Mad TV season 8

# Mad TV season 8

## Abstract

The eighth season of Mad TV, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on the Fox Network between September 14, 2002, and May 17, 2003.

## Summary

With fan-favorite cast members Alex Borstein, Will Sasso, and Andrew Daly gone, MADtv scrambled to find new talent to fill the void. Jill-Michele Meleán and Bobby Lee were upgraded to repertory status (though Meleán left in the middle of the season for undisclosed reasons) while previous season featured performers Kathryn Fiore and Taran Killam were let go. New faces in the cast for this season include: Ike Barinholtz, Simon Helberg (who only lasted a short time on this show, but is now more popular in his role on the sitcom The Big Bang Theory), Josh Meyers (younger brother of SNL cast member, Seth Meyers, making this the only time a Saturday Night Live cast member has had a family member be hired as a cast member on a competing sketch show), Christina Moore, Ron Pederson (who would become the show's second Canadian cast member after Will Sasso), and Paul Vogt (MADtv' s only male homosexual cast member and the second cast member after season six's Nelson Ascencio to have an identical twin brother).

With Sasso gone, Frank Caliendo became the latest cast member to play George W. Bush. Newcomer Ron Pederson played Dick Clark, Woody Allen, Saddam Hussein, and Entertainment Tonight anchor Mark Steines. Vogt replaced Will Sasso James Lipton and impersonated classic sitcom stars, such as Edward Asner (The Mary Tyler Moore Show), Jackie Gleason (The Honeymooners), and Charlotte Rae (Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts Of Life). Like their counterparts Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz on Saturday Night Live, long-time pals Ike Barinholtz and Josh Meyers would frequently appear in sketches together and play off each other's chemistry. Separately, Barinholtz performed celebrity impersonations such as Joe Millionaire ' s Evan Marriott and Nick Nolte, while Meyers offered offbeat impersonations of Eminem, Matthew McConaughey, Owen Wilson, Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, Anna Nicole Smith's son, Daniel, and some *NSYNC members. In her short time on the show, Jill-Michele Meleán was known for her Drew Barrymore impression and her recurring turn as one of the Glamazon Huntresses.

Guests this season included: former In Living Color cast members Tommy Davidson and David Alan Grier; comic actor Fred Willard, That '70s Show cast members Mila Kunis, Danny Masterson, and Wilmer Valderrama; and former MADtv cast member, Nicole Sullivan.

## Opening montage

The title sequence begins with the Mad TV logo appearing above the Los Angeles skyline. The theme song, performed by the hip-hop group Heavy D & the Boyz, begins and each repertory cast member is introduced alphabetically, followed by the featured cast. The screen dissolves into three live-action clips of an individual cast member. The three screens multiply until they occupy the entire screen. A shot of the cast member slightly moving appears on the screen with a caption of his/her name superimposed on it. When all cast members and guests are introduced, the music stops and the title sequence ends with the phrase "You are now watching Mad TV".

## Cast

## Writers

- Bryan Adams (eps. 1–25)

- Ike Barinholtz (eps. 3, 17)

- Dick Blasucci (eps. 1–25)

- Kal Clarke (eps. 1–25)

- Chris Cluess (eps. 1–25)

- Steven Cragg (eps. 1–25)

- John Crane (eps. 1–25)

- Lauren Dombrowski (eps. 1–25)

- Brian Hartt (ep. 20) (Season 05 Encore)

- Michael Hitchcock (eps. 1–25)

- Jennifer Joyce (eps. 1–25)

- Bill Kelley (eps. 1–25)

- Scott King (writing supervisor) (eps. 1–25)

- Karen Maruyama (ep. 8)

- Bruce McCoy (eps. 1–25)

- Michael McDonald (eps. 2, 3, 5, 7–9, 14–16, 19–25)

- Josh Meyers (eps. 3, 17)

- Sultan Pepper (eps. 1–25)

- Tami Sagher (eps. 1–25)

- David Salzman (eps. 12–25)

- Devon Shepard (ep. 23) (Season 06 Encore)

- Dino Stamatopoulos (eps. 1–25)

- Rich Talarico (eps. 1–25)

- Bryan Tucker (ep. 24) (Season 07 Encore)

- Stephnie Weir (eps. 2, 8, 9, 15–17, 19, 22)

- Maiya Williams (eps. 1–25)

- Jim Wise (eps. 1–25)

## Episodes

## Home releases

There is no season 8 complete season DVD release. However, this season's best sketches and segments have been used in the compilation DVD Mad TV: The Best of Seasons 8, 9, and 10.

Season 8 is also available on HBO Max, with episodes 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, and 23 missing.


Steven Ogg

# Steven Ogg

## Abstract

Steven Ogg (born November 4, 1973) is a Canadian actor. Ogg is best known for playing Trevor Philips in the 2013 video game Grand Theft Auto V and Simon in The Walking Dead. He has also appeared in the Breaking Bad spin-off, Better Call Saul.

## Early life

Ogg was born on November 4, 1973 in Edmonton, Alberta, and raised in Calgary.

## Career

After moving to New York City, he began acting in television shows such as Law & Order and Third Watch, in addition to some theater work and voice acting.

After taking a break from acting to build a house, he was hired by Rockstar Games as the voice and motion capture artist for Trevor Philips in their 2013 video game Grand Theft Auto V. His character was critically acclaimed and he received numerous award nominations as a result. In February 2014, he received an award on the 3rd Annual New York Videogame Critics Circle Awards for Best Overall Acting in a Game. Ogg later reprised his role in the 2016 YouTube short film GTA VR.

Ogg made two appearances in Better Call Saul as Sobchak, a mercenary and private detective. In the 2015 episode " Pimento ", he is one of three bodyguards hired by the character Pryce before getting into a verbal altercation with Mike Ehrmantraut who humiliates Sobchak by disarming and incapacitating him. He reappeared in the 2020 episode " Dedicado a Max ", undertaking clandestine investigative work for Saul Goodman under the pseudonym "Mr X".

In The Walking Dead season 6 finale, he made his debut as Simon, a member of the Saviors and one of the main antagonists in season 7. Ogg also portrayed Rebus in the HBO series Westworld, and provides the voice of Professor Venomous, in Cartoon Network 's animated series OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes. In 2019, Ogg portrayed Flexon in the second season of the 2016 series The Tick.

Ogg noted in an interview that he is aware of being typecast as "the crazy guy and the unpredictable guy" (with one example being his portrayal of Trevor in Grand Theft Auto V) though he did not mind this if it led to steady work. He admitted, however, that he would ideally like to explore "different characters different worlds", like his role as a father in the 2019 drama The Short History of the Long Road.

In 2022, he appeared in Dan Mangan 's music video for "Fire Escape", playing a personification of Mangan's self-critical inner voice.

In 2024 Ogg appeared in Amyl and the Sniffers music video for "U Should Not Be Doing That".

## Personal life

Steven is a single father and has one son, named Bodhi, of whom Steven's character's personal vehicle in Grand Theft Auto V is named after.

## Filmography


Jamia Masjid, Shopian

# Jamia Masjid, Shopian

## Abstract

Jama Masjid is a mosque in Shopian is a historic mosque located in the district of Shopian, in the Indian-administered union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. This mosque is said to have been built during the Mughal period and is very beautiful from both inside and outside. It's considered one of the best mosques in the Shopian district.

## In history

The mosque was an important stop on the Mughal road through Pir Panjal, where the Mughals used to stop and rest. The mosque was built by Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir, making it a significant historical site.

## Architecture

The Jamia Masjid in Shopian, Jammu and Kashmir, is a historic mosque with a notable architectural heritage. Although the specific architectural details of the mosque are not outlined in the data provided, it is mentioned that the mosque was built during the Mughal period and later reconstructed in the 1940s. Mughal architecture has been noted for its designs, domes, and minarets, which could be features of this mosque as well.

The mosque's construction was supervised by Ustab Habib Ullah Mast, a carpenter from Srinagar, and it was built using local stones. The foundation stone of the modern Jamia Masjid at Shopian was laid in 1944, and the construction was completed over a few years. It's also mentioned that the mosque underwent renovation, indicating that efforts have been made to preserve its historical and architectural value.


David J. Danelski

# David J. Danelski

## Abstract

David Joseph Danelski (born October 29, 1930) is an American lawyer and academic who is the Mary Lou and George Boone Centennial Professor and Director of the Stanford in Washington Program and Professor of Political Science (Teaching), Emeritus at Stanford University. He has been a professor of political science at a number of other institutions, with his longest stint being at Cornell University during the 1970s, and he was won several awards for his teaching. His specialties have included constitutional law of the United States, civil liberties in the United States, and the history and politics of the Supreme Court of the United States. He has worked as a lawyer in private practice as well in civil rights cases, and volunteered his services during the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964.

