Speaker 1: Phillow Ridiculous Historians. We're returning to you with this week's
Speaker 1: classic episode. The question is what's the most famous a
Speaker 1: person could be?
Speaker 2: Dupe? Dupe, dupe Edinburgh. That's all I got this world,
Speaker 2: Oh boy, I didn't know any other That's all I got.
Speaker 2: This is a fun one. Guys about the Duke of Edinburgh,
Speaker 2: who pretty interesting life.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm, yeah, literally royalty. You may know him by
Speaker 1: the name Prince Philip. Uh. He has obviously lived a
Speaker 1: very different life to that of most people on the planet.
Speaker 1: And Noel, as you said, he also, depending upon whom
Speaker 1: you ask, attained godhood.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't know if the term cargo cult means
Speaker 2: anything to you, but maybe do take a little peekback
Speaker 2: through the feed of our sister podcast stuff. They don't
Speaker 2: want you to know if you want some companion material,
Speaker 2: because it's wild. It is a religious movement and this
Speaker 2: guy was highly revered in it.
Speaker 1: Let's roll the tape. Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: Recently on Twitter, I was asking some friends about which
Speaker 1: books we find ourselves rereading again and again in this
Speaker 1: sort of inevitable way, Like you read this, you know
Speaker 1: a few years later, you're going to reread it for me.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite books in the world is a
Speaker 1: book called The Atlas of Remote Islands. Talked about this book.
Speaker 2: I don't think so, Ben. My name is Nola by.
Speaker 1: The way, Oh yes, and I'm Ben. And we are
Speaker 1: joined with our guest super producer, Paul Michigan controlled Decan,
Speaker 1: who you may recognize for another show stuff they don't
Speaker 1: want you to know. Paul, do you have a sound
Speaker 1: Do we have a sound effect? Paul is nodding, Oh,
Speaker 1: there it is, and as always, shout out to our
Speaker 1: super producer, Casey Lebouche Pegram, who is pursuing his double life.
Speaker 2: I just think it's a delight that he's able to
Speaker 2: do that, you know, and only receive mild ragging from us.
Speaker 1: Ragging, No, say it ain't so. I have immense respect
Speaker 1: for anyone who can kaiser SoSE to that degree. Let's
Speaker 1: just hope his French friends never listened to this English
Speaker 1: language podcast where it's all over for Lebouche. One thing
Speaker 1: about this book now, I'll get you a copy because
Speaker 1: it's a tremendous book. It's one of those books that
Speaker 1: I end up having to buy copy of repeatedly because
Speaker 1: they keep giving it away. One thing about this book
Speaker 1: is it's an atlas and an anthology of short true
Speaker 1: stories that happen on some of the world's most remote islands.
Speaker 1: And when we think here in the States of traveling,
Speaker 1: we think of places like, you know, Europe, maybe Africa,
Speaker 1: South America, Asia, But we often and there's not a
Speaker 1: ding on us. I'm just saying the general we people
Speaker 1: in the US, we often forget about the thousands and
Speaker 1: thousands and thousands of tiny islands around the globe, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. They have their own distinct, rich,
Speaker 1: amazing history that you will not find anywhere else on
Speaker 1: the planet.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and a bunch of them are in the South Pacific.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh yeah, I know if you've seen the
Speaker 2: musical South Pacific. But it's very accurate about the life
Speaker 2: on these islands.
Speaker 1: In that they're in the South Pacific.
Speaker 2: That's right. And they sing constantly. Everything's in song form,
Speaker 2: with occasional snatches of dialogue. Everyone's washing men out of
Speaker 2: their hair. You know. Their showers are these little stalls
Speaker 2: with little coconut thing. Everything's made of coconuts. It's like
Speaker 2: Iligan's Island, kind of situation.
Speaker 1: You know, right, I have to say I have not
Speaker 1: I have not seen the musical South Pacific.
Speaker 2: Well, the most famous song I think is the Balia
Speaker 2: We'll call you ballyt Highs, like the kind of shangri law.
Speaker 2: It's like the sort of like Paradise.
Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe I'll check it out. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The thing about this area of the world is that
Speaker 1: it is populated with thousands and thousands of islands grouped
Speaker 1: in different places, you know, Micronesia, Malaysia, Indonesia where our
Speaker 1: good pow Christopher Hasiotis has spent some time Indonesia, Indonesia.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's deep in the Indonesia game. We should ask
Speaker 1: him about it one day. Today's story it takes us
Speaker 1: to the South Pacific. We are traveling to Melanesia e
Speaker 1: l A n e Sia, and we're examining a religious
Speaker 1: movement that may be familiar to some and completely out
Speaker 1: of the blue for others. We're going to Tana, a
Speaker 1: small island in the southern part of the Vanuatu Archipelago
Speaker 1: where devoted believers await the second coming of a god,
Speaker 1: an American god, a US god who will bring divine
Speaker 1: gifts and their specific.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a pigeon English word that I didn't know this,
Speaker 2: but cargo is Pigeon English for like stuff.
Speaker 1: Basically, right, this god will bring televisions, refrigerators, Coca cola.
Speaker 1: This belief system, this religious movement is often referred to
Speaker 1: as a cargo cult. And the idea, just like you said, Noel.
Speaker 1: For a lot of us, cargo means like something you
Speaker 1: would haul on a ship, but here it means stuff gifts.
Speaker 1: So there will be in this belief a new age
Speaker 1: of blessing and it will be signaled by the arrival
Speaker 1: of a special cargo of goods from supernatural sources.
Speaker 2: But Ben, this god doesn't have a particularly godlike name.
Speaker 1: Does he in when there is John from Frum, so.
Speaker 2: It's an odd name for a god.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so this there's a documentary called Waiting for John,
Speaker 1: an Island's cult worships American materialism, and it's about the
Speaker 1: John From movement on Tanna. This is commonly called a
Speaker 1: cargo cult, which may seem like an advisive word for people,
Speaker 1: but in the belief system, John From is a soldier
Speaker 1: who visited Tanna during World War Two bringing.
Speaker 2: So what this is to me and to many anthropologists
Speaker 2: that have examined this phenomenon is sort of a clashing
Speaker 2: of modern culture with indigenous culture, right, Ben.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, there's real there's syncretism of a type going
Speaker 1: on here. So the John From movement has its greatest
Speaker 1: stronghold in a village called Lama Kara, and many villagers
Speaker 1: have still according to a Great Slate article written in
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, many villagers in this area have left the
Speaker 1: movement for other religions, typically Christian alternatives. The idea becomes
Speaker 1: becomes sticky because it is a real thing, right, and
Speaker 1: it is a genuine belief system. But also there's a
Speaker 1: little bit of othering that occurs when we're talking about this.
Speaker 1: You know, it's very easy perhaps for people to be
Speaker 1: condescending about this, but we know that the cargo cults
Speaker 1: existed before World War Two. One of the first occurrences
Speaker 1: was the Tuka movement that began in Fiji in eighteen
Speaker 1: eighty five around the British colonial plantation era. And it's
Speaker 1: kind of the same Grand Theater written out, there's going
Speaker 1: to be a there's going to be a stranger who
Speaker 1: has tremendous power who is going to bring these this
Speaker 1: unending cycle of goods and gifts. And usually when we
Speaker 1: talk about cargo cults. Today, we're talking about the Melanesian
Speaker 1: Islanders in the years during and after World War Two,
Speaker 1: because these people were not living you know, globally connected lives.
Speaker 1: And then in the because of the tragedy of World
Speaker 1: War Two, they see the largest war ever fought by
Speaker 1: you know, high tech nations. Right, I see Japan bringing
Speaker 1: a great deal of supplies and then later the Allied forces.
Speaker 1: So what would you think, you know what I mean
Speaker 1: if you wake up one day people dressed in a
Speaker 1: way you've never seen. Right, They're coming out of machines
Speaker 1: that you have never seen. Are they machines? It's tough
Speaker 1: to know. And then they're bringing tons. Tons are really
Speaker 1: cool stuff, really cool stuff.
Speaker 2: And they not only sought the blessings and the largesse
Speaker 2: of these items that would rain down from the sky
Speaker 2: and theory they had to sacrifice some stuff, or at
Speaker 2: least they created this system that was again this kind
Speaker 2: of East meets West or kind of you know, clashing
Speaker 2: of cultures where they were able to kind of adapt
Speaker 2: their traditional beliefs into this kind of new sort of
Speaker 2: hybridized religion and some of it involved sacrificing.
