# Does this pop culture trope have any basis in reality? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 8, 2009, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-pop-culture-trope-have-any-basis-in-reality/484911 "2009-02-08T08:36:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-pop-culture-trope-have-any-basis-in-reality/484911/1 "2009-02-08T08:36:44Z")
The trope in question is the one where a white guy, typically an explorer of some sort, meets up with a primitive tribe, gets mistaken for a god, and gets worshipped. I must have seen this dozens of times in movies and books. I’m only aware of two possible real-world situations that might be relevant. The first is Captain Cook’s final expedition to Hawaii. The native Hawaiians did mistake him and his sailors fot deities. However, there was no worship or anything of the sort involved, and it lasted only a short time before the Hawaiians turned against Cook. The other case is the “Cargo Cults” of New Guinea and Micronesia, in which the natives supposedly believed that various modern gadgets have divine origin. I haven’t been able to find any reliable source verifying their existence. I’m skeptical for a number of reasons. First, I was a World War II buff in my younger days. I read a great deal about the war in the Pacific, and the Cargo Cults were never mentioned. Second, it seems that the idea showed up in pop culture first, before it actually happened during WW II. I’ve seen it in several works of fiction from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Third, since it fits so well with the racist attitudes from that period, one wonders if it could have been fabricated (or at least exaggerated) as a justification for those attitudes. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-pop-culture-trope-have-any-basis-in-reality/484911/2 "2009-02-08T08:47:55Z")
Wasn’t that also a factor in the Conquistadors’ dominance of the Aztecs & Incas? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-pop-culture-trope-have-any-basis-in-reality/484911/3 "2009-02-08T09:00:51Z")
On [Columbus fourth voyage](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus#Fourth_voyage), begun in 1502,… > [@](#): > > For a year Columbus and his men remained stranded on Jamaica. A Spaniard, Diego Mendez, and some natives paddled a canoe to get help from Hispaniola. That island’s governor, Nicolás de Ovando y Cáceres, detested Columbus and obstructed all efforts to rescue him and his men. In the meantime Columbus, in a desperate effort to induce the natives to continue provisioning him and his hungry men, successfully intimidated the natives by correctly predicting a lunar eclipse for February 29, 1504, using the Ephemeris of the German astronomer Regiomontanus. Help finally arrived, no thanks to the governor, on June 29, 1504, and Columbus and his men arrived in Sanlúcar, Spain, on November 7. ---
**Author:** ![achilles\_bogart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/58956e/32.png) [@achilles\_bogart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/achilles_bogart)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-pop-culture-trope-have-any-basis-in-reality/484911/4 "2009-02-08T09:20:46Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > The trope in question is the one where a white guy, typically an explorer of some sort, meets up with a primitive tribe, gets mistaken for a god, and gets worshipped. I must have seen this dozens of times in movies and books. > > I’m only aware of two possible real-world situations that might be relevant. The first is Captain Cook’s final expedition to Hawaii. The native Hawaiians did mistake him and his sailors fot deities. However, there was no worship or anything of the sort involved, and it lasted only a short time before the Hawaiians turned against Cook. > > The other case is the “Cargo Cults” of New Guinea and Micronesia, in which the natives supposedly believed that various modern gadgets have divine origin. I haven’t been able to find any reliable source verifying their existence. I’m skeptical for a number of reasons. First, I was a World War II buff in my younger days. I read a great deal about the war in the Pacific, and the Cargo Cults were never mentioned. Second, it seems that the idea showed up in pop culture first, before it actually happened during WW II. I’ve seen it in several works of fiction from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Third, since it fits so well with the racist attitudes from that period, one wonders if it could have been fabricated (or at least exaggerated) as a justification for those attitudes. Cargo Cults are real. They were around before WWII but not in a big way, it was after that they really sprung up. Its a combination of at least the traditional big-man system (like potlatch), missionary influence that hard work would bring reward divine rewards, and contact with more technologically advanced people. When the troops landed they brought all this stuff with them. A lot of the people saw the Cargo as their reward for hard work and the end of their troubles. Groups of people even built airstrips and dummy radios to get the planes carrying cargo to come to them. Try Marvin Harris’ “Cows, Pigs, Wars & Witches” for a bit about cargo cults and lots of other stuff. Its a good book. He was a very well renowned anthropologist (he’s dead now). You won’t see cargo cults so much in war books, but you will in anthropology books. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A2267426](http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A2267426) This link is pretty good too. Native Americans had very good trade routes. 10,000 year old remains in Alaska showed a well developed marine trade route that far back. Horses were traded far and wide from the first areas of contact and herds were well established across the U.S when white explorers arrived in the late 1700’s and 1800’s, to give you an idea how wide spread the routes were. Stories spread too, about white people with powerful technology (not just guns). I don’t think you see so much “Whites as Gods” worship (though the whites certainly saw it that way) but natives trying to gain the white’s spiritual power that allowed them to make the tools and technology they had. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-pop-culture-trope-have-any-basis-in-reality/484911/5 "2009-02-08T11:41:03Z")
In Star Wars VI the Ewoks thought C3P0 was a God. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-pop-culture-trope-have-any-basis-in-reality/484911/6 "2009-02-08T13:23:17Z")