## Early life

Danelski was born on October 29, 1930 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He attended Green Bay East High School, graduating in 1948.

He attended nearby St. Norbert College from 1948 to 1950 but did not earn a degree.

## Degrees and early career

He entered the DePaul University College of Law, earning an LL.B. degree from there in 1953. He was admitted to the bar in Illinois in 1953. \

During 1953, Danelski served as a reserve officer in the United States Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps with a rank of ensign. He remained a JAG officer during 1954.

He married Jill Parmer in 1954. They went on to have five children, with the family following him to his various positions, and she worked as an educational administrator.

Then Danelski went to Seattle University, where he completed a B.A. degree in 1955. He was admitted to the bar in Washington state in 1955, after which he was a partner in the law firm of Patrick & Danelski in Mount Vernon, Washington, from 1955 to 1956.

Following that, he went to the University of Chicago, where he received an M.A. in 1957. While in Chicago, he acted as a research attorney for the American Bar Foundation from 1957 to 1959.

He also worked as an instructor and assistant professor of political science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign from 1959 to 1961, in particular teaching constitutional law (he may have been at UIUC a year earlier, in 1958). While there, in 1960 he became involved in the defense of Leo Koch, an assistant professor of biology who was terminated by the university president after making public remarks regarding sexual relations among students that did not conform to the 1950s-style morality of the time. The matter, which touched upon questions of academic freedom and freedom of speech in the United States, became front-page-headline news in the Chicago Daily Tribune. Danelski's actions got him on the wrong side of the university administration as well and, lacking tenure, he soon departed.

During this time, he remained working on his doctorate at the University of Chicago, and taking advantage of two fellowships, earned his Ph.D. in 1961. His dissertation was entitled "The Chief Justice and the Supreme Court".

## Middle career

By 1964, he was affiliated with the University of Washington, having started as an assistant professor there in 1961.

During 1963 and 1964, Danielski acted as a counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington. In 1964, during Mississippi Freedom Summer, he became one of several lawyers from the Seattle area to travel to Mississippi and volunteer their services. As such, he gave legal representation to civil rights workers in Mississippi.

He then moved across country to Yale University, where he was an associate professor beginning in 1964. During his time at Yale, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1968. He was also named a Fulbright scholar, and as that spent the 1968 – 69 academic year as a lecturer at the University of Tokyo. In 1969, while at Yale, he received from the Danforth Foundation a Harbison Prize for excellence in teaching.

Danelski came to Cornell University in Fall 1970 as a professor of public law and judicial behavior, and he and his family lived in Ithaca, New York. The Cornell Daily Sun viewed Danelski's reputation as such to headline its story "Liberal To Join Gov't Faculty". Danelski then became the Goldwin Smith Professor of Government at Cornell, having been named to that endowed chair in 1973.

Courses that Danelski taught at Cornell included "Civil Liberties in the United States", "Constitutional Politics", a freshman seminar in "Law and Society", and a two-semester interdisciplinary upperclass seminar in "Law and Social Science".

Danelski served as a University Ombudsman at Cornell from 1973 to 1975. In that role, Danelski sought to mediate conflicts within the university community.

## Later career

Danelski moved back west in 1979, becoming a professor of political science at Stanford University. He was also a partner in the Seattle law firm of Schroeter, Goldmark & Bender around this time; later he would maintain an " of counsel " title with them.

For the 1980 – 81 year, Danelski was a recipient of the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching, given out by the university's School of Humanities and Sciences.

Subsequently he became the Cecil H. and Louise Gamble Professor of Political Science, Dean of the Faculty, and Vice-President for Academic Affairs at Occidental College.

He later returned to Stanford, and in 1988 he moved to the nation's capital in order to establish the Stanford in Washington program. This was a year-round successor to an earlier Stanford in Government internship program, and Danelski became the first director of it. Danelski stayed in that position until he retired from Stanford in 1993.

After his retirement, Danelski continued to do research and writing and have visiting appointments at universities.

## Scholarship

In 1973, Danelski co-edited with Joseph S. Tulchin a volume of autobiographical notes of Justice Charles Evan Hughes. A review in the Boston University Law Review called the job they did "thorough, precise, and well-documented", although it preferred that the editors pursue several critical analyses further than they did.