Speaker 1: Right, Like what kind of sacrifices.
Speaker 2: Well, some of the native folks would want to butcher
Speaker 2: all of their pigs because they knew they were going
Speaker 2: to receive a blessing of grit eight pigs that would
Speaker 2: rain down from the sky. So they would hoard food
Speaker 2: and firewood, and they would stockpile all these things for
Speaker 2: the arrival of the great pigs that they would then
Speaker 2: use to feed them. This is my favorite part, and
Speaker 2: this is really fascinating. All that gear we were talking about,
Speaker 2: all that stuff that they would see. They built their
Speaker 2: own kind of like stand ins for some of these things,
Speaker 2: like radio towers may have bamboo and rope.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and would dress in ways that were reminiscent
Speaker 1: of the what they believed these other people had looked like.
Speaker 1: I think you're talking specifically about when the Australian government
Speaker 1: went into New Guinea right in the nineteen forties, nineteen
Speaker 1: forty six, and people went nuts. Can you imagine how
Speaker 1: surreal the situation would because they were slaughtering all their pigs, right,
Speaker 1: that was the sacrifice before the They thought, because they
Speaker 1: saw these forces, that it was a signed the world
Speaker 1: was going to end right three days of Darkness millennium. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then as you said, no great pigs appear from
Speaker 1: the sky. And what's interesting about this is that there
Speaker 1: are multiple versions of these of these religions, and they
Speaker 1: appear to have arisen independently as sort of a parallel
Speaker 1: response to social stress and strain. There's the Taro cult
Speaker 1: and New Gueni, the Vii Laala Madness of Papua, the
Speaker 1: Naked cult of Espiritu Santo, the John From movement which
Speaker 1: you mentioned earlier, and the Touka cult from the late
Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds. It's strange that this applied to troops on
Speaker 1: either side of World War Two. So Axis forces land
Speaker 1: somewhere on an island and boom, it's a sign of
Speaker 1: the apocalypse. Allied forces arrive, boom, it's a sign of
Speaker 1: the same. And there's a story about Gis who were
Speaker 1: moving toward the conflict on Guadalcanal. When they arrived in
Speaker 1: the New Hybrides, they found native people preparing these airfields,
Speaker 1: these roads, and these docks that you mentioned, and they said,
Speaker 1: we're preparing for the ships and planes that were coming
Speaker 1: from Rusfel, which was their word for Roosevelt. They thought
Speaker 1: he was the King of America.
Speaker 2: But they also saw him as a benevolent king, didn't they, Ben,
Speaker 2: They did.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's true he was. If the preparations were made correctly,
Speaker 1: then this King of America would show favor to people
Speaker 1: who kept the faith the lack of.
Speaker 2: A better word, how about the Japanese, Ben, They had
Speaker 2: their own kind of encounter with this sort of thing,
Speaker 2: didn't they They did?
Speaker 1: They did. No, So here's one of the stranger instances
Speaker 1: in Dutch New Guinea. Japanese forces had to be turned
Speaker 1: against the local Papuan inhabitants of the Guilvink Bay region.
Speaker 1: At first, they had been received with great joy because
Speaker 1: the native people living there saw them as harbingers of
Speaker 1: a new world that was dawning, and they saw the
Speaker 1: arrival of the Japanese forces as a sign that the
Speaker 1: creator of their islands and their people, named Mansren, would
Speaker 1: now return, bringing with them the great ancestral dead. And
Speaker 1: the religious leaders said that this was all not this
Speaker 1: was all public knowledge. But the Dutch were trying to
Speaker 1: control the island, and they had torn out the first
Speaker 1: page of the Bible where the true story was inscribed,
Speaker 1: and when Mansarin returned, the existing world order would be
Speaker 1: entirely thrown on its head. People would change skin color,
Speaker 1: broot crops would grow in trees, coconuts, and fruits would
Speaker 1: grow on the ground like tubers. And then they started
Speaker 1: getting together in large towns and renaming their villages. Even
Speaker 1: they adopