September 28, 2004
Kamloops Daily News



When the contestants of the reality TV show Survivor arrived
on one of the islands of Vanuatu, they expected the fierce
reception that they received from the from the primitively
dressed natives.  They could not have expected how close
their beliefs corresponded with the islanders.

The faithful of Vanuatu have been patiently waiting for
decades for their ship to come in.  Chief Isag Wan prays for
the return of their spiritual prophet, John Frum.   When
Frum first appeared 63 years ago in the flesh, he told them
to reject their Christian ways and return to their
traditional ways.

If the citizens of Vanuatu would just turn their backs on
the Christianity, said  Frum, then he would return with a
great white ship loaded with Jeeps, refrigerators, and
tinned meat.  All they had to do is resume their pagan fire
dances, fueled by the narcotic kava drink, and a new age of
material wealth would begin.

So the islanders happily did as Frum asked, much to the
chagrin of missionaries who found their churches empty for
the first time in decades.

The traditional rituals soon paid off.  Within a year, U.S.
Marines arrived in 1941 after the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor.   The soldiers generously gave the islanders tins of
Spam, cooking utensils, and cigarettes.  One G.I. gave them
a U.S. Flag and told them that they would be protected.

Every year since, the "Frummers" have commemorated the visit
on February 15 by dressing in old army surplus gear,
marching down to the beach armed with wooden rifles,
lighting a fire, and solemnly raising the U.S. flag.

The ceremony is not an demonstration of allegiance to the
U.S. but rather, a religious ritual.  The Frummers are part
of a category of beliefs called Cargo cults.

Cargo cults don't believe in objects because of their
religious or iconic significance - - not the way that the
shroud that supposedly covered Christ might be revered, for
example.

The material goods are valued by Cargo cults because they
represent riches on earth through magical intervention.  The
objects themselves represent a sign of abundance and
well-being.  For the islanders, the arrival of material
goods from a far away place is baffling and magical.  The
pots and pans, jeeps, canned meat, and cigarettes might just
as well as dropped out of the sky - - their appearance was
so astonishing.

Mark Lindstrom, contributor to the anthology called Cargo,
Cult and Culture says "In the typical cargo-cult story, if
you dance in the right way and if you pray in the right way
and do the right rituals, then someone is going to smile on
you and make you rich."

Cargo cults produce results now - - no waiting for heaven as
the islanders had been taught by the missionaries.  Unlike
traditional Christianity, materialism is not seen as a
barrier to spirituality.  Spam in the hand is worth more
than pie in the sky, in the creed of Frummers.

The contestants of Survivor are bearers of latter-day Cargo
cult thinking.   "The Survivor format is similar," says
Lindstrom, "Dance, build, and play right, and you will win
the million bucks."  Contestants aspire to a to a fantasy of
miraculous, life changing, abundance.

Charles Montgomery, author of The Last Heathen: Encounter
with the Ghosts and Ancestors of Melanesia, says "the most
striking parallel between cargo cultists and reality TV is
the power invested not in spirits but in objects
themselves."

The conjunction between wannabe millionaires and Cargo cults
of Vanuatu is remarkable.  While the so-called modern
contestants return to their primitive roots,  they also
bring renewed Christianity back to the islanders.

The brand of Christianity embraced by the Survivor
contestants is more appealing to islanders than the original
missionary version.  Vecepia Towery-Robinson, winner of
Survivor 4, told the magazine Christianity Today that it was
God who ensured that she was picked for the show.  "There
were times I got down, but I went to pray and I knew the
Lord didn't bring me onto Survivor to falter."

Unlike the stodgy missionaries, these new Christians believe
in getting the goods now.  Even non-Christians on
Towery-Robinson's team believed in the magic of ritual and
prayer, asking her to pray for food and other rewards so
they could win.

The natives' visionary magic materialism and the Survivor
contestants' message of gratification through wealth come
together on Vanuatu.

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