Introduction.

Introduction. This collection began as a session of papers presented at theannual meetings of the American Anthropological Association in Novemberof 1996 in San Francisco San Francisco(săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden . The theme of the meetings that year was'a critical retrospective' and the idea of 'cargocult' seemed a likely candidate for such scrutiny. The critique ofthe term 'cargo cult' had been taking place at least since RoyWagner's (1981 [1975]) Invention of Culture and NancyMcDowell's (1985) unraveling of 'cargo cult.' It hadreceived renewed interest with Kaplan (1995) and Kaplan andKelley's (1990) efforts to come to terms with Fijian politicalhistory. Yet the term 'cargo cult' was and is yet being usedby ethnographers whose research activities apparently take them furtherthan ever into the heart of these movements (Lattas 1991, 1992, 1993;Leavitt 1995; Whitehouse 1995), thereby making impressive gains in theunderstanding of these movements without abandoning the term 'cargocult.' The original call for papers elicited interest from leadingscholars in the field engaged both in questioning the term 'cargocult' and in investigating the inner workings of what appear to beclassic cargo cult cargo cult,native religious movement found in Melanesia and New Guinea, holding that at the millennium the spirits of the dead will return and bring with them cargoes of modern goods for distribution among its adherents. The cult had its beginnings in the 19th cent. activities. The papers therefore fell more or lessneatly into two groups that seemed to speak to one another over theissue of whether to locate these phenomena in the cultures ofMelanesians or the concepts and concerns of Western anthropologists. Thepanel was organized to reveal a sort of dialogue between opposing viewswhich tend to locate the phenomenon of 'cargo cult' in eitherthe West, on the one hand, or in Melanesia, on the other. The firstpaper by Monty Lindstrom viewed 'cargo cults' as gainingparticular salience sa��li��ence? also sa��li��en��cyn. pl. sa��li��en��ces also sa��li��en��cies1. The quality or condition of being salient.2. A pronounced feature or part; a highlight.Noun 1. in Western culture, especially as evidenced by theunrevised Adj. 1. unrevised - not improved or brought up to date; "the book is still unrevised"unaltered, unchanged - remaining in an original state; "persisting unaltered through time" reissue of Kenelm Burridge's Mambu: A MelanesianMillennium (Burridge 1960), because in Lindstrom's estimation theysupply late capitalist narratives of desire. The following paper bySteve Leavitt, however, detailed the powerful and poignant beliefs ofthe Bumbita Arapesh of Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea(păp`ə, –y which he found to be mostcritical in the genesis of classic cargo cult ideas. Andrew Lattas thenshowed the effects of Western technology on prototype cargo cultnarratives and activities of New Ireland New Ireland,volcanic island (1990 pop. 64,615), c.3,340 sq mi (8,650 sq km), SW Pacific, in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of Papua New Guinea. New Ireland is largely mountainous, rising to c.4,000 ft (1,220 m). Kiliai cult leaders. My ownpaper followed with a discussion of how the apparently'irrational' aspects of so-called 'cargo cult'behavior affects Western theoretical discursive practices through acritical review of Peter Worsley's The Trumpet Shall Sound (Worsley1968). Commentaries were provided by Roy Wagner for the cinematographer see Roy H. Wagner Roy Wagner is an cultural anthropologist specializing in symbolic anthropology. He received a BA from Harvard University (1961), and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago (1966), where he studied under David M. and Nancy McDowell. [1] The papers in this issue preserve that logic and order ofpresentation. [2] This collection therefore does not entail the moreusual organization of papers around a common set of themes that attemptto synthesize the most recent advances in a particular field, as wouldbe characteristic of a scientific panel. Instead it entails the sort ofdivergent perspectives that are more common in philosophicaldiscussions, and provides more of an intellectual journey than ascientific marker. Consequently, my task in this introduction will benot so much to outline the common themes of the papers as to delineatesome of the differences and issues that separate them. I also find thatthe situation these papers afford makes it impossible for me not to addsome commentary of my own. No one could disagree today that the term 'cargo cult'was used by colonial authorities to de-legitimize and criminalize crim��i��nal��ize?tr.v. crim��i��nal��ized, crim��i��nal��iz��ing, crim��i��nal��iz��es1. To impose a criminal penalty on or for; outlaw.2. To treat as a criminal. thebehavior of their subjects that it designated (Kaplan 1995; Kelley andKaplan n.d., 1990). Insofar in��so��far?adv.To such an extent.Adv. 1. insofar - to the degree or extent that; "insofar as it can be ascertained, the horse lung is comparable to that of man"; "so far as it is reasonably practical he should practice as this behavior served the legitimatepurpose of organizing local communities politically, the term'cargo cult' was used to quash indigenous political movementswhich threatened the power and authority of the colonial state. Inaddition, the classic idea of 'cargo cult' -- themisapplication misapplication,n the use of incorrect or improper procedures while administering treatment; results from inadequacy in experience, training, skills, or knowledge. May also result from impairment or incompetence. of indigenous cultural magical religious notions to aWestern rational economic technological order -- conforms to Westernethnic and racist stereotypes which legitimized colonialism. Accordingto according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. Western beliefs, man is an animal endowed with the capacity to reasonand the non-Western Other has less of this capacity. [3] The'cult' in the term 'cargo cult' is indicative of asupposed cultural religious belief system which is at variance with theWestern rational social political order. Western anth ropologists may beguilty of having typified Melanesians and others in terms of theircultural symbolic religious aspects, thus fitting them into the Western'savage slot' (Trouillot 1991). Thus, as Wagner (1981:31)points out, 'anthropology should perhaps be called a "culturecult" ... we look at the natives' cargo, their techniques andartifacts, and call it "culture".' Lindstrom (1993) haspointed out elsewhere that the general trend in theorizing aboutso-called 'cargo cults' has been to view them ascharacteristic, customary, and therefore legitimate indigenous practicesand beliefs. This opens anthropologists to the charge of fittingMelanesian religious 'cultists' into the 'savageslot' in Western thinking by typifying Melanesians in terms of lessrational religious beliefs and behaviors -- having religion perhaps butnot a very good rational apprehension of Western economics ortechnology. Lindstrom's extended critical review of Burridge's Mambuin this volume levels just this sort of charge. As previously stated,Lindstrom's paper tends to locate the impetus for the phenomenon of'cargo cult' in Western concerns and desires rather than inMelanesian projects, although he makes it clear in his article that heis not addressing Melanesian 'cargo cults' per se, but onlythe Western fascination with them. [4] Lindstrom seeks to explain thesecond reissue of Burridge's classic and to provide a criticalreview of it. He claims that the popular demand for Mambu reflects adesire among its Western readership for the deep moral meaning Burridgefinds in the Melanesian Tangu 'myth-dream,' which is his termfor a profound yearning for humane moral understanding and equality.Mambu is also an enormously compassionate study of the extremelydifficult and painful experiences of native peoples beset bycolonialism, which no doubt also accounts for its readership. However,Lindstrom finds that Burridge nonet no��net?n.1. A combination of nine instruments or voices.2. A composition written for such a combination.[Italian nonetto, from diminutive of nono, ninth heless generally ignores the partsof the colonial situation that he identifies as having to do withEuropeans -- Western government and missionary 'mythdreams' --and in doing so tacitly accepts the hegemony of Australian culture. Heultimately sees the salvation of Melanesian 'cultists' in anabatement of colonial exploitation and in the education of Melanesiansin Western ways. The good and moral white European is thus cast in therole of the savior and Mambu provides an emancipatory e��man��ci��pate?tr.v. e��man��ci��pat��ed, e��man��ci��pat��ing, e��man��ci��pates1. To free from bondage, oppression, or restraint; liberate.2. modernistnarrative. Lindstrom discovers not one but three genres of cargo narratives,however. Instead of reading it as a modernist narrative of redemption,Burridge's account can also be understood in a manner whichLindstrom dubs 'carnival cargo.' Lindstrom also supposes thatmuch of the initial popularity of Burridge's book was among readersbelonging to the Western 1960s counter-culture and that many interpretedMambu as a liberating, anti-modernist story which allowed them toidentify and side with the moral 'myth-dreams' of Westerncolonial victims and against the banality of modern colonial capitalistculture. In more recent post-Mambu cargo writing moreover, Lindstromsupposes that these two 'straightforwardly modernist' andanti-modernist readings have shifted to a new genre which he calls'cargo horror stories.' In them, he says, there is noredemption posited in either Western modernism or in indigenous'myth-dreams.' More recent writers fail to see in modernEuropean culture any emancipation, but view Melanesian car go narrativesas failing to comprehend and so provide emancipation from Westernculture either. Lindstrom specifically points to Lattas in this regard,so I shall have more to say about this below. For now I should like topoint to a hypothetical genre missing from Lindstrom's account. In the three narrative genres identified by Lindstrom --'straightforwardly modernist,' 'carnival cargo,' and'cargo horror story' -- truth and redemption are seen