Word: melanesia
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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This was no isolated phenomenon. "Cargo cults" ("cargo" is pidgin English for trade goods) have been observed repeatedly in the islands of Melanesia (including New Guinea, the Solomons and the New Hebrides). All of them share the belief that black men will acquire the white man's magic to materialize goods from overseas without doing a lick of work. British Sociologist Peter M. Worsley writes of the cargo cults in the May issue of the Scientific American, and lists and locates 72 of them...
...never comes. Then, instead of abandoning the cult, they tend to form splinter groups, organized around a "purer" faith. As long as the islanders' social situation remains unchanged, says Worsley. the cargo cults persist, but with the development of modern political forms, they begin to wither away. "In Melanesia, ordinary political bodies, trade unions, and native councils are becoming the normal media through which the islanders express their aspirations ... It now seems unlikely that any major movement along cargo-cult lines will recur...
...same goes for Melanesia, but the Micheners add a practical if: "If we could earn some income, have screening, some kind of lighting system and some native boys willing to work for a decent wage...