We did cargo cults in my senior seminar in religious studies, which was on millennialism. That’s more than 30 years ago, though. Let me poke around and see if I can find some good sources. (Marvin Harris, though beloved by skeptics, isn’t taken all that seriously within anthropology/sociology – as a popularizer, he tends to ignore nuance.) ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-pop-culture-trope-have-any-basis-in-reality/484911/7 "2009-02-08T13:53:20Z")
[Prince Phillip is worshipped a God on the island of Tanna.](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6734469.stm) ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-pop-culture-trope-have-any-basis-in-reality/484911/8 "2009-02-08T14:02:43Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > Wasn’t that also a factor in the Conquistadors’ dominance of the Aztecs & Incas? Yes, the Aztecs had a legend about a “white god” coming who should be welcomed. Also the Spanish had horses. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-pop-culture-trope-have-any-basis-in-reality/484911/9 "2009-02-08T14:17:26Z")
> [@achilles\_bogart](#): > > Native Americans had very good trade routes. 10,000 year old remains in Alaska showed a well developed marine trade route that far back. Horses were traded far and wide from the first areas of contact and herds were well established across the U.S when white explorers arrived in the late 1700’s and 1800’s, to give you an idea how wide spread the routes were. My first reading of this had me thinking you were saying that trade in horses went back 10,000 years. But I assume “first areas of contact” refers to contact with Spanish conquistadors (who brought the first horses, in the 16th century). > [@](#): > > I don’t think you see so much “Whites as Gods” worship (though the whites certainly saw it that way) What whites thought they were being worshiped as gods? ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-pop-culture-trope-have-any-basis-in-reality/484911/10 "2009-02-08T20:57:49Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > Third, since it fits so well with the racist attitudes from that period, one wonders if it could have been fabricated (or at least exaggerated) as a justification for those attitudes. David Attenborough’s book _Life On Air_ has an excellent account of Cargo Cults, and the stories aren’t exaggerated, although they do have a rather more complex social and political spin on them than dumb natives worshipping aeroplanes. Essentially they are/were _anti-colonialist_, a millennarian movement which predicted the coming of a prophet named John Frum who would free them from the shackles of honky and provide them with all his material goods gratis. ---
**Author:** ![Vox\_Imperatoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Vox\_Imperatoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vox_Imperatoris)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-pop-culture-trope-have-any-basis-in-reality/484911/11 "2009-02-08T21:09:48Z")
> [@scifisam2009](#): > > [Prince Phillip is worshipped a God on the island of Tanna.](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6734469.stm) That’s so weird. Valete, Vox Imperatoris ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-pop-culture-trope-have-any-basis-in-reality/484911/12 "2009-02-08T21:28:37Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > On [Columbus fourth voyage](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus#Fourth_voyage), begun in 1502,… It’s interesting and impressive in a way that by around ten years after Columbus returned from his first voyage there were already many established outposts as well as a bureaucracy in the New World. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-pop-culture-trope-have-any-basis-in-reality/484911/13 "2009-02-08T21:41:52Z")
Captain Cook may have been regarded as Lono on his final voyage. Final because the Hawaiians killed him. Apparently there was a pretty high bar for gods in Hawaii. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-pop-culture-trope-have-any-basis-in-reality/484911/14 "2009-02-08T21:46:06Z")
When the peoples of the central highlands of Papua New Guinea were first contacted in the 1930s, they at first believed that the whites on the expeditions were spirits: From [here:](http://www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/87/PapuaNG.html) > [@](#): > > The highland valleys of Papua New Guinea were first contacted by Australians in the 1930s and were found to be inhabited by over a million people, made up of several hundred different ethnic groups, who had been growing their vegetable staples and raising their pigs in the fertile upland soils for over nine thousand years. > > … > > The gulf of incomprehension was wide on both sides. Trying to make sense of these strangely apparelled, pale skinned visitors, the highlanders, for the large part, assumed that they were ancestral spirits, either returning lost relatives coming from the east where the dead were thought to dwell or else ambiguous, even evil, mythic beings from the heavens. Recalls Gopu Ataiamelahu of Gama Village near Goroka: ‘I asked myself, who are these people? They must be somebody from the heavens. Have they come to kill us or what? We wondered if this could be the end of us and it gave us a feeling of sorrow. We said, “we must not touch them”. We were terribly frightened’. Remembers another: ‘They smelt so differently, these strange people. We thought it would kill us, so we covered our noses with the leaves from a special bush that grows near cucumbers. It had a particularly nice smell and it covered up theirs’. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-pop-culture-trope-have-any-basis-in-reality/484911/15 "2009-02-08T21:58:08Z")