In the wake of the very controversial Robert Bork Supreme Court nomination, Danelski participated in a conference at Northwestern University to discuss the history behind such nominations and the ramifications of what had happened. Danelski's contribution examined the history of Supreme Court appointments being evaluated on an ideological basis; in it, Danelski found a middle ground between those who believed that ideological objections to nominations were historically common and those who believed them rare.

By 1994, Danelski was working on a biography of Justice William O. Douglas while working as a visiting professor at Whitman College, which Douglas had attended. A decade later Danelski was said to still be working on the volume, and was defending Douglas against published allegations that the justice had fabricated or embellished many aspects of his life story. One chapter of the biography was published as a journal article in 2015.

## Selected publications

- "The Influence of the Chief Justice in the Decisional Process", in W. F. Murphy and C. Herman Pritchett, Courts, Judges and Politics (Random House, 1961, several editions since then), 497–508

- A Supreme Court Justice Is Appointed (New York: Random House, 1964)

- "Values as Variables in Judicial Decision-Making: Notes toward a Theory", Vanderbilt Law Review 19, no. 3 (June 1966): 721–740

- "Conflict and its resolution in the Supreme Court", Journal of Conflict Resolution 11, no. 1 (March 1967): 71–86

- Comparative Judicial Behavior: Cross-Cultural Studies of Political Decision-Making in the East and West (Oxford University Press, 1969)

- The Autobiographical Notes of Charles Evans Hughes" (Harvard University Press, 1973)

- "Toward Explanation of Judicial Behavior", University of Cincinnati Law Review 42, no. 4 (1973): 659–666

- "Ideology As a Ground for the Rejection of the Bork Nomination ", Northwestern University Law Review 84, nos. 3 & 4 (1989–1990): 900–920

- "The Saboteurs' Case", Journal of Supreme Court History 1996, no. 1 (1996): 61–82

- Constitutional Law: Civil Liberty and Individual Rights, Third Edition on, with some additional supplements; latest Sixth Edition (Foundation Press, 2007)

- The Chief Justice: Appointment and Influence (University of Michigan Press, 2016)


Cargo cult

# Cargo cult

## Abstract

Cargo cult is a term used to denote various spiritual and political movements that arose among indigenous Melanesians following Western colonisation of the region in the late 19th century. Although the term "cargo cult" has been used by anthropologists to "label almost any sort of organised, village-based social movement with religious and political aspirations", features common to most cargo cult groups include the presence of charismatic prophet figures foretelling an imminent cataclysm and/or a coming utopia for followers—a worldview known as millenarianism. Claims made by these prophets varied greatly from movement to movement, with some predicting the return of the dead or an abundance of food. Some movements sought to appease "ancestral spirits or other powerful beings" by either reviving ancestral traditions or adopting new rituals, such as ecstatic dancing or imitating the actions of colonists and military personnel. Some groups foretold the coming of a bounty of Western goods or money as part of their prophecy, although this was not a universal feature of such movements, with other prophets telling their followers to abandon Western goods. Anthropologists have described cargo cults as rooted in pre-existing aspects of Melanesian society, as a reaction to colonial oppression and inequality disrupting traditional village life, or both.

Groups labeled as cargo cults were subject to a considerable number of anthropological publications throughout the 1960s. After Melanesian countries gained political independence, few new groups matching the term have emerged since the 1970s, with some surviving "cargo cult" groups transitioning into indigenous churches and political movements. The term has largely fallen out of favour and is now seldom used among anthropologists, though its use as a metaphor (often based on ideas of "cargo cults" as engaging in ritual action to obtain material goods) is widespread outside of anthropology in popular commentary and critique, based on stereotypes of cargo cultists as "primitive and confused people who use irrational means to pursue rational ends". Recent scholarship on "cargo cults" has challenged the suitability of the term for the movements associated with it, with recent anthropological sources arguing that the term is born of colonialism and prejudice and does not accurately convey the diversity or nature of the movements within the label, though some anthropologists continue to see the term as having some descriptive value, despite the "heterogeneous, uncertain, and confusing ethnographic reality".

## Origin of the term and definitions

The term "cargo cult" first appeared in print in the November 1945 issue of Pacific Islands Monthly, in an entry written by Norris Mervyn Bird, an ‘old Territories resident’, who expressed concern regarding the effects of World War II, the teachings of Christian missionaries and the increasing liberalisation of colonial authorities in Melanesia would have on local islanders.

