Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
--Clarke's Third Law

Cargo cults are spontaneous local religions that historically have sprung up in areas of the world that are suddenly exposed to Western influence, beginning in the 1800s but particularly during World War II. The islanders in these isolated regions were entranced by the cargo dropped from the sky to American soldiers temporarily based on the islands -- as if by magic.

At the end of the war, the soldiers left and the cargo stopped. That's when things got interesting. The islanders, not understanding what had been happening or why it stopped, developed an entirely new set of religious and cultural practices based around the observed behavior of the American soldiers, in an effort get the cargo drops to resume. This included building fire-lit runways, model airplanes, and even wooden mock headphones and control towers. In other cases they built temples out of discarded American detritus such as broken radios, praying that the devices would begin working again.

While an incredibly sad story about the way contact with the West can pollute an indigenous culture, it's a fascinating situation anthropologically.

Wikipedia on cargo cults

The BBC's H2G2 on cargo cults

Richard Feynman on "cargo cult science"

The Air Force Association on cargo cults

Examples of the "cargo cult" logical fallacy in our own culture

Cargo cults at AllInfoAbout.com, including a link about a purported active cargo cult on the Island of Tanna called the John From Movement

And, of course, the inevitable tinfoil hattery: Are contemporary religions the cargo cult remnants of an alien visitation?

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 9:20 PM  |