toreside, respectively, as in either Western culture, Melanesian'myth-dreams,' or neither. There has seemingly therefore yetto appear a genre which would locate truth and redemption in bothWestern and Melanesian cultures. One might want to hypothesize hy��poth��e��size?v. hy��poth��e��sized, hy��poth��e��siz��ing, hy��poth��e��siz��esv.tr.To assert as a hypothesis.v.intr.To form a hypothesis. thefuture appearance of just such a cargo cult genre, or to argue that italready exists in the accounts of Burridge and Lattas: Melanesian'myth-dreams' and Western science may simply representdifferent sorts of 'truth.' The differences between differentaccounts of so-called 'cargo cults' may therefore rest on howthey assign various types of 'truth' and legitimacy to Westemversus Melanesian cultures. This requires a careful parsing of theworking assumptions and views of various authors on these issues. Leavitt directly challenges the suggestion which seems to emergefrom Lindstrom's critique that so-called 'cargo cult'phenomena are projections of Western desires or of the ideologicalassumptions of Western anthropological theories. Leavitt'schallenge is directed even more specifically against Obeyesekere'swell-known critique of Sahlins' claim that Hawaiiansunquestioningly identified Captain Cook as their god Lono. Against theseviews Leavitt reports in poignant detail the claims made by BumbitaArapesh that the ethnographer Leavitt must himself be their ancestor. Hemakes it clear that this sort of experience is relatively common amonganthropologists and that ethnographers are in fact reticent to report ordeal with such native assertions in their accounts. If Melanesian'cargo cults' entail a kind of desire, Leavitt maintainsagainst Lindstrom, it is more akin to existential dread Existential dread is an existential concept developed by S?ren Kierkegaard in 1844.Any rational system cannot explain reality, in that it would have to incorporate that which is contingent alongside that which is necessary. than Westernromance. Leavitt sees these Bumbita beliefs as domesticating a foreign whiteculture by rendering it comprehensible in terms of their own ideology ofloss and grief and by bringing it into the same moral universe in whichthey exist, which has deep psychological significance for them. Througha close analysis of one man's life in particular, Leavitt is ableto show how his troubled, unresolved relation with his father led him toharbor deep emotions of grief and guilt which he then displaced onto theethnographer as a way of making those feelings more manageable. He alsosupposes that such beliefs are a reaction to stress and theself-disparaging awareness of Bumbita poverty relative to whites, forwhich they lack any explanation. Whites are identified with ancestorsbecause both are supposed to have power, and because the profoundpsychological emotions of grief and loss which Bumbita feel for theirancestors and which resulted from the dislocating experience ofcolonialism are displaced onto whitemen. Bumbita ideas about whitesbeing ancestors, Leavitt concludes, are a form of Melanesian religiousexpression that is both desired and much needed at this juncture oftheir history. Leavitt makes explicit the parallels between his ethnographicargument and Lattas' view. Lindstrom would therefore likely seeboth as formulating 'cargo horror stories' -- postulatingredemption in neither Melanesian narratives nor Western colonialism. Thegreat strength of Leavitt's presentation is its empirical groundingin the details of Bumbita Arapesh lives and narratives and in itsdemonstration of Bumbita emotions of grief and loss, which are so unlikeWestern ideas of desire. Yet Leavitt also counterposes Bumbita'ideology' and 'confusion' about whites as ancestorsagainst 'common sense,' which suggests a modernist view likeBurridge's in which emancipation is possible through the adoptionof Western views, opening him to the same criticisms Lindstrom levelsagainst Burridge. Yet Leavitt can also be seen as attributing to Bumbitaa comprehension of deep existential psychological religious meaning andtruth often ignored or repressed in capitalist culture'sorganization of desire. Lattas' contribution continues the type of detailed empiricaldemonstration and many of the same theoretical premises initiated byLeavitt in this volume. His paper particularly concerns the influence ofWestern technology on the discursive practices of New Ireland Kiliaicargo cult leaders. He shows how European technology brings new forms ofhistory by refiguring the relation between disclosure and truth orconcealment and presence in indigenous culture, making the invisiblerealm of the ancestors appear more porous and accessible. Like Burridgeand Leavitt, Lattas views new Kiliai uses of technology to communicateor connect with departed ancestors as the result of new forms ofalienation -- racial inequality racial inequalityRacial disparity Social medicine, public healthA disparity in opportunity for socioeconomic advancement or access to goods and services based solely on race. See Women and health. and apartheid -- which he supposesresult in a negative self-image and leads bush Kiliai to want to makethemselves