Stemming directly from religious teaching of equality, and its resulting sense of injustice, is what is generally known as ‘Vailala Madness’, or ‘Cargo Cult’.... A native, infected with the disorder, states that a great number of ships loaded with ‘cargo’ had been sent by the ancestor of the native for the benefit of the natives of a particular village or area. But the white man, being very cunning, knows how to intercept these ships and takes the ‘cargo’ for his own use... By his very nature the New Guinea native is peculiarly susceptible to these ‘cults’

Previous similar phenomena, first documented in the late 19th century, had been labelled with the term " Vailala Madness ", to which the term "cargo cult" was then retroactively applied. Bird took the term from derogatory descriptions used by planters and businessmen in the Australian Territory of Papua. From this issue, the term became used in anthropology following the publications of Australian anthropologists Lucy Mair and H. Ian Hogbin in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Peter Worsley defined cargo cults as follows in his 1957 book The Trumpet Shall Sound:

strange religious movements in the South Pacific during the last few decades. In these movements, a prophet announces the imminence of the end of the world in a cataclysm which will destroy everything. Then the ancestors will return, or God, or some other liberating power, will appear, bringing all the goods the people desire, and ushering in a reign of eternal bliss. The people therefore prepare themselves for the Day by setting up cult organizations, and by building storehouses, jetties, and so on to receive the goods, known as ‘cargo’ in the local pidgin English. Often, also, they abandon their gardens, kill off their livestock, eat all their food, and throw away their money.

In 1964, Peter Lawrence described the term as follows: "Cargo ritual was any religious activity designed to produce goods in this way and assumed to have been taught the leader by the deity".

Anthropologist Lamont Lindstrom has written that some anthropologists consider the term to be a "false category" because it "bundles together diverse and particular uprisings, disturbances, and movements that may have little in common". Lindstrom also writes that "anthropologists and journalists borrowed the term to label almost any sort of organised, village-based social movement with religious and political aspirations", and that their usage of the term "could encompass a variety of forms of social unrest that ethnographers elsewhere tagged millenarian, messianic, nativistic, vitalistic, revivalistic, or culture-contact or adjustment movements". Lindstrom writes that many anthropologists suggest that while "cargo" often signified literal material goods, it could also reflect desires for "moral salvation, existential respect, or proto-nationalistic, anti-colonial desire for political autonomy".

## Causes, beliefs, and practices

Elements that Ton Otto considered characteristic of most cargo cults include the synthesis of indigenous and foreign elements in the belief system, the expectation of help from ancestors, the presence of charismatic leaders, and strong belief in the appearance of an abundance of goods. The indigenous societies of Melanesia were typically characterized by a " big man " political system in which individuals gained prestige through gift exchanges. The more wealth a man could distribute, the more people who were in his debt, and the greater his renown.

Many cargo cults existed in opposition to colonial rule, often linked to burdens placed on villagers by colonial authorities, such as head taxes.

Many cargo cult movements sought to revive ancestral traditions (often in the face of their suppression by missionaries or colonial authorities) such as kava drinking, and/or adopt new rituals such as ecstatic dancing or actions imitative of colonial practices, like flag-raising and marching.

Cargo cults often served to unite previously opposing groups. In some movements, the leaders engaged in authoritarian behaviour in order to uphold the new social order, with a particular focus on the issues of sorcery and sexual activity. In some movements sexual morality was relaxed, ignoring the pre-existing customs regarding exogamy and incest, while in other movements, strict celibacy policies were implemented.

Faced, through colonialism, with foreigners with a seemingly unending supply of goods for exchange, indigenous Melanesians experienced "value dominance". That is, they were dominated by others in terms of their own (not the foreign) value system. Many Melanesians found the concept of money incomprehensible, and many cargo cult movements ordered followers to abandon colonial money by either dumping it into the sea or spending it rapidly, with the prophets promising that it would be replaced by new money and they would be freed from their debts.

Since the modern manufacturing process was largely unknown to them, members, leaders, and prophets of the cults often maintained that the manufactured goods of the non-native culture had been created by spiritual means, such as through their deities and ancestors, or that an ancestor had learned how to manufacture the goods. These leaders claimed that the goods were intended for the local indigenous people, but the foreigners had unfairly gained control of these objects through malice or mistake. Thus, a characteristic feature of cargo cults was the belief that spiritual agents would, at some future time, give much valuable cargo and desirable manufactured products to the cult members.

