Cargo Cults

In the Spring of 1945, American forces in the Far East turned the area of Hollandia (New Guinea) into a base camp for 40,000 soldiers. Transport aircraft brought in supplies for the Pacific campaign against the Japanese. The natives looked on uncomprehendingly at the activities of the foreigners. Every once in a while, the soldiers distributed small gifts among the natives. Gifts such as canned goods, chocolate, chewing gum, which the natives called "cargo." More and more natives watched as the big silver birds rose into the clouds with a loud roar, apparently to heaven. Then they began discussing what they could do so that the silver birds would fly directly into their tribal area and unload their "cargo" there. All of a sudden, pseudo airports began appearing with imitation landing strips and aircraft made of wood and straw, cables made of plant fibres, antennae made of bamboo and isolators made of rolled up leaves. A new cult developed--the cargo cult.

"Mysteries of the World" will show filmed excerpts from various cargo cults. We will postulate the idea that when a technologically progressive society meets a technologically underdeveloped society, the latter creates curious cults which tries to imitate the technical devices of the "gods" through stelae, anthropomorphic representations and countless figurines. Such objects will be on display in the foyer as holographs floating over the heads of the visitors. We will demonstrate cargo cult objects such as the suits made of straw of the Kayapo Indians of the Amazon and the Katchina dolls of the Hopi Indians of Arizona. In both cases, the natives have imitated a heavenly teacher. In an underground crypt the, 3.80 metre long, and 2.20 metre wide memorial slab of Palenque, Mexico, will amaze viewers as a good example of misunderstood technology in ancient times. The visitor can view the slab from above by climbing up a ramp. On a projection wall, all previous archaeological explanations about the origin of the slab will be presented. The visitor will then move to a larger room along a flight of narrow stairs. The whole front wall will be taken up by the temple of "Borubudur" of central Java. The walls will be covered with flickering images of "Stupas," the unusual, dome-like structures of this temple. A computer animation will superimpose the slab of Palenque on a Stupa of Borubudur (morphing). Suddenly everything will be shaking and the Stupa will take off. Misunderstood technology? In the East and the West? The holographic question marks appear again along the corridor to the exit.