Cargo, Cult & Culture Critique

305 Pages·2004·6.922 MB·English

by  Holger Jebens

CARGO, CULT, AND CULTURE CRITIQUE

CARGO,
CULT,
AND
CULTURE
CRITIQUE
Edited by
Holger Jebens
UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI`I PRESS
honolulu
© 2004 University of Hawai‘i Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
09 08 07 06 05 04 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cargo, cult, and culture critique / edited by Holger Jebens.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8248-2814-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-8248-2851-8 (pbk.)
1. Cargo cults. 2. Nativistic movements. 3. Melanesia—Religious life and customs. 4.
Melanesia—Social life and customs. I. Jebens, Holger.
GN472.75.C37 2004
306.6’99925—dc22
2004003470
University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free
paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability
of the Council on Library Resources.
Cover and interior design, and composition by Teresa Bonner.
Text in Goudy Old Style and display type in Agenda.
Printing and binding by The Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group.
Printed on 60 lb. Sebago Eggshell, 420ppi.
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
1. Introduction: Cargo, Cult, and Culture Critique 1
Holger Jebens
PART I: AGAINST CARGO
2. Cargo Cult at the Third Millennium 15
Lamont Lindstrom
3. Dissolving the Self-Other Dichotomy in Western “Cargo
Cult” Constructions 36
Elfriede Hermann
4. Neither Traditional nor Foreign: Dialogics of Power and Agency
in Fijian History 59
Martha Kaplan
PART II: EXPANDING THE FRAMEWORK
5. Mutual Hopes: German Money and the Tree of Wealth in
East Flores 79
Karl-Heinz Kohl
6. Violence and Millenarian Modernity in Eastern Indonesia 92
Nils Bubandt
7. Government, Church, and Millenarian Critique in the Imyan
Tradition of the Religious (Papua/Irian Jaya, Indonesia) 117
Jaap Timmer
PART III: CARGO AS LIVED REALITY
8. Encountering the Other: Millenarianism and the Permeability of
Indigenous Domains in Melanesia and Australia 137
Robert Tonkinson
9. Talking about Cargo Cults in Koimumu (West New Britain
Province, Papua New Guinea) 157
Holger Jebens
10. From “Cult” to Religious Conviction: The Case for Making
Cargo Personal 170
Stephen C. Leavitt
PART IV: COMPARISON AND CRITIQUE
11. Cargo and Cult: The Mimetic Critique of
Capitalist Culture 187
Doug Dalton
12. Work, Wealth, and Knowledge: Enigmas of Cargoist
Identifications 209
Ton Otto
13. Thoughts on Hope and Cargo 227
Vincent Crapanzano
14. On the Critique in Cargo and the Cargo in Critique: Toward a
Comparative Anthropology of Critical Practice 243
Joel Robbins
References 261
Contributors 283
Index 287
Acknowledgments
The texts collected here are revised versions of papers presented at a
workshop bearing the same title as this volume and generously sponsored
by the Volkswagen Foundation (and supported by the Aarhus Univer-
sity), which was organized by Karl-Heinz Kohl, Ton Otto, and me and
held in November 1999, in Aarhus, Denmark. The workshop, whose title
was suggested by Ton Otto, simultaneously marked the conclusion of a
three-year research project, which was also generously supported by the
Volkswagen Foundation, was supervised by Karl-Heinz Kohl, and in
which Otto and I took part. Personally, I wish to thank Karl-Heinz Kohl,
without whom neither the research, the workshop, nor this volume would
have been possible.

CARGO, CULT, AND CULTURE CRITIQUE