The "black tax" stuff happens in indigenous communities across northern Australia as well. The stories I've heard are like - you make some money by selling paintings, you buy a new fridge, your cousin walks into the house and takes it. You can't stop him because you have deeply baked-in family obligations and your culture has never had enough material wealth to develop a meaningful concept of "theft".
I'm from Brisbane and I know a few people who've done various health or social work type jobs across far north Australia and PNG. Pretty sure we're still just as confused about each other as we were in the days of the missionaries. The question of how to bridge the gap between a basically Palaeolithic culture and fully modern industrial capitalism remains very much alive, and politically tricky, since you're not supposed to say things like "a basically Palaeolithic culture".
One book I like a lot about this topic is Bill Bunbury's "It's Not The Money, It's The Land", about the imposition of minimum wage laws on Aboriginal cattle stockmen in Western Australia. Might only be of interest to Australians but I think it's a great study of how difficult it is to reconcile the Australian system of industrial relations with indigenous concepts of land and property. Two radically different modes of production directly colliding without being able to understand each other at all.
I have seen the “black tax” in the indigenous people in my community of rural Canada as a tax on mental health. The emotionally and mentally well of the community are raising all the kids and advocating for their families and they honestly bear the responsibility way better than I would.
I am speechless after reading this. You make such an important point at the end. I will be thinking of this for a very long time. Thank you so much for writing this review.
The whole story, especially the end, hit me like a punch to the gut. I'll definitely be [re-]thinking about my epistemological assumptions moving forward. Incredibly sobering stuff.
This is so well-observed. For me, the crux was the two paragraphs about the aliens. It’s only by flipping the scenario that we start to see what a world-view really is. Not just some cute customs and different words. But a different working model for the world, which can even re-use another model's language and stay intact, as you show.
The irony is that so much of our popular faith in science is really still a case of “keeping gods happy”. They’re just different gods (and the new gods of western scientistic culture seem remarkably Judeo-Christian still, with their capricious moral judgements, not just mere transactions as in “folk” religion. The language of divine judgement surrounds us, though we now get stuck when we try to investigate its basis — so we just don’t investigate it too hard).
All creation myths fall down when we ask who created the creator. Or how did consciousness arise. The explanation that consciousness originated in some collision of atoms seems just as solid as cargo beliefs. Coherent to a point only.
The misunderstanding between Westerners and New Guineans is just an exrteme example of something that happens constantly, especially between people of widely differing tacit beliefs. In conversations with peopleI have several times suddenly felt the "back away slowly" urge on learning that theywere a flat-earther or had some other bizarre delusion, even after knowing some of them for months. Everyone is projecting their own sanity onto everyone they meet. If people truly understood one another, they'd often be appalled.
It amazes me how confident they were about their cargo beliefs. The first interpretation of cargo is already zany, and it's remarkable that they keep doubling down on one zany interpretation after another. But then, the question is what zany things we're doubling down on!
I had a similar impression a while ago reading a report of a small-scale culture trying to conceptualize a different modern technology — books. It came from an English missionary visiting a Southern African tribe (Bechuanas) in the 19th century. When the Bechuanas saw Europeans reading books, they quickly generated a model of books that fit neatly in their culture. They saw books as divination tools. They assumed that you could ask the book a question about the future, and the text would arrange itself to deliver an answer. They didn't assume learning to read was an extensive process or a skill. They thought that someone could just be charmed with the ability to read, rub their eyes, and understand the text.
Books were formidable — clearly they were doing something important for the Europeans, but the Bechuanas were suspicious of how they would affect their tribesmen. They thought that books gave the Europeans great knowledge and power, but they also noticed that when their fellow tribesmen learned to read, their belief (or interest?) in their native rituals and ancestor-worship waned, and they usually converted to Christianity. Ultimately, books were viewed were seen as a sort of gateway out of their traditional epistemic worldview.
My wife loves "time loop" science fiction, in, I think, the same way that children love to spin themselves around and around to make themselves dizzy. "It does my head in", she says.
I love this essay in exactly that way. Thank you, Jane!
This story is going to resonate with me for years. Watching US politics unfold over the last decade has made it clear that my world model was broken, but not left me with a confidently better replacement. This is a reminder that it’s not impossible to rebuild a world model, but tells me why it’s proven much, much harder than I expect. When I try, I’ll use Yali as my guide.
I couldn't help but notice a Biblical parallel, but maybe not the one you intended.
Was the prophet Moses the first cargo cult leader?
- Born as an oppressed minority, but educated in the ways of the dominant culture: ✅
- Sent by God to rescue his people: ✅
- Taught his people the proper rituals for how to follow God so that they would reach the Promised Land, which most followers understood in terms of material blessing: ✅✅
As a devout Christian myself, I think we have to conclude that the ancient Israelites struggled precisely because they were "assuming the novel thing you’ve just encountered fits a paradigm with which you’re already familiar."
Perhaps we can give them some credit that the ways of YHWH are even more unfathomable than the workings of modern capitalism.
But I'm more interested in explaining the fact that the Jewish people today are culturally far removed from New Guineans. What changed?
This amazing review seems to contain a lie of Yali's which Lawrence would have had no reason to scrutinize. Yali was sentenced to six years in prison for incitement of rape; deprivation of liberty was only a minor charge that added six months on top of that.
That he got sentenced to 6.5 years for both charges combined can be seen on English Wikipedia. The claim that incitement of rape accounts for the lion's share of the sentence is from German Wikipedia, source given as "National Archives of Papua New Guinea, Waigani: CA 35/6/6 Department of Government Secretary, Subject: Complaint Re Native Yali"
Lawrence also explains earlier in the book that Yali reported to him that during his time on the police force, it was common for police to assault female prisoners; the preface by a former New Guinea colonial official denies this, though of course he would.
Thank you, Jane. For other readers: to Lawrence, Yali confirmed that he ordered the imprisonment of people but denied that he instructed a follower to rape a woman. Deprivation of liberty is the thing they got him for that he didn't deny.
The "black tax" stuff happens in indigenous communities across northern Australia as well. The stories I've heard are like - you make some money by selling paintings, you buy a new fridge, your cousin walks into the house and takes it. You can't stop him because you have deeply baked-in family obligations and your culture has never had enough material wealth to develop a meaningful concept of "theft".
I'm from Brisbane and I know a few people who've done various health or social work type jobs across far north Australia and PNG. Pretty sure we're still just as confused about each other as we were in the days of the missionaries. The question of how to bridge the gap between a basically Palaeolithic culture and fully modern industrial capitalism remains very much alive, and politically tricky, since you're not supposed to say things like "a basically Palaeolithic culture".
One book I like a lot about this topic is Bill Bunbury's "It's Not The Money, It's The Land", about the imposition of minimum wage laws on Aboriginal cattle stockmen in Western Australia. Might only be of interest to Australians but I think it's a great study of how difficult it is to reconcile the Australian system of industrial relations with indigenous concepts of land and property. Two radically different modes of production directly colliding without being able to understand each other at all.
I have seen the “black tax” in the indigenous people in my community of rural Canada as a tax on mental health. The emotionally and mentally well of the community are raising all the kids and advocating for their families and they honestly bear the responsibility way better than I would.
I am speechless after reading this. You make such an important point at the end. I will be thinking of this for a very long time. Thank you so much for writing this review.
Great, great review [&context] as always.
The whole story, especially the end, hit me like a punch to the gut. I'll definitely be [re-]thinking about my epistemological assumptions moving forward. Incredibly sobering stuff.
Thank you for writing this!
Honestly, these days it seems that the median voter's understanding of where his 'cargo' comes from is not much better than the New Guineans'.
This is so well-observed. For me, the crux was the two paragraphs about the aliens. It’s only by flipping the scenario that we start to see what a world-view really is. Not just some cute customs and different words. But a different working model for the world, which can even re-use another model's language and stay intact, as you show.
The irony is that so much of our popular faith in science is really still a case of “keeping gods happy”. They’re just different gods (and the new gods of western scientistic culture seem remarkably Judeo-Christian still, with their capricious moral judgements, not just mere transactions as in “folk” religion. The language of divine judgement surrounds us, though we now get stuck when we try to investigate its basis — so we just don’t investigate it too hard).
All creation myths fall down when we ask who created the creator. Or how did consciousness arise. The explanation that consciousness originated in some collision of atoms seems just as solid as cargo beliefs. Coherent to a point only.
Yes, I'd love to read a scifi book with this conceit. "Shaman from the Stars!"
The misunderstanding between Westerners and New Guineans is just an exrteme example of something that happens constantly, especially between people of widely differing tacit beliefs. In conversations with peopleI have several times suddenly felt the "back away slowly" urge on learning that theywere a flat-earther or had some other bizarre delusion, even after knowing some of them for months. Everyone is projecting their own sanity onto everyone they meet. If people truly understood one another, they'd often be appalled.
It amazes me how confident they were about their cargo beliefs. The first interpretation of cargo is already zany, and it's remarkable that they keep doubling down on one zany interpretation after another. But then, the question is what zany things we're doubling down on!
I had a similar impression a while ago reading a report of a small-scale culture trying to conceptualize a different modern technology — books. It came from an English missionary visiting a Southern African tribe (Bechuanas) in the 19th century. When the Bechuanas saw Europeans reading books, they quickly generated a model of books that fit neatly in their culture. They saw books as divination tools. They assumed that you could ask the book a question about the future, and the text would arrange itself to deliver an answer. They didn't assume learning to read was an extensive process or a skill. They thought that someone could just be charmed with the ability to read, rub their eyes, and understand the text.
Books were formidable — clearly they were doing something important for the Europeans, but the Bechuanas were suspicious of how they would affect their tribesmen. They thought that books gave the Europeans great knowledge and power, but they also noticed that when their fellow tribesmen learned to read, their belief (or interest?) in their native rituals and ancestor-worship waned, and they usually converted to Christianity. Ultimately, books were viewed were seen as a sort of gateway out of their traditional epistemic worldview.
Wonderful review! I am continually impressed by the consistently exceptional quality of both your and your husbands reviews.
My wife loves "time loop" science fiction, in, I think, the same way that children love to spin themselves around and around to make themselves dizzy. "It does my head in", she says.
I love this essay in exactly that way. Thank you, Jane!
This story is going to resonate with me for years. Watching US politics unfold over the last decade has made it clear that my world model was broken, but not left me with a confidently better replacement. This is a reminder that it’s not impossible to rebuild a world model, but tells me why it’s proven much, much harder than I expect. When I try, I’ll use Yali as my guide.
'Dream Park' by Niven and Barnes is pretty good, and uses cargo cults as a setting.
This is fantastic, thanks so much
Fascinating. This blog is really great, thanks for keeping it up.
Very very good. Thanks
I couldn't help but notice a Biblical parallel, but maybe not the one you intended.
Was the prophet Moses the first cargo cult leader?
- Born as an oppressed minority, but educated in the ways of the dominant culture: ✅
- Sent by God to rescue his people: ✅
- Taught his people the proper rituals for how to follow God so that they would reach the Promised Land, which most followers understood in terms of material blessing: ✅✅
As a devout Christian myself, I think we have to conclude that the ancient Israelites struggled precisely because they were "assuming the novel thing you’ve just encountered fits a paradigm with which you’re already familiar."
Perhaps we can give them some credit that the ways of YHWH are even more unfathomable than the workings of modern capitalism.
But I'm more interested in explaining the fact that the Jewish people today are culturally far removed from New Guineans. What changed?
This amazing review seems to contain a lie of Yali's which Lawrence would have had no reason to scrutinize. Yali was sentenced to six years in prison for incitement of rape; deprivation of liberty was only a minor charge that added six months on top of that.
That he got sentenced to 6.5 years for both charges combined can be seen on English Wikipedia. The claim that incitement of rape accounts for the lion's share of the sentence is from German Wikipedia, source given as "National Archives of Papua New Guinea, Waigani: CA 35/6/6 Department of Government Secretary, Subject: Complaint Re Native Yali"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yali_(politician)
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yali-Bewegung
Lawrence covers that, I abbreviated things for convenience (here and elsewhere). You can read his account here: https://archive.org/details/roadbelongcargo0000pete/page/218/mode/2up
Lawrence also explains earlier in the book that Yali reported to him that during his time on the police force, it was common for police to assault female prisoners; the preface by a former New Guinea colonial official denies this, though of course he would.
Thank you, Jane. For other readers: to Lawrence, Yali confirmed that he ordered the imprisonment of people but denied that he instructed a follower to rape a woman. Deprivation of liberty is the thing they got him for that he didn't deny.