WEBVTT - CLASSIC: The Duke of Edinburgh is Literally a God in Vanuatu 0:00:00.000 --> 0:00:03.400 Phillow Ridiculous Historians. We're returning to you with this week's 0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:08.559 classic episode. The question is what's the most famous a 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:09.320 person could be? 0:00:09.800 --> 0:00:17.720 Dupe? Dupe, dupe Edinburgh. That's all I got this world, 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:22.040 Oh boy, I didn't know any other That's all I got. 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:25.480 This is a fun one. Guys about the Duke of Edinburgh, 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:28.000 who pretty interesting life. 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:31.280 Mm hmm, yeah, literally royalty. You may know him by 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:36.479 the name Prince Philip. Uh. He has obviously lived a 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:39.640 very different life to that of most people on the planet. 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:44.960 And Noel, as you said, he also, depending upon whom 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:47.040 you ask, attained godhood. 0:00:47.520 --> 0:00:50.400 Yeah. I don't know if the term cargo cult means 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:53.560 anything to you, but maybe do take a little peekback 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:56.720 through the feed of our sister podcast stuff. They don't 0:00:56.760 --> 0:00:59.880 want you to know if you want some companion material, 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:02.920 because it's wild. It is a religious movement and this 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:04.640 guy was highly revered in it. 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:33.039 Let's roll the tape. Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:43.119 Recently on Twitter, I was asking some friends about which 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:48.240 books we find ourselves rereading again and again in this 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:51.680 sort of inevitable way, Like you read this, you know 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:54.720 a few years later, you're going to reread it for me. 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:57.160 One of my favorite books in the world is a 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:00.880 book called The Atlas of Remote Islands. Talked about this book. 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:03.000 I don't think so, Ben. My name is Nola by. 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:05.400 The way, Oh yes, and I'm Ben. And we are 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:08.840 joined with our guest super producer, Paul Michigan controlled Decan, 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:12.280 who you may recognize for another show stuff they don't 0:02:12.320 --> 0:02:14.919 want you to know. Paul, do you have a sound 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:20.760 Do we have a sound effect? Paul is nodding, Oh, 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:23.760 there it is, and as always, shout out to our 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:29.240 super producer, Casey Lebouche Pegram, who is pursuing his double life. 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:32.240 I just think it's a delight that he's able to 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:37.320 do that, you know, and only receive mild ragging from us. 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:42.560 Ragging, No, say it ain't so. I have immense respect 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:45.960 for anyone who can kaiser SoSE to that degree. Let's 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:48.680 just hope his French friends never listened to this English 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:54.160 language podcast where it's all over for Lebouche. One thing 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:56.360 about this book now, I'll get you a copy because 0:02:56.360 --> 0:02:58.359 it's a tremendous book. It's one of those books that 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:02.640 I end up having to buy copy of repeatedly because 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:05.600 they keep giving it away. One thing about this book 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:11.480 is it's an atlas and an anthology of short true 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:15.519 stories that happen on some of the world's most remote islands. 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:21.120 And when we think here in the States of traveling, 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:25.679 we think of places like, you know, Europe, maybe Africa, 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:30.080 South America, Asia, But we often and there's not a 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:32.360 ding on us. I'm just saying the general we people 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:37.200 in the US, we often forget about the thousands and 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:40.840 thousands and thousands of tiny islands around the globe, you 0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:42.800 know what I mean. They have their own distinct, rich, 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:46.120 amazing history that you will not find anywhere else on 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:46.600 the planet. 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:49.240 Yeah, and a bunch of them are in the South Pacific. 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:51.080 Oh yeah, oh yeah, I know if you've seen the 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:55.080 musical South Pacific. But it's very accurate about the life 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:56.320 on these islands. 0:03:56.440 --> 0:03:58.080 In that they're in the South Pacific. 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:01.200 That's right. And they sing constantly. Everything's in song form, 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:05.480 with occasional snatches of dialogue. Everyone's washing men out of 0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:08.240 their hair. You know. Their showers are these little stalls 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:11.120 with little coconut thing. Everything's made of coconuts. It's like 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:12.400 Iligan's Island, kind of situation. 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:15.000 You know, right, I have to say I have not 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:18.520 I have not seen the musical South Pacific. 0:04:18.600 --> 0:04:22.400 Well, the most famous song I think is the Balia 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:27.480 We'll call you ballyt Highs, like the kind of shangri law. 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:29.160 It's like the sort of like Paradise. 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:32.359 Yeah, maybe I'll check it out. Yeah. 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:32.760 Yeah. 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:37.600 The thing about this area of the world is that 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:43.080 it is populated with thousands and thousands of islands grouped 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:48.560 in different places, you know, Micronesia, Malaysia, Indonesia where our 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:53.000 good pow Christopher Hasiotis has spent some time Indonesia, Indonesia. 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:53.640 Yeah. 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:56.360 Yeah, he's deep in the Indonesia game. We should ask 0:04:56.400 --> 0:05:00.480 him about it one day. Today's story it takes us 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:07.360 to the South Pacific. We are traveling to Melanesia e 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:13.680 l A n e Sia, and we're examining a religious 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:18.679 movement that may be familiar to some and completely out 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:25.520 of the blue for others. We're going to Tana, a 0:05:25.640 --> 0:05:30.880 small island in the southern part of the Vanuatu Archipelago 0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:37.560 where devoted believers await the second coming of a god, 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:41.520 an American god, a US god who will bring divine 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:43.719 gifts and their specific. 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:46.520 Yeah, there's a pigeon English word that I didn't know this, 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:49.679 but cargo is Pigeon English for like stuff. 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:56.600 Basically, right, this god will bring televisions, refrigerators, Coca cola. 0:05:56.680 --> 0:06:00.760 This belief system, this religious movement is often referred to 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:05.279 as a cargo cult. And the idea, just like you said, Noel. 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:08.599 For a lot of us, cargo means like something you 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:13.760 would haul on a ship, but here it means stuff gifts. 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:16.599 So there will be in this belief a new age 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:19.800 of blessing and it will be signaled by the arrival 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:23.400 of a special cargo of goods from supernatural sources. 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:27.720 But Ben, this god doesn't have a particularly godlike name. 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:33.440 Does he in when there is John from Frum, so. 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:35.000 It's an odd name for a god. 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:39.840 Yeah, so this there's a documentary called Waiting for John, 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:43.800 an Island's cult worships American materialism, and it's about the 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:48.839 John From movement on Tanna. This is commonly called a 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:52.560 cargo cult, which may seem like an advisive word for people, 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:56.360 but in the belief system, John From is a soldier 0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:59.920 who visited Tanna during World War Two bringing. 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:06.520 So what this is to me and to many anthropologists 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:10.280 that have examined this phenomenon is sort of a clashing 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:14.560 of modern culture with indigenous culture, right, Ben. 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:19.240 Right, Yeah, there's real there's syncretism of a type going 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:23.280 on here. So the John From movement has its greatest 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:28.480 stronghold in a village called Lama Kara, and many villagers 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:31.520 have still according to a Great Slate article written in 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:35.960 twenty eighteen, many villagers in this area have left the 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:42.000 movement for other religions, typically Christian alternatives. The idea becomes 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:46.960 becomes sticky because it is a real thing, right, and 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:50.200 it is a genuine belief system. But also there's a 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:54.400 little bit of othering that occurs when we're talking about this. 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:58.640 You know, it's very easy perhaps for people to be 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:02.320 condescending about this, but we know that the cargo cults 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:06.640 existed before World War Two. One of the first occurrences 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:10.120 was the Tuka movement that began in Fiji in eighteen 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:14.080 eighty five around the British colonial plantation era. And it's 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:18.880 kind of the same Grand Theater written out, there's going 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:24.400 to be a there's going to be a stranger who 0:08:24.440 --> 0:08:27.800 has tremendous power who is going to bring these this 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:32.480 unending cycle of goods and gifts. And usually when we 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:37.000 talk about cargo cults. Today, we're talking about the Melanesian 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:41.840 Islanders in the years during and after World War Two, 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:50.400 because these people were not living you know, globally connected lives. 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:52.880 And then in the because of the tragedy of World 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:57.680 War Two, they see the largest war ever fought by 0:08:58.240 --> 0:09:02.360 you know, high tech nations. Right, I see Japan bringing 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:05.079 a great deal of supplies and then later the Allied forces. 0:09:05.120 --> 0:09:06.920 So what would you think, you know what I mean 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:09.240 if you wake up one day people dressed in a 0:09:09.240 --> 0:09:12.240 way you've never seen. Right, They're coming out of machines 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:14.560 that you have never seen. Are they machines? It's tough 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:17.800 to know. And then they're bringing tons. Tons are really 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:19.640 cool stuff, really cool stuff. 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:25.320 And they not only sought the blessings and the largesse 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:27.720 of these items that would rain down from the sky 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:31.400 and theory they had to sacrifice some stuff, or at 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:34.120 least they created this system that was again this kind 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:36.520 of East meets West or kind of you know, clashing 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:38.720 of cultures where they were able to kind of adapt 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:44.040 their traditional beliefs into this kind of new sort of 0:09:44.160 --> 0:09:48.680 hybridized religion and some of it involved sacrificing. 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:50.240 Right, Like what kind of sacrifices. 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:54.880 Well, some of the native folks would want to butcher 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:57.560 all of their pigs because they knew they were going 0:09:57.600 --> 0:10:01.080 to receive a blessing of grit eight pigs that would 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:05.240 rain down from the sky. So they would hoard food 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:08.040 and firewood, and they would stockpile all these things for 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:10.880 the arrival of the great pigs that they would then 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:13.320 use to feed them. This is my favorite part, and 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:16.120 this is really fascinating. All that gear we were talking about, 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:19.440 all that stuff that they would see. They built their 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:22.720 own kind of like stand ins for some of these things, 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:26.240 like radio towers may have bamboo and rope. 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:30.720 Yeah, yeah, and would dress in ways that were reminiscent 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:34.800 of the what they believed these other people had looked like. 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:40.040 I think you're talking specifically about when the Australian government 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:43.720 went into New Guinea right in the nineteen forties, nineteen 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:47.439 forty six, and people went nuts. Can you imagine how 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:51.040 surreal the situation would because they were slaughtering all their pigs, right, 0:10:51.080 --> 0:10:55.520 that was the sacrifice before the They thought, because they 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:58.199 saw these forces, that it was a signed the world 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:01.800 was going to end right three days of Darkness millennium. Yeah, 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:05.760 and then as you said, no great pigs appear from 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:12.280 the sky. And what's interesting about this is that there 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:18.120 are multiple versions of these of these religions, and they 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:22.280 appear to have arisen independently as sort of a parallel 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:26.720 response to social stress and strain. There's the Taro cult 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:30.440 and New Gueni, the Vii Laala Madness of Papua, the 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:34.360 Naked cult of Espiritu Santo, the John From movement which 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:38.360 you mentioned earlier, and the Touka cult from the late 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:42.760 eighteen hundreds. It's strange that this applied to troops on 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:46.520 either side of World War Two. So Axis forces land 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:49.800 somewhere on an island and boom, it's a sign of 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:52.920 the apocalypse. Allied forces arrive, boom, it's a sign of 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:57.439 the same. And there's a story about Gis who were 0:11:57.480 --> 0:12:01.640 moving toward the conflict on Guadalcanal. When they arrived in 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:05.719 the New Hybrides, they found native people preparing these airfields, 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:09.920 these roads, and these docks that you mentioned, and they said, 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:12.800 we're preparing for the ships and planes that were coming 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:18.720 from Rusfel, which was their word for Roosevelt. They thought 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:20.200 he was the King of America. 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:23.360 But they also saw him as a benevolent king, didn't they, Ben, 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:23.960 They did. 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:28.880 Yeah, it's true he was. If the preparations were made correctly, 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:34.360 then this King of America would show favor to people 0:12:34.400 --> 0:12:36.240 who kept the faith the lack of. 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:45.959 A better word, how about the Japanese, Ben, They had 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:48.400 their own kind of encounter with this sort of thing, 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:49.800 didn't they They did? 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:54.359 They did. No, So here's one of the stranger instances 0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:59.559 in Dutch New Guinea. Japanese forces had to be turned 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:04.240 against the local Papuan inhabitants of the Guilvink Bay region. 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:08.800 At first, they had been received with great joy because 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:12.280 the native people living there saw them as harbingers of 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:15.439 a new world that was dawning, and they saw the 0:13:15.520 --> 0:13:18.320 arrival of the Japanese forces as a sign that the 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:22.679 creator of their islands and their people, named Mansren, would 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:26.960 now return, bringing with them the great ancestral dead. And 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:30.520 the religious leaders said that this was all not this 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:33.120 was all public knowledge. But the Dutch were trying to 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:35.920 control the island, and they had torn out the first 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:38.959 page of the Bible where the true story was inscribed, 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:42.960 and when Mansarin returned, the existing world order would be 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:49.000 entirely thrown on its head. People would change skin color, 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:52.560 broot crops would grow in trees, coconuts, and fruits would 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:56.679 grow on the ground like tubers. And then they started 0:13:56.720 --> 0:14:01.680 getting together in large towns and renaming their villages. Even 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:09.720 they adopted military uniforms, they imitated military drills. This turned 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:16.800 the tide against the Japanese forces. How so they became 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:21.640 very unpopular. They were trying to disarm and disperse these communities, 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:28.400 and eventually canoe loads of fanatics sailed out to attack 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:32.520 Japanese warships. They believed they were invulnerable because of the 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:34.560 Holy water they had sprinkled themselves with. 0:14:37.720 --> 0:14:41.040 Power belief, right, the power of belief. 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:45.040 Let's go. You know what's interesting here. I think we 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:47.640 should go back to John Frum. So we've shown that 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:50.000 there are multiple iterations of this thing. 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:52.320 And John Frum wasn't the only deity. It was sort 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:53.600 of parallel thinking, right. 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:58.800 Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So there is a rich folkloric ecosystem, 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:00.840 which is probably the most protect thing I've said in 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:01.280 a while. 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:03.240 But you know what, Ben, it had to be that. 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:05.000 I'm glad that's the one. It was because that is 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:07.400 a very smart sounding, pretentious thing you just said. 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:14.280 Great, Thanks, thanks so much so. John From is still celebrated. 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:18.440 Every year on February fifteenth, natives of Tanna Island hold 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:23.360 a celebration in honor of From. People clue themselves in 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:27.080 US Army pants, they paint USA on their chest. They 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:30.800 have a replica of a US flag alongside the Marine 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:34.840 Corps emblem. And then the celebrants of this, dressed as soldiers, 0:15:35.560 --> 0:15:38.920 march in the shadow of the island's active volcano and 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:43.560 they have replica rifles, red tipped bamboos slung over their shoulder. 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:48.520 This is considered the holiest religious service that followers of 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:55.280 the John From religious movement can do. And it's so difficult. 0:15:55.400 --> 0:15:57.120 This is a big topic. We talked about this a 0:15:57.120 --> 0:15:58.880 little bit off. Era is a big topic that we 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:04.440 could probably return to. There are so many incredible cultural 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:08.040 impacts that were made by these encounters with US and 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:15.240 Allied forces. Islanders were First off, they were astonished that 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:17.760 these that these visitors, at least from the Ally side, 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:21.160 were way better than the British missionaries had been. And 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:24.440 then imagine their surprise too when they saw wait, some 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:28.000 of these soldiers have skin like hours and they're getting 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:30.560 all the benefits of this cargo, you know what I mean, 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:33.520 the food, the medicine, the treats, the shelter, the technology. 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:38.120 And in the past, because of their skin colored people 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:40.720 who lived on these islands had been denied any of 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:44.560 these benefits by the British and by other European powers. 0:16:45.240 --> 0:16:50.560 So of course they see this, there's something aspirational about it, 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:57.000 and we see human propensity to create religion. But we 0:16:57.040 --> 0:16:59.520 should go you know what, we would be remiss if 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:04.720 we didn't cover one of the most infamous examples of 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:08.720 a quote unquote cargo cult. That's the story of Prince Philip. 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:11.320 The infamous Prince Philip Movement. 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:14.440 No, no, no, is that the Prince Philip? 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:17.400 Oh, yes, yes it is, Yes, it has been. It's 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:22.080 the Prince Philip. So the Prince Philip Movement began on 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:23.720 that very island we talked about at the top of 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:26.600 the show, a Tana in the nineteen sixties. They believed 0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:32.119 that the Prince was some sort of deity unto himself, 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:36.080 a god among men, right like, brought to this earth 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:39.640 to fulfill some sort of ancient prophecy. He was the 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:44.520 son of some kind of mountain spirit who would take 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:48.800 the form of a very conveniently pale skinned man. As 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:52.200 we know, Prince Philip was you know, a little pasty 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:54.320 oh that worked out a little bit on the pasty side, 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:59.479 a little ghostly in his you know, visage, right, And 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:04.359 that this man would travel abroad, marry a powerful woman, 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:08.560 check check, and eventually returned to the island. And when 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:14.000 the villagers saw this portrait of Prince Philip, I'm quite 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:16.480 sure how they happened upon said portrait, Ben, Have you 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:17.320 heard this part of the story? 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:21.960 Yeah, yeah, So, so we know that this belief probably 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:25.880 arose sometime in the fifties or sixties, nineteen fifties or sixties, 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:29.000 and it really picked up steam when the Royal couple 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:32.880 visited the island in nineteen seventy four and some villagers 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:36.800 were able to see physically see Prince Philip from a distance. Right. 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:40.919 He was not aware, by the way, of any of this. 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:44.919 He did not know what was happening until later a 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:49.240 guy named John Champion, the British Resident Commissioner of the area, 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:53.639 informed him about this belief system. And Champion is the 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:56.600 one that said, hey, Prince Philip, you should send them 0:18:56.600 --> 0:19:00.439 a picture of you that makes sense. So he sends 0:19:00.520 --> 0:19:04.840 the picture and he signs it. The villagers respond by 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:09.320 sending him a traditional club used to kill livestock. It's 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:12.680 called a null null and he complies with their request 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:15.600 to send them a picture of himself posing with the club. 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:18.479 So he sends it, and I think there was another 0:19:19.040 --> 0:19:22.440 photograph that was sent as recently as the year two thousands. 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:25.760 It was recently as nineteen years ago. 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:32.600 And there's a really great mental Fluss article. You know 0:19:32.600 --> 0:19:35.000 how much we love Mental Fluss articles. It doesn't have 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:36.760 a writing credit on it, which is strange. I guess 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:39.240 it's just the staff writer. Maybe it was written by committee. 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:41.800 Who knows, I'll have to ask Will and mangsh But 0:19:41.880 --> 0:19:44.320 it is about the cult of Prince Philip, and it 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:50.800 talks about how so many world movements, machinations of you know, 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:55.720 cultural shifts, were attributed by these native folks to Prince 0:19:55.760 --> 0:20:00.879 Philip and his influence, his spiritual kind of web of influence. 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:04.760 They actually claimed that his powers gave black men the 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:07.800 ability to become president of the United States, and that 0:20:07.920 --> 0:20:12.679 he possessed a kind of magic that allowed the US 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:15.640 forces to locate Osama bin Laden. 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:20.679 Interesting. Interesting. He was also said at times to be 0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:25.440 a brother to John Frum. What I think will startle 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:30.480 many people is to know that this continued so far 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:36.040 into the modern age. In two thousand and seven, BBC's 0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:41.600 Channel four broadcast a reality show called Meet the Natives, 0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:44.760 which I think is a tone deaf name. Five men 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:49.359 from the Prince Philip movement went on a visit to 0:20:49.480 --> 0:20:55.520 Britain and their trip culminated in an audience with Prince Philip. 0:20:55.720 --> 0:20:59.320 They actually met, physically met him, talked to him, They 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:01.240 got a new photoph the exchanged some gifts. 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:03.480 Can you imagine how cool that must be if you 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:07.240 really believed this stuff. It'd be like meeting Jesus Christ. 0:21:07.520 --> 0:21:09.640 That's the amazing thing. Yeah, it's It kind of makes 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:13.400 you think about the ideas of various ancient civilizations where 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:16.680 there were god emperors. How powerful is it to meet 0:21:16.840 --> 0:21:21.440 someone who has at the center of your religion. Now, 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:24.399 this also goes into an ethical thing that I wanted 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:27.600 to I wanted to ask everybody listening about if you 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:30.040 found out that there was some part of the world 0:21:30.080 --> 0:21:33.240 where you had never been, maybe even never thought about visiting, 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:37.160 and that people in this part of the world knew 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:40.920 about you and worshiped you. What would you do? Would 0:21:40.920 --> 0:21:43.600 you go, would you allow yourself to be worshiped? Or 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:46.960 would you say, Hey, I'm just a person, you know 0:21:47.000 --> 0:21:50.640 what I mean? I you know, I burned my bell 0:21:50.720 --> 0:21:53.200 bottoms one leg at a time, like everybody else in 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:54.120 the post disco era. 0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:57.440 That's right. I put my sacrificial robes on with a drawstrain, 0:21:57.600 --> 0:21:58.880 just like the rest of you. Mm hmm. 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:02.240 I too love Tushy Bidetz and Miller like. 0:22:02.359 --> 0:22:04.760 Yeah, and piniccolatas and occasionally walks in the rain. 0:22:05.320 --> 0:22:08.000 So what would you do? It's an interesting question. It's 0:22:08.040 --> 0:22:10.200 an ethical dilemma. We know what Prince Philip did. 0:22:10.640 --> 0:22:12.040 He kind of leaned into it a little bit, it 0:22:12.080 --> 0:22:14.719 really did. Yeah, that's almost got a problematic, is it not. 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:17.879 It's I would say, I would say almost kind is 0:22:17.880 --> 0:22:21.280 a good qualifier. He has other stuff he's done and 0:22:21.480 --> 0:22:25.520 things that he said that were very racist. Yeah, way 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:26.160 more offensive. 0:22:26.280 --> 0:22:28.399 That's also true. But here's the thing, though, Ben is 0:22:28.440 --> 0:22:33.200 it more or less offensive if it's truly these people's 0:22:33.320 --> 0:22:37.600 belief to like reign on their belief, party on their 0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:39.160 faith parade? 0:22:39.080 --> 0:22:39.240 Yeah? 0:22:39.520 --> 0:22:41.920 Or is it more respectful just to go along with it, 0:22:42.040 --> 0:22:43.719 even if you happen to be at the center of it. 0:22:43.960 --> 0:22:45.920 Yeah, I don't know. It's I mean, it's a quandary. 0:22:45.920 --> 0:22:48.480 It's a quagmire. I'm not sure what the right thing 0:22:48.560 --> 0:22:52.639 to do would be. If somebody has such tremendous faith 0:22:52.640 --> 0:22:55.040 in you, you don't want to let them down, you know, 0:22:55.920 --> 0:22:59.280 So we want to hear from you. Let us know 0:22:59.560 --> 0:23:02.000 what you think, let us know what your decision would be. 0:23:02.119 --> 0:23:05.680 You can tell us, along with your fellow listeners on Instagram, 0:23:05.800 --> 0:23:10.720 on Twitter, on Facebook, and as always, we look forward 0:23:10.760 --> 0:23:14.120 to hearing your takes and to hearing your discussions. These 0:23:14.200 --> 0:23:18.440 are active religious movements. They're still around, so let's all 0:23:18.480 --> 0:23:20.400 be respectful of people's beliefs. 0:23:20.560 --> 0:23:22.600 What would you do, though, if folks worshiped you and 0:23:22.640 --> 0:23:24.840 revered you and held you up as a god, would 0:23:24.880 --> 0:23:27.840 you burst their bubble? Or would you go with it? 0:23:28.160 --> 0:23:30.600 Let us know. You can write to us at Ridiculous 0:23:30.640 --> 0:23:36.680 at iHeartRadio dot com. The aforementioned Facebook page we recommend 0:23:36.720 --> 0:23:39.879 you joining is called Ridiculous Historians. I think all you 0:23:39.920 --> 0:23:41.879 have to do is name one of our names or 0:23:42.000 --> 0:23:43.720 say something clever that lets us know you actually seen 0:23:43.760 --> 0:23:45.080 on the show, and then you can be part of 0:23:45.119 --> 0:23:48.919 a really cool group of like minded history buffs that 0:23:49.720 --> 0:23:51.240 post a lot of memes and ask a lot of 0:23:51.240 --> 0:23:53.639 fun questions, and we lurk in there occasionally and pop 0:23:53.680 --> 0:23:56.120 into threads from time to time. You can also find 0:23:56.119 --> 0:24:01.240 me and Ben collectively individually rather at our Instagram handles. 0:24:01.320 --> 0:24:03.600 Mine is at how Now Noel Brown. 0:24:04.200 --> 0:24:08.320 Mine is at Ben Bolin tune In. I don't remember 0:24:08.320 --> 0:24:10.560 when this episode will come out, but I'll probably be 0:24:10.680 --> 0:24:15.720 on some more strange shenanigans and misadventures, so so let 0:24:15.760 --> 0:24:17.879 me let me know. I'll also be asking for some 0:24:17.920 --> 0:24:22.520 travel advice. And if you if you log into that Facebook, honestly, 0:24:22.880 --> 0:24:26.560 just like make us laugh, do something make us laugh. 0:24:26.600 --> 0:24:29.800 We're in a big thanks to our guest super producer 0:24:29.840 --> 0:24:32.800 Paul Mission Control Deck and Paul Invisible Air High five 0:24:32.920 --> 0:24:37.560 Up Top Boom, and as always, a big big thanks 0:24:37.560 --> 0:24:41.040 to Casey LaBouche Hegrim, Thanks. 0:24:40.800 --> 0:24:42.959 To Alex Williams who composed our theme. Thanks to our 0:24:43.000 --> 0:24:47.160 reach associate Gabe Lusier, and thanks to Chris fhrasiotis here 0:24:47.359 --> 0:24:51.159 in spirit as per usual, and Ben, thanks to you, buddy. 0:24:51.840 --> 0:24:57.159 Thanks to you, no I almost called you Buckaroo. But 0:24:57.200 --> 0:24:59.200 those are fighting words for people over. 0:25:00.720 --> 0:25:01.520 No fighting here, sir. 0:25:01.640 --> 0:25:02.480 We're all about peace. 0:25:02.640 --> 0:25:27.640 See you next time. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit 0:25:27.680 --> 0:25:30.840 the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 0:25:30.840 --> 0:25:31.800 your favorite shows.