Cargo Cultists of Technology

When familiarity leads to rituals, obsession & bad tech decisions

During the Pacific campaign of World War II, Japanese and American forces occupied a wide swath of islands. In an area as vast as the Pacific Ocean, these islands were often the only way to reliably deliver supplies and material to the front lines. Thus these islands were of vital strategic importance to both sides.

Little known to these newcomers was the fact that many of these islands were populated. Often the occupants were primitive tribes that had little to no exposure to such technologically advanced peoples. The ships, the planes, the weapons, and even the rudimentary supplies seemed like the tools of gods.

During the war, occupying forces would regularly share supplies with the native population. This was a significant leap in technology for a population that had no knowledge or skills to create such supplies on their own. For all intents and purposes, these goods were the result of magic.

After the war, the militaries left and the supply routes stopped. No longer were crates of food, tools, medical supplies, and weapons being airdropped from the sky. Without an understanding of the geopolitical situation, the native populations created highly choreographed rituals to lure the “foreign gods” to return to deliver their cargo once again. Some of these rituals were quite elaborate, including building mockups of planes and mimicking Western clothing styles.