Check this out: > **[John Nicholson (East India Company officer)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Nicholson_(general))** > > Indian Rebellion of 1857 > Brigadier-General John Nicholson, CB (11 December 1822 – 23 September 1857) was an Ulster-Scot officer who rose to prominence during his career in British India. Born in Ireland, Nicholson moved to the Indian subcontinent at a young age and obtained a commission in the Bengal Army where he spent the majority of his career helping to expand the East India Company's territories in numerous conflicts, including the First Anglo-Afghan War and the first and second Anglo-Sik... > [@](#): > > He was feared for his foul temper and authoritarian manner, but also gained the respect of the Afghan tribes in the area for his fairhandedness and sense of honour. He inspired the short lived cult of Nikal Seyn, despite the fact that he did not conceal his distaste for Indians and even went as far as to have some of his worshippers imprisoned and whipped (none of which shook the steadfastness of their devotion!) and inspired several sayings in Pakistan. Apparently, he disliked both Indians and the notion that they worshipped him: > [@](#): > > The paradox is that despite these attitudes of superiority John Nicholson was given tremendous admiration and respect in the Punjab. This was taken to extremes by one group who decided that he was a reincarnation of Brahma and deified him as “NIKAL SEYN”. The sect grew rapidly despite his having them whipped each time they came to worship him which only proved to them that he was a just God and that they were unworthy. He was plagued by their attention for the rest of his life … > **[Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos](https://www.yahoo.com/)** > > Latest news coverage, email, free stock quotes, live scores and video are just the beginning. Discover more every day at Yahoo! Of course, maybe they were just messing with his head. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![New\_Beginning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@New\_Beginning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/New_Beginning)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-pop-culture-trope-have-any-basis-in-reality/484911/16 "2009-02-08T21:58:31Z")
> [@scifisam2009](#): > > [Prince Phillip is worshipped a God on the island of Tanna.](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6734469.stm) Are we following some sort of prime directive here or what? Did the reporter (or others) not let them in on the gag? ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-pop-culture-trope-have-any-basis-in-reality/484911/17 "2009-02-08T22:05:11Z")
> [@New\_Beginning](#): > > Are we following some sort of prime directive here or what? Did the reporter (or others) not let them in on the gag? Well, they know his Earthly identity, and it actually fits with the God story. I wouldn’t be sure where to start with that one. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-pop-culture-trope-have-any-basis-in-reality/484911/18 "2009-02-08T22:11:21Z")
> [@New\_Beginning](#): > > Did the reporter (or others) not let them in on the gag? What gag? Rastafarians believe that Haile Selassie was the incarnation of god. Try telling a true believer that the object of his devotion is not divine and see how far it gets you. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-pop-culture-trope-have-any-basis-in-reality/484911/19 "2009-02-08T22:58:33Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > The other case is the “Cargo Cults” of New Guinea and Micronesia, in which the natives supposedly believed that various modern gadgets have divine origin. I haven’t been able to find any reliable source verifying their existence. You’re saying you sat down in front of a search engine (such as Google), typed in ‘cargo cult’, and were subsequently unable to find any source that documented cargo cults to your satisfaction? OK… here’s [one](http://www.nthposition.com/thelastcargo.php) that still exists… ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-pop-culture-trope-have-any-basis-in-reality/484911/20 "2009-02-09T03:19:13Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > On [Columbus fourth voyage](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus#Fourth_voyage), begun in 1502,… Not just on his fourth voyage. In his [letter](http://www.usm.maine.edu/~maps/columbus/translation.html) describing his first voyage, Columbus believed he was seen by the Indians as celestial being. (Of course, we don’t know what the Indians actually thought.) > [@](#): > > These people practice no kind of idolatry; on the contrary they firmly believe that all strength and power, and in fact all good things are in heaven, and that I had come down from thence with these ships and sailors; and in this belief I was received there after they had put aside fear. > > … > > They [Indians kidnapped to serve as guides] are coming with me now, yet always believing that I descended from heaven, although they have been living with us for a long time, and are living with us to-day. And these men were the first who announced it wherever we landed, continually proclaiming to the others in a loud voice, “Come, come, and you will see the celestial people.” Whereupon both women and men, both young men and old men, laying aside the fear caused a little before, visited us eagerly, filling the road with a great crowd, some bringing food, and some drink, with great love and extraordinary goodwill. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-pop-culture-trope-have-any-basis-in-reality/484911.md?page=2)