## Examples

### First occurrences

Discussions of cargo cults usually begin with a series of movements that occurred in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The earliest recorded movement that has been described as a "cargo cult" was the Tuka Movement that began in Fiji in 1885 at the height of the colonial era's plantation -style economy. The movement began with a promised return to a golden age of ancestral potency. Minor alterations to priestly practices were undertaken to update them and attempt to recover some kind of ancestral efficacy. Colonial authorities saw the leader of the movement, Tuka, as a troublemaker, and he was exiled, although their attempts to stop him returning proved fruitless.

Cargo cults occurred periodically in many parts of the island of New Guinea, including the Taro Cult in northern Papua New Guinea and the Vailala Madness that arose from 1919 to 1922. The last was documented by Francis Edgar Williams, one of the first anthropologists to conduct fieldwork in Papua New Guinea. Less dramatic cargo cults have appeared in western New Guinea as well, including the Asmat and Dani areas.

### Pacific cults of World War II

The most widely known period of cargo cult activity occurred among the Melanesian islanders in the years during and after World War II. A small population of indigenous peoples observed, often directly in front of their dwellings, the largest war ever fought by technologically advanced nations. The Japanese distributed goods and used the beliefs of the Melanesians to attempt to gain their compliance. Later the Allied forces arrived in the islands and did this as well.

The vast amounts of military equipment and supplies that both sides airdropped (or airlifted to airstrips) to troops on these islands meant drastic changes to the lifestyle of the islanders, many of whom had never seen outsiders before. Manufactured clothing, medicine, canned food, tents, weapons and other goods arrived in vast quantities for the soldiers, who often shared some of it with the islanders who were their guides and hosts. This was true of the Japanese Army as well, at least initially before relations deteriorated in most regions.

In the late 1930s, the John Frum movement emerged on Tanna in Vanuatu. This tradition urged islanders to resume dancing and kava drinking (which had been suppressed by missionaries) and to maintain historic traditions. The movement predicted American assistance, which as foretold arrived in 1942. The movements rituals were influenced by Christianity, and also included similar elements to other cargo cults like "marching and drilling, flags and poles, and flowers". The John Frum movement has come to be described as the "archetypal" cargo cult.

### Postwar developments

With the end of the war, the military abandoned the airbases and stopped dropping cargo. In response, charismatic individuals developed cults among remote Melanesian populations that promised to bestow on their followers deliveries of food, arms, Jeeps, etc. The cult leaders explained that the cargo would be gifts from their own ancestors, or other sources, as had occurred with the outsider armies.

In attempts to get cargo to fall by parachute or land in planes or ships again, islanders imitated the same practices they had seen the military personnel use. Cult behaviors usually involved mimicking the day-to-day activities and dress styles of US soldiers, such as performing parade ground drills with wooden or salvaged rifles. The islanders carved headphones from wood and wore them while sitting in fabricated control towers. They waved the landing signals while standing on the runways. They lit signal fires and torches to light up runways and lighthouses.

In a form of sympathetic magic, many built life-size replicas of airplanes out of straw and cut new military-style landing strips out of the jungle, hoping to attract more airplanes. The cult members thought that the foreigners had some special connection to the deities and ancestors of the natives, who were the only beings powerful enough to produce such riches.

Cargo cults were typically created by individual leaders, or big men in the Melanesian culture. The leaders typically held cult rituals well away from established towns and colonial authorities, thus making reliable information about these practices very difficult to acquire.

Classification of groups as cargo cults was sometimes controversial. For example, the separatist Hahalis Welfare Society on Buka Island was classed by Australian authorities as a cargo cult, but this was denied by its leaders Francis Hagai and John Teosin.

## Current status

Some cargo cults are still active. These include:

- The John Frum cult on Tanna Island (Vanuatu)

- The Tom Navy cult on Tanna Island (Vanuatu)

- The Prince Philip Movement on the island of Tanna, which worships Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

- The Turaga movement based on Pentecost island (Vanuatu)

- Yali's cargo cult on Papua New Guinea (Madang region)

- The Paliau movement on Papua New Guinea (Manus Island)

- The Peli association on Papua New Guinea

- The Pomio Kivung on Papua New Guinea

As of 1993, Lamont Lindstrom reports that many Melanesian political movements "must take care to deny explicitly" any connection with cargo cults.

