Smithsonian Cargo Cult article - now on-line!

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 ]

Thanks for the heads up!

Just as interesting to me is the other story on page 2 of that article; "DR. Z GETS AN 'F'" in which Doctor Z predicted the the Panthers and the Colts would go to the Super Bowl. I would like to take this time to publicly apologize to my friend Doctor Z, for feeding him that bogus info in the first place last September. I was drunk at the time. What I really meant is that the Seattle Seahawks will go all the way. Sorry for the confusion.

Sabu

Interesting. I took a geography course about the Pacific islands and their cultures, and our teacher told us the likely start of the cargo cult religion was a Navy man by the name of John Frum during World War 2, which makes sense due to associations of great wealth (all the Navy ships and their supplies) with the appearance of a certain man who provided that explanation. But that article says it started much earlier, in the 1930s. That changes the whole nature of that cult, in my mind, if the article's account is true.

As for kava, an oceanography teacher in that same school told us about his trip to Fiji and how the natives seemed to get pretty happy after drinking kava, so he tried it, but he said they used to spit in it due to the chemical properties of saliva enhancing the effect. That was before anybody knew about AIDS. How the world has changed.

[ Edited by: mbonga 2006-01-31 20:32 ]

On 2006-01-31 20:31, mbonga wrote:
That was before anybody knew about AIDS. How the world has changed.

Jeez, crack open a book or newspaper once in a while! AIDS, or more accurately the HIV virus, has only been around (in human-infecting form) since the late 70s or so. It is also generally recognized that saliva is not a hospitable carrier of the virus. Few viruses, in fact, can be transmitted via saliva since its enzymes tend to break it down before it can spread.

AIDS, or more accurately the HIV virus, has only been around (in human-infecting form) since the late 70s or so. It is also generally recognized that saliva is not a hospitable carrier of the virus.

I heard HIV was carried by "bodily fluids", which I interpreted to include saliva. What you say makes sense, though. Blame the wording of the news I read/heard. As for the timing, that class was in the early 1980s.

Very interesting story Ikitnrev. Thanks for posting that link.

Definitely worth finding. Thanks for the heads-up.

Isn't the theory that "John Frum" probably introduced himself as "John from Philadelphia," "John from Cincinnati" or whatever? The natives probably just called him by the part they could remember.

Just another note about Kava in Fiji. I used to live in Fiji on Taviuni island and have participated in alot of Kava drinking with the locals. I never witnessed spitting in the Kava.

Maybe they spit in it when you weren't looking!

Here are three separate references copied from three separate websites mentioning the traditional mastication process for Kava. Human saliva apparently activates the Kavalactones thus increasing the drinks narcotic effect.

Ain't Google great?

-In Schubel's investigations as reported in 1924, he found that kava resin administered in large enough doses could produce temporary paralysis of sensory nerves and smooth muscle. Interestingly, Schubel also made a discovery that supported the mastication of kava as the most effective means of preparation. In experiments conducted with frog hearts, he discovered that kava extract was more potent if made from root that had been incubated with saliva. He speculated that the starch digesting enzyme (ptyalin) in saliva more effectively liberated the resinous compounds from the root, thus yielding a stronger extract.

-On Tanna Island the pulpy kava root is washed and cut then chewed by boys and young men into a pulp and spat into a coconut fiber 'cloth'. The juice is then squeezed out and drunk. It is thought in some places that the saliva from these - often virginal - young men adds some active chemical component to the kava, enhancing its effects. Kava certainly does vary in strength, but mostly because of its age (the older, the stronger). Dilution with water also reduces its effects.

-The time-honored way of activating the drugs is still the most effective - pieces of the dried woodstock are chewed until they are reduced to a soft, pulpy mass. This is spit into a wooden bowl, mixed with water or coconut milk, and kneaded by hand. After a few hours of fermentation, the solids are strained out and the liquid is drunk. The rootstocks are seldom chewed nowadays. They are simply pulverized, mixed with water or coconut milk, and filtered out. The result is a popular beverage, drunk by men and women alike, that has a stimulating, tonic effect but lacks the narcotic power of the chewed product.

[ Edited by: hodadhank 2006-02-04 09:15 ]

The full Smithsonian magazine article on cargo cults is now on-line at
http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2006/february/john.php

Here is one more excerpt ......