white and thus incorporate and familiarize an alien Westernculture. Lattas also follows Burridge in analyzing the deep meaning ofKiliai culture. But in this regard and here more than in his otherwritings, Lattas makes clear his debt to the work of Heidegger regardingthe inseparable relation of concealing and revealing, which he uses tounderstand Kiliai views of ancestral powers as being both near and far-- imminent in their own existence yet difficult to perceive and accessin any direct way. Lattas argues that Western technology fits into and extends Kiliaimagical practices: both magic and technology aim at presencing andunconcealing truth and power, however, Kiliai insert their own goal ofpresencing the power of the ancestors, which they associate with whites,and view Western technology as more efficacious for this end than magic.Kiliai therefore suppose that new uses of technology might afford themthe ability to obtain indigenous ancestral powers, subvert a colonialsystem, and achieve freedom. Mock telephones and photography aretherefore employed by bush Kiliai to try to unconceal the truth andpower thought to reside with the ancestors and to mimetically revisionthemselves as white, thus obtaining the power of whites and refashioningtheir psyches and self-perception to overcome racial inequality andcolonial apartheid. Lindstrom identifies Lattas' account as a 'cargohorror' story because in it, liberation seems to reside in neitherthe Western capitalist colonial system nor in Kiliai cargo behavior.However, as with Leavitt, one might instead suppose that Lattas hasproduced that heretofore unrecognized narrative genre in which bothWestern technology and Melanesian cultures are acknowledged to haveachieved different sorts of emancipatory truth: while recognizing theefficacy of Western technology to harness physical forces, Lattascredits Kiliai with having grasped the same 'deep phenomenologicaltruths' as did Heidegger. Kiliai and Western culture can be said tohave both grasped essential truths, albeit scientific and technologicaltruth for Western culture, and deeply phenomenological truth for Kiliaiculture. Whether or not this claim is enough to make Lattas'account a new genre in the cargo cult literature rather than a cargohorror story horror storyStory intended to elicit a strong feeling of fear. Such tales are of ancient origin and form a substantial part of folk literature. They may feature supernatural elements such as ghosts, witches, or vampires or address more realistic psychological fears. is nevertheless questionable: while liberation is clearlyits aim and goal, it is still difficult to see how Kiliai will overcomecapitalist apartheid by miming Western technology to contact ancestors,which would seem ineffectual. Where Lattas shows the influence of Western practices on Melanesiancargo activities, my paper explicates the effect of these Melanesianactivities on Western discourse in a critical review of Worsley'sThe Trumpet Shall Sound. I take my cue from Wagner's (1979:164)remark that so-called 'cargo cults' are 'strangelyimpervious to the kind of "argument through dependency" thatour rationalistic outlook fosters.' Against this 'strangeimperviousness' I suppose that, as Lindstrom (1993) found,anthropological theorists have attempted to nativize, normalize normalizeto convert a set of data by, for example, converting them to logarithms or reciprocals so that their previous non-normal distribution is converted to a normal one. andthus, in my view, reduce the inherent strangeness, incomprehensibility,and 'irrationality' of 'cargo cult' behavior. Ihasten to add that I do not conclude from this observation that'cargo cults' cannot be understood, comprehended, orexplained. But I do wish to claim that nativizing and normalizingso-called 'cargo cults' fails to recognize how extraordinaryand anomalous these behaviors are and at the same time misconstrues thesource of their strange ness. In my view it is precisely the liminal liminal/lim��i��nal/ (lim��i-n'l) barely perceptible; pertaining to a threshold. lim��i��naladj.Relating to a threshold.liminalbarely perceptible; pertaining to a threshold. exceptional character of 'cults' that needs to beinvestigated, and that this character leads inevitably to the discoveryof its source in the 'rationality' of Western culture and itscolonial projects. I suppose that the inherent 'weirdness' of 'cargocults' and their 'strange imperviousness' to Westernrationalistic argument causes Western discourse about cargo cults to'go mad' by continually multiplying explanations which are notentirely consistent. I understand this to be a kind of linguistic'similarity disorder' and argue that madness not onlycharacterizes cargo cult discourse in general but also inhabits thelanguage of Worsley's The Trumpet Shall Sound. I show thatWorsley's text piles up not entirely consistent explanations ofanomolous 'cargo cult' behavior, whose 'strangeness'it seems to continually recognize and then attempt to reduce until itreaches the point where the behavior appears to be its own end, which Iconsider to be very close to the truth, at which point Worsley adoptsthe position that this behavior is a step on