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The Apotheosis of White Men?: A Reexamination of Beliefs about Europeans as Ancestral Spirits
Author(s) -
Leavitt Stephen C.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
oceania
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.356
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 1834-4461
pISSN - 0029-8077
DOI - 10.1002/j.1834-4461.2000.tb03069.x
Subject(s) - new guinea , apotheosis , paternalism , ideology , colonialism , white (mutation) , sociology , history , ethnology , environmental ethics , political science , philosophy , law , politics , archaeology , biology , biochemistry , gene
Criticisms of work on cargo beliefs argue it supports paternalistic colonial projections and patronizes Melanesians. But researchers continue to hear Melanesians asserting that Europeans communicate with ancestral spirits. Such assertions are part of a dynamic religious tradition responding to troubling times. Some have cast cargo beliefs as naive ‐ if rational ‐ attempts to understand bewildering changes. Such work fails to capture the innovative, discriminating tenor of cargo beliefs as a religious ideology that adherents manipulate to address their own needs. Case material comes from the Bumbita Arapesh, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea.