I think the fascination westerners had with cargo cults went beyond ridicule, no one would blind if they were worshiping an ancient sea god for example.
But there is a sort of cognitive dissonance created by someone worshiping something modern and technological, it seems so wrong it becomes fascinating. You could even think it is a way to laugh at and criticize religion in safe way, the way criticizing Christianity would not be.
I saw a film on this, made in the late 1950s.The local people had built a landing strip, with a control tower and runway lights (made from bamboo). They were waiting for the cargo to arrive. It would be interesting to see how much of this belief system has survived, as anyone there (who was alive in WWII) is now long dead. maybe it has been modified a bit?
I am reminded of Arthur C Clarkes Third Law:
‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’’
These islanders live in a low tech world and mapping the appearance of these huge ships full of strange manufactured goods must have presented them with a philosophical challenge. How do you map such an event onto their existing belief system?
Interestingly this was the challenge that Aztecs had when the Spanish Conquistadors arrived central America on their ships. The Aztecs had a legend that one day a God ancestor would return in a ship.
Sadly, as we all know this did not turn out well.
Science fiction writers have long pondered on the effect of a more advanced civilsation arriving in strange ships with powerful magic.
That film might be Mondo Cane.
Here’s a good article about the series “Meet The Natives”. It would be interesting to see a follow up about their life after their return home. They did get to see the documentary along with their fellow islanders.
I remember seeing an interview with a “modern” cargo cult believer. This guy had flown real airplanes himself, and knew very well that they were man-made creations. It made no difference to his faith, which was in the spiritual nature of cargo.
Or a way to morally justify keeping those islanders with their primitive ways and silly beliefs under a colonial government.
Was this really a strategy the average person fascinated with this had in mind? I doubt most people have a motive to what interests them.
No, but I do suspect some of the people who were involved in publicizing the cargo cults of this motivation (consciously or unconsciously).
The cargo cults were the primary direct threat to the colonial government during the period of Imperial rule. The whole idea behind the cults was to figure out how to gain access to the unending supply of cargo which was clearly the only thing that allowed the white men to maintain their position of power. Once on an equal footing with the white men cargo-wise, the islanders could then get rid of them. Given the essentially disruptive and rebellious nature of the cargo cults, any cult that started to spread was the target of forcible suppression by the powers-that-be. My guess is that any publicizing of the cargo cults on the part of those powers came only after they had ceased to be seen as a serious threat.
And at that point, someone might have questioned whether the forcible suppression of them, or all the means used to do so, were necessary or right. Sprinkle in a little bit of history written by the winners as well. People have been known to vilify and ridicule defeated enemies. See Shakespeare’s Richard III for a classic example.
Playing up and ridiculing the cargo cults justifies the decision to not let those people rule themselves- “we couldn’t have let those people rule themselves, look what silly things they did and believed”. You can use it to portray the natives to the public at home (and in other Western countries) as stupid or childlike. Of course, we’ve seen natives of other areas portrayed that way by colonial powers.
So what happens to the poor guy who has to do an emergency landing there and has no cargo beyond his luggage?