the road to nationalpolitical identity. In the end, Worsley's explanation thus escapesbecoming what Lindstrom calls a 'cargo horror story' bypositing instead a 'str aightforwardly modernist' narrative ofredemption. My criticism of his text has the effect of turning it backinto a cargo horror story. Critics are likely to find my discussion of 'cargo cult'in terms of abnormal 'irrationality' and 'madness'very unsettling un��set��tle?v. un��set��tled, un��set��tling, un��set��tlesv.tr.1. To displace from a settled condition; disrupt.2. To make uneasy; disturb.v.intr. . It was this delineation, after all, that was used bycolonial authorities to delegitimize de��le��git��i��mize?tr.v. de��le��git��i��mized, de��le��git��i��miz��ing, de��le��git��i��miz��esTo revoke the legal or legitimate status of: and criminalize 'cargocult' activities. In addition, it falls into the Western'cargo' stereotype of irrational superstitious natives failingto comprehend a rational political economic system. Anthropologists havegenerally theorized against the set of evolutionary Western culturalassumptions that views non-Western Others as superstitious and backward,as less rational, less technically scientifically able, and in thissense therefore less functional and successfully adaptive than thecultures of Western Europeans. To undercut this view, ethnographers haveinterpreted and explained 'cargo cults' in terms of the normalfunctional rationality of native cultures (Lindstrom op.cit.), employingwhat Wagner (op.cit.) calls the '"argument throughdependency" that our rationalistic outlook fosters.' Here, however, I can only editorialize ed��i��to��ri��al��ize?intr.v. ed��i��to��ri��al��ized, ed��i��to��ri��al��iz��ing, ed��i��to��ri��al��iz��es1. To express an opinion in or as if in an editorial.2. To present an opinion in the guise of an objective report. , for it seems to me that byexplaining 'cults' in terms of native 'culture' thatcan be shown to function locally for social and psychological benefit,Melanesians still lack the value of Western objective scientific truth.Assigning to them the value and rationality of 'culture,'especially where viewed with a romantic tinge as less alienated thanWestern colonial culture, while allowing Western Europeans scientifictruth and rationality, still fits Melanesian cultures into the Western'savage slot.' Burridge's cultural 'myth-dream'or Lattas' argument (this volume) that the power ascribed by peopleto the invisible or the hidden cannot be dismissed as a superstitiousfiction, because it corresponds to a deep phenomenological truth, makejust this sort of differentiation between local Melanesian cultural andnon-local Western scientific rationality and truth. Most accounts that attempt to explain 'cults' in terms ofthe functional value of 'culture' nevertheless also recognizetheir 'strangeness,' for they nearly always also explain themas a result of 'stress' and include among their goals thealleviation of colonially induced suffering, inequality, and racialapartheid. [5] These accounts therefore work against themselves bytrying to legitimize le��git��i��mize?tr.v. le��git��i��mized, le��git��i��miz��ing, le��git��i��miz��esTo legitimate.le��git the functionality of local cultures, on the onehand, while recognizing their strangeness, on the other. The functionalarguments through dependency they offer most often involve a mismatchbetween means and goals: means are generally cultural, symbolic,religious, or phenomenological belief and mimicry mimicry,in biology, the advantageous resemblance of one species to another, often unrelated, species or to a feature of its own environment. (When the latter results from pigmentation it is classed as protective coloration. while the ends includesuch things as achieving political power, becoming white, undoingapartheid, reuniting with ancestors, and understanding Western society.Does anyone seriously believe that miming Western technology is going toreunite bush Kiliai with their ancestors or undermine colonialism, thatwhite people are returned ghosts of Bumbita ancestors, or that theenactment of the local Fijian symbolic ritual polity could achievepower? [6] Insofar as accounts of 'cargo cults' recognize thelegitimacy of local cultural functions and of the goals of counteringcolonial exploitation, they appear to fit into Lindstrom's'modernist' narratives of liberation. But insofar as thestrange mismatches between means and goals are also recognized, suchaccounts instead appear more like cargo 'horror stories.' Inmy observation, the hypothetical 'cargo cult' genre in whichequal measures of general empirical rather than merely local religiousor cultural truths and functions are assigned to both Western andMelanesian cultures has therefore yet to appear. Such a 'cargo cult' genre would require the recognitionof limited Western technological efficacy but little else regarding thetruth claims of Western culture. It would also require an appreciationof the truth of Melanesian 'cargo cult' assessments andenactments of the claims of Western culture. White men, for example,might be 'ancestors' in that they actually claim to havegrasped universal truths accessible only to