Daniel leads me to his village nakamal, the open ground where the men drink kava. Two young boys bend over the kava roots Jessel had purchased, chewing chunks of them into a stringy pulp. “Only circumcised boys who’ve never touched a girl’s body can make kava,” Daniel tells me. “That ensures that their hands are not dirty.”

Other boys mix water with the pulp and twist the mixture through a cloth, producing a dirty-looking liquid. Daniel hands me a half-coconut shell filled to the brim. “Drink it in one go,” he whispers. It tastes vile, like muddy water. Moments later my mouth and tongue turn numb.

Vern

I figured out the spit vs no spit issue.
When I lived in Fiji in the 90's. It was easy to purchase and use powdered Kava that came packaged in a plastic bag from the store. Sounds like a short-cut for convenience as opposed to a more official ceremonial Kava drinking event.

From Paul Theroux's The Happy Isles of Oceania (pg 245):

"Long after night had fallen, and often until quite late, I heard the villagers pounding the yanggona root in their big wooden mortars. This thudding was continuous, like the sound of a stirrup pump, and it was always a woman using the pestle. The Fiji method was different from the Vanuatu way. In Fiji they sluiced this pounded root through a piece of cloth and the narcotic drink was squeezed into the kava bowl.

"We don't chew," Masi said.

But I now knew that human saliva reacted with the root and made a stronger drink---that was why they called Tanna product "two-day kava": You were stupefied for two days on a few shells of the stuff.

At one time, village girls in Fiji had prepared the root by chewing it and spitting it out. Having a winsome Fijian girl smilingly masticating by my side seemed infinitely preferable to me than a filthy man with black tooth stumps munching and drooling. But as Masi said, We don't chew. Non-chewing islands in the Pacific were invariably the islands where the missionaries had exerted the strongest grip, for nothing was more disgusting to a European that drinking someone elses's saliva. Missionaries had encouraged the use of mortars and pestles."

Look to Author Christopher Moore for Cargo Cults in his very funny book "Island of the Sequined Love Nun"

The BBC reports on the 50th Anniversary of the John Frum Movement:

**
Vanuatu cargo cult marks 50 years**
*By Phil Mercer
BBC News, Tanna *

One of the world's last surviving cargo cults is celebrating its official 50th anniversary on Tanna island in Vanuatu.

The John Frum Movement worships a mysterious spirit that urged them to reject the teachings of the Church and maintain their traditional customs.

The cult was reinforced during WWII, when US forces landed with huge amounts of cargo - weapons, food and medicine.

Villagers believe the spirit of John Frum sent the US military to their South Pacific home to help them.

Devotees say that an apparition of John Frum first appeared before tribal elders in the 1930s.

He urged them to rebel against the aggressive teachings of Christian missionaries and instead said they should put their faith in their own customs.

Stars and Stripes

World War II and the arrival of American troops on Vanuatu was a turning point for the John Frum Movement.

Villagers believe that their messiah was responsible for sending the generous US military and its cargo to them.

Speaking in local pidgin, the movement's head, Chief Isaac Wan, said that John Frum was a god who would one day return. He's "our God, our Jesus," he said.

Islanders are convinced that John Frum was an American. Every year they parade in home-made US army uniforms beneath the Stars and Stripes.

They hope one day to entice another delivery of cargo.

This 50th anniversary marks the formal establishment of the John Frum Movement.

It also recognises the day when villagers raised the American flag for the first time in this isolated corner of the South Pacific.

I'm starting CargoCentral.com to celebrate both Classic & Modern Cargo Cult Movements, John Frum & Prince Phillip Movements, equally. I predict Cargo will be the next Tiki, so start collecting your Wicker & Palm Frond Planes, Bamboo Radio Headsets, and Tanna Army uniforms.

A decent scholarly book on the subject is Road Belong Cargo by Peter Lawrence, 1964. It's somewhere in my Mom's attic if anyone wants to borrow it.

Is there not a Serge Gainsbourg song entitled "Cargo Cult"?

On 2006-02-01 10:46, Tiki-bot wrote:

On 2006-01-31 20:31, mbonga wrote:
That was before anybody knew about AIDS. How the world has changed.

AIDS, or more accurately the HIV virus, has only been around (in human-infecting form) since the late 70s or so.

A recent study strongly suggests the first case of HIV-1 occurred in West Africa about 1930 (give or take 15 years). The infection of flair bartending obviously happened much later.