Smithsonian Cargo Cult article - now on-line! - General Tiki

I ikitnrev Tiki Socialite D.C. / Virginia Joined: Jul 27, 2002 Posts: 1325	I ikitnrev Posted posted on Tue, Jan 31, 2006 5:44 AM I don't subscribe to Smithsonian, but a description of a piece that appears in the February issue may entice me to purchase it. Here are the first few paragraphs from the an article in the Washington Post. On the South Pacific island of Tanna, beneath a volcano that rumbles and smokes, a guy wearing a fake U.S. Army uniform raises an American flag. Then 40 barefoot men march past, carrying fake rifles made of bamboo, their brown chests decorated with red paint spelling out "USA." Later, a group of men slinging fake chainsaws sing a homemade hymn: "We've come from America to cut down all the trees so we can build factories." This isn't a protest or a piece of performance art. It's a religious ceremony held every year on Feb. 15 -- John Frum Day, the high holy day of a South Pacific religion that worships a messiah who is, as Paul Raffaele writes in a wonderfully weird story in the February issue of Smithsonian, "an American god no sober man has ever seen." Raffaele traveled to the nation of Vanuatu -- formerly known as New Hebrides -- to check out the John Frum religion, one of the last of the famous "cargo cults" that sprang up in the South Pacific in World War II. He tells a story so bizarre that it reads like a Kurt Vonnegut novel. The full Washington Post article that summarizes the Smithsonian article can be found here. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/30/AR2006013001422.html I expect the full Smithsonian article will soon be found in its entirety on the Smithsonian magazine website. (updated) And here it is .... http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2006/february/john.php?page=1 Vern [ Edited by: ikitnrev 2006-02-08 17:12 ]

I don't subscribe to Smithsonian, but a description of a piece that appears in the February issue may entice me to purchase it.

Here are the first few paragraphs from the an article in the Washington Post.

On the South Pacific island of Tanna, beneath a volcano that rumbles and smokes, a guy wearing a fake U.S. Army uniform raises an American flag. Then 40 barefoot men march past, carrying fake rifles made of bamboo, their brown chests decorated with red paint spelling out "USA."

Later, a group of men slinging fake chainsaws sing a homemade hymn: "We've come from America to cut down all the trees so we can build factories."

This isn't a protest or a piece of performance art. It's a religious ceremony held every year on Feb. 15 -- John Frum Day, the high holy day of a South Pacific religion that worships a messiah who is, as Paul Raffaele writes in a wonderfully weird story in the February issue of Smithsonian, "an American god no sober man has ever seen."

Raffaele traveled to the nation of Vanuatu -- formerly known as New Hebrides -- to check out the John Frum religion, one of the last of the famous "cargo cults" that sprang up in the South Pacific in World War II. He tells a story so bizarre that it reads like a Kurt Vonnegut novel.

The full Washington Post article that summarizes the Smithsonian article can be found here.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/30/AR2006013001422.html

I expect the full Smithsonian article will soon be found in its entirety on the Smithsonian magazine website.

(updated) And here it is ....
http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2006/february/john.php?page=1

Vern

[ Edited by: ikitnrev 2006-02-08 17:12 ]

Post #211672 by ikitnrev on Tue, Jan 31, 2006 5:44 AM