ancestors or people who havepassed beyond the finite limitations of mortal men. Western technologymight be able to access ancestors for the same reason. Of course whatMelanesians generally discover is that the claims Westerners make tohave grasped absolute universal truths which transcended the limits ofmortal men are untrue. If they were true, you would expect that whitemen would share their wealth instead of exploiting Melanesians toproduce it. One way of understanding Bumbita claims that white men aretheir ancestors is to suppose that this is in essence what white peoplethemselve s claim except for the fact that white people appear in thisworld and continue to take from those to whom by all rights andproclamations they should be giving. Bumbita claims that white men aretheir ancestors can thus also be viewed as an assertion of the untruthof Western claims to be ancestors: it is a demand that white men makegood on their own claims (similar to Leavitt's 'insistence byMelanesians that Europeans live up to their obligations to share wealthas intimates should' (this volume p. 306) albeit based on Westerncolonial culture's claims, not Melanesian cultural precepts).However, the discovery that Western culture is predicated upon a grandillusion doesn't make white men go away or stop them from makingsuch claims, therefore 'cargo cults' persist. Western cultureis in this way nothing if not extremely confused and therefore alsoconfusing. But the source of the confusion is in Western bourgeoiscolonial culture. From this viewpoint, one of the problems with anthropologicalinterpretations of 'cargo cult' has been to understand it moreas a product of native 'culture' than of Western ideologies ofdomination. This has generally led ethnographers to construe construev. to determine the meaning of the words of a written document, statute or legal decision, based upon rules of legal interpretation as well as normal meanings. theirlegitimacy and local functional utility instead of fully recognizingtheir 'strangeness' and the source of their oddity in Westerncultural claims. 'Cargo cult' activities could therefore beviewed as having the function, beyond merely explaining somethingMelanesians don't understand, of grasping the truth (or ratheruntruth) of Western culture. However, I believe that it would be amistake to suppose that Melanesians are essentially acting according tosome functional means - ends or rationalistic dependency relation.Rather I think it would be closer to the truth to suppose that they aresimply existentially corporeally cor��po��re��al?adj.1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of the body. See Synonyms at bodily.2. Of a material nature; tangible. enacting the historical culturalcontext in which they find themselves. This is why what appears to bemimetic mimetic/mi��met��ic/ (mi-met��ik) pertaining to or exhibiting imitation or simulation, as of one disease for another. mi��met��icadj.1. Of or exhibiting mimicry.2. behavior is at the heart o f 'cargo cults.' One could postulate postulate:see axiom. a 'mimetic faculty' as a basic humanway of knowing (Taussig 1980), or look to the close connection inMelanesian cultures between embodied corporeality cor��po��re��al?adj.1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of the body. See Synonyms at bodily.2. Of a material nature; tangible. and mind or perceptionexplored by Strathern (1996). But I think it best to conceive of theseenactments in terms of Melanesians corporeally doing 'power.'As Wagner (1981:88) draws the contrast between Western and Melanesiantribal cultures, 'If we understand "power" to representinvention, an individual force or element that impinges upon thecollectivities of society, then the urban Westerner "is" power(in the sense of his "innate" individuality and special giftsand talents) and "does" morality (his"performance"), whereas the religious or tribal person"does" or "follows" power (special roles, guidingmagic, or spiritual helpers) and "is" moral.' In otherwords Adv. 1. in other words - otherwise stated; "in other words, we are broke"put differently , if we understand 'power' as cosmic force, whereWesterners endeavor to harness, predict, and control natural forces andpower through cultural convention, which entails the scientificapplication of reason to nature and thereby imposes a Cartesianmind-body or subject-object dualism, Melanesians see power as imminentin all things and as accessible through direct physical participation inthem. [7] Melanesians therefore continually and deliberately innovate,enact, and do power by physically performing context. If we were to view Melanesians as doing power through corporeal Possessing a physical nature; having an objective, tangible existence; being capable of perception by touch and sight.Under Common Law, corporeal hereditaments are physical objects encompassed in land, including the land itself and any tangible object on it, that can be enactments of historical cultural context, I believe that we wouldproduce a comprehension of 'cargo cult' that would understandits essential veracity in relation to the existential truth claims ofWestern culture, although I also suspect that the inevitable resultwould be even more cargo horror than Lindstrom imagined. I suspect asmuch because in my opinion cargo cult theorizing has generally greatlyunderestimated and mis-located the strangeness of 'cargocult.' However comprehending the truth, even if the news is bad,cannot but also be seen as liberating and so may entail a hopefulmodernist narrative as well. Lindstrom's genres can thus blurnearly beyond recognition. Wagner's commentary is an essay which can be seen as atreatment of blurred genres of 'cargo cult' thinking. I canalso be seen as supplying Lindstrom 's missing genre in whichMelanesian and Western scientific knowledges are equivalent. In his view'cargo cult' is much like 'culture' in that it isubiquitous in both Melanesian and European society, and everywhere elseas well: it is an example of the workings of secrecy as disinformation dis��in��for��ma��tion?n.1. Deliberately misleading information announced publicly or leaked by a government or especially by an intelligence agency in order to influence public opinion or the government in another nation: ,whose general effects are what social sciences analyze as'culture' and 'society.' In addition to the classic'cargo cult,' Wagner considers in this regard UFOs, Daribifirst contact experiences and post-contact 'cults,' the curseof Souw origin myth, sangguma or kebere-bidi sorcery sorcery:see incantation; magic; spell; witchcraft. SorcerySorrow (See GRIEF.)sorcerer’s apprenticefinds a spell that makes objects do the cleanup work. [Fr. , theanthropological analyses of Souw and sorcery, and gothic cathedrals,among others. The Western interest in UFOs can be compared with theDaribi first contact experience of white men. However, Western UFO UFO:see unidentified flying objects. (United Functions and Objects) A programming language developed by John Sargeant at Manchester University, U.K. discourse tends to resolve itself into the question of who isresponsible for them, th us precipitating 'society,' while theDaribi modeling of white men's 'culture' became aquestion of from where white men would come, and where they would go.This model was reinforced by the colonial government'spreoccupation with the coerced road building projects that eventuallyled the Daribi to 'discover' the underlying secret undergroundroads of the Western imagination. The Daribi creator Souw also had a directional itinerary, howeverthrough his investigation of the creator myth Wagner was able to map ageographic distribution of it unknown to the Daribi, which thus becameWagner's 'secret' anthropological knowledge of Souw. Yetit is impossible to tell if the Souw myth was one of the four secretsDaribi said would never be discovered by white men, hence the Daribi andWestern anthropological understandings were reciprocal. Like UFOs, themost vital question to be considered regarding the secret knowledge ofsangguma or kebere-bidi sorcery is who has knowledge or control over it.However the Western modeling of it in terms of 'socialcontrol' is not merely anthropology's 'secret' aboutit: like the sorcery procedure itself, this model effectively removesand 'kills' its veracity as an actual Daribi technique ofdeath. Yet when Wagner abandons this social science model and insteadfathoms the technical knowledge of kebere-bidi sorcery, the Daribi modelof its 'secret' power s is obscure, thus restoring its truth.Wagner suggests that both the anthropological modeling of sorcery andthe Daribi practice of it function as a kind of professional or socialpolicing which actually works through post-hypnotic suggestion. And theDaribi account of the source of its power is strikingly similar to thebiophysicist's account of the origin of life, which sharesqualities with the objectifications of physics. As with the Western telling of linear history (another directionalcoming and going), the building of cathedrals to turn the medievalsuperbeing God's relation to humans on end (humans move skyward sky��ward?adv. & adj.At or toward the sky.skywards adv. ),UFO sightings, or the anthropological heuristic A method of problem solving using exploration and trial and error methods. Heuristic program design provides a framework for solving the problem in contrast with a fixed set of rules (algorithmic) that cannot vary. 1. 'cargo cult,'in our modeling of those things we encounter ourselves: they create usas much as we create them. The prognosis is not very good: Wagner (thisvolume p. 372) says 'It looks like we will never figure out what itis until we have made some more progress in figuring out who weourselves might be,' leaving us with varieties of 'our veryown cargo cult.' McDowell's short comment on difference and rationality makesan argument which is very similar to Wagner's, albeit in verydifferent theoretical terms. She criticizes anthropology's greattendency to emphasize difference and otherness despite the fact thatmillennial movements and similar phenomena worldwide have a great dealin common. She questions the motivations behind this emphasis, for notonly is it indicative of the fact that anthropologists share a Westernfascination with the strange and exotic, and so theorize the��o��rize?v. the��o��rized, the��o��riz��ing, the��o��riz��esv.intr.To