## Theoretical explanations

Anthropologist Anthony F. C. Wallace conceptualized the "Tuka movement" as a revitalization movement. Peter Worsley 's analysis of cargo cults placed the emphasis on the economic and political causes of these popular movements. He viewed them as "proto-national" movements by indigenous peoples seeking to resist colonial interventions. He observed a general trend away from millenarianism towards secular political organization through political parties and cooperatives.

Theodore Schwartz was the first to emphasize that both Melanesians and Europeans place great value on the demonstration of wealth. "The two cultures met on the common ground of materialistic competitive striving for prestige through entrepreneurial achievement of wealth." Melanesians felt "relative deprivation" in their standard of living, and thus came to focus on cargo as an essential expression of their personhood and agency.

Peter Lawrence was able to add greater historical depth to the study of cargo cults, and observed the striking continuity in the indigenous value systems from pre-cult times to the time of his study. Kenelm Burridge, in contrast, placed more emphasis on cultural change, and on the use of memories of myths to comprehend new realities, including the "secret" of European material possessions. His emphasis on cultural change follows from Worsley's argument on the effects of capitalism; Burridge points out these movements were more common in coastal areas which faced greater intrusions from European colonizers.

Cargo cults often develop during a combination of crises. Under conditions of social stress, such a movement may form under the leadership of a charismatic figure. This leader may have a " vision " (or "myth-dream") of the future, often linked to an ancestral efficacy (" mana ") thought to be recoverable by a return to traditional morality. This leader may characterize the present state as a dismantling of the old social order, meaning that social hierarchy and ego boundaries have been broken down.

Contact with colonizing groups brought about a considerable transformation in the way indigenous peoples of Melanesia have thought about other societies. Early theories of cargo cults began from the assumption that practitioners simply failed to understand technology, colonization, or capitalist reform; in this model, cargo cults are a misunderstanding of the systems involved in resource distribution, and an attempt to acquire such goods in the wake of interrupted trade. However, many of these practitioners actually focus on the importance of sustaining and creating new social relationships, with material relations being secondary.

Since the late twentieth century, alternative theories have arisen. For example, some scholars, such as Kaplan and Lindstrom, focus on Europeans' characterization of these movements as a fascination with manufactured goods and what such a focus says about consumerism. Others point to the need to see each movement as reflecting a particularized historical context, even eschewing the term "cargo cult" for them unless there is an attempt to elicit an exchange relationship from Europeans.

### Discourse on cargo cults

More recent work has debated the suitability of the term cargo cult arguing that it does not refer to an identifiable empirical reality, and that the emphasis on "cargo" says more about Western ideological bias than it does about the movements concerned. Nancy McDowell argues that the focus on cargo cult isolates the phenomenon from the wider social and cultural field (such as politics and economics) that gives it meaning. She states that people experience change as dramatic and complete, rather than as gradual and evolutionary. This sense of a dramatic break is expressed through cargo cult ideology.

Lamont Lindstrom takes this analysis one step further through his examination of "cargoism", the discourse of the West about cargo cults. His analysis is concerned with Western fascination with the phenomenon in both academic and popular writing. In his opinion, the name "cargo cult" is deeply problematic because of its pejorative connotation of backwardness, since it imputes a goal (cargo) obtained through the wrong means (cult); the actual goal is not so much obtaining material goods as creating and renewing social relationships under threat. Martha Kaplan thus argues in favor of erasing the term altogether, though other writers like Ton Otto have argued the term remains useful.

The term "cargo cult" in anthropology is increasingly avoided for failing to represent the complexity of Melanesian beliefs.

## As a metaphor

The term "cargo cult" is widely used negatively as a metaphor outside anthropology. Usage often relates to the ideas of desire (particularly for wealth and material goods) and relatedly consumerism and capitalism, ritual action and the expectation of rational results from irrational means, though the term has been used as a general pejorative for "almost anything that some critic depreciates".

## Works

- God Is American – 2007 film by Richard Martin-Jordan

- The Gods Must Be Crazy – 1980 film by Jamie Uys

- Island of the Sequined Love Nun – Novel by Christopher Moore

- Meet the Natives: USA – television series

## Filmography

- God is American, feature documentary (2007, 52 min), by Richard Martin-Jordan, on John Frum 's cult at Tanna.