircraft parts from a cliff into the sea by bulldozers. Since then, this place has been called the Cape of a Million Dollars, because to this day dexterous divers continue to get pieces of aircraft engines and unopened bottles of Coca-Cola from the seabed ...

A person with a Western education is alien to the philosophy of airplane worshipers. But her adherents constantly receive their "heavenly manna" from numerous film crews that every year on February 15th they come to see with their own eyes National holiday Tanna Islands.

The myth of the inexhaustible cornucopia is confirmed with each new appearance of white-skinned guests ... Therefore, the Gods remember their wards and Magic works!