formulate theories or a theory; speculate.v.tr.To propose a theory about. that culturesare constructed out of differences, this emphasis on difference avoidsanalyzing Western culture, which anthropologists tend to essentialize es��sen��tial��ize?tr.v. es��sen��tial��ized, es��sen��tial��iz��ing, es��sen��tial��izesTo express or extract the essential form of. ,and evades evaluating their own theoretical assumptions, most especiallythose about 'rationality.' Alternative conceptions of'rationality' which depart from those of the Enlightenmentwould have the effect of critically analyzing our culture andanthropological assumptions and of undermining the exaggeration ofdifference, and so too th e very idea of 'cargo cult.' Whetheror not that revised 'rationality' might lead to another ofwhat Wagner would call 'our very own cargo cult,' the readerwill have to decide. Although I have offered my own view as a critical assessment of mycolleagues' writings, I must emphasize that most if not all of theinsights I bring to bear on 'cargo cult' already appear intheir excellent work and in the extensive rich literature on 'cargocult.' I have simply rearranged and altered the emphases of theseinsights. Nonetheless the very wealth of 'cargo cult'literature consists in large part of just the sort of disagreementssplendidly exemplified in this collection. 'Cargo cult' raisesthe most basic issues regarding assumptions about the interpretation ofhistory and cultural difference -- the very issues that need to beunderstood and debated in contemporary post-colonial anthropology. Thegreat value of Melanesian 'cargo cult' consists of the way itforces Western Europeans to reflect on their own cultures. The realdanger, in my opinion, lies in the move to drop the term 'cargocult' so as to avoid these fundamental polemical issues and thusreestablish a type of scientistic 'normalc y.' This normalcyapparently consists of some version of what is by now a fairly standard,liberal humanist 'straightforwardly modernist' narrativeorder, which I always see as a kind of horror story because I muchprefer the carnivalesque to bourgeois liberal histories. NOTES (1.) After my presentation and before the discussants'comments, Martha Kaplan read a paper by herself and John Kelley entitledDiscourse and its Consequences: 'Cults' and'Orientals' in Colonial Fiji (Kalpan and Kelley n.d.). Aversion of it has recently been published (Kaplan and Kelly 1999). (2.) Other arrangements are of course possible. While Lindstrom andLattas both trace the influences of Western culture and Leavitt andmyself detail the effects of Melanesian cultures, the papers byLindstrom and myself are literary critiques while those by Leavitt andLattas provide ethnographic accounts and arguments. Leavitt and Lattasare much closer in theoretical orientation in their explanation of'cults' whereas Lindstrom and myself hold similar views abouthow such explanations position themselves. McDowell (this volume),however, includes my position with those of Leavitt and Lattas in thatwe all try to explain rather than critique 'cargo cult.' (3.) See Heidegger (1977) for a critique of this humanist notion. (4.) Elsewhere Lindstrom (1990) has viewed the John Frum movementon Tanna Island as a local way of managing discursive knowledge andpower. (5.) I include especially those accounts of Burridge, Leavitt,Lattas, and Worsley in this characterization. (6.) In fact Kaplan (1995) fully recognizes that the Fijian ritualpolity could not achieve power in the modern state, for enacting thecategories of the indigenous ritual polity accounts for how Fijiansociety was transformed in her view. (7.) Levy-Bruhl (1978) saw such 'participation' as anelementary way of understanding nature among Pacific Islanders that waspre-cultural, while I see it as a fundamental way of being which can bealso construed as a means of knowing cultural historical context, whichincludes what Westerners designate as 'nature.' REFERENCES BURRIDGE, K. 1960. Mambu: A Melanesian Millennium. Princeton:Princeton University Press. HEIDEGGER, M. 1977. Letter on Humanism. Translated by F. A. Capuzziand J. Glenn Gray. In D. F. Krell (ed) Martin Heidegger: Basic Writings.New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. 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The generation of children; it is an act authorized by the law of nature: one of the principal ends of marriage is the procreation of children. Inst. tit. 2, in pr. in Western New Britain. Cultural Anthropology 6:230-56 1992. Skin, Personhood per��son��hood?n.The state or condition of being a person, especially having those qualities that confer distinct individuality: "finding her own personhood as a campus activist" and Redemption: The Double Self in West NewBritain Coordinates: West New Britain is a province of Papua New Guinea on the islands of New Britain. The provincial capital is Kimbe. Cargo Cults. Oceania 63:27-54. 1993. Sorcery and Colonialism: Illness, Dreams and Death asPolitical Languages in West New Britain. Man (N.S.) 28:51-77. 1998. Cultures of Secrecy: Reinventing Race in Bush Kaliai CargoCults. 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