RT - JOURNAL 
TY - JOUR 
YR - 18-11-2021
JF - Current Research Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities
JO - 
SP - 
OP - 
VO - 11
IS - 13
UL - journalofsocialsciences.org/article/79/
DO - 10.12944/CRJSSH.4.2.01
N2 - So-called cargo cults are new religious movements best known among the indigenous population of Oceania, especially Melanesia. Their focus of attention is the mystery surrounding the new goods brought by light-skinned strangers in awe-striking ocean-going vessels and (later) in great flying bird-like containers. Various socio-religious movements arose in response to these European-style wares (later internationally-marketed commodities), or the Cargo (pidgin: Kago), often in agitated collective expectation of an extraordinary arrival of new riches. The Melanesian outbursts have been typically inspired by prophet-type leaders, with their messages reflecting a transition between indigenous traditions and more settled islander Christianities. This paper moves on from describing and explaining southwest Pacific cargo-type movements to the issue of the ethos out of which they arose, and addresses the sociology of hope for Cargo (or modern commodities in plenty) as a global issue, best described as Cargoism. Sets of beliefs in the coming bounty and changing power of Cargo have much more than provincial or local-indigenous implications. They point to a worldwide plethora of expectations wherein material items define the essential comforts of life and capture the individual, family and collective imaginations about the preferred human future. Exploring some of the universally human implications within the logic of cargo-cult thinking in its Pacific context, this paper introduces Cargoism as a transoceanic and intercontinental issue that has enormous environmental and politico-economic ramifications. Presages of environmental stress lie with globalizing cargoist dreams and pressures, including hopes for progress and technological solutions offered by trade and commercial expansions (proffered by powerful nations, including China, for the Asia-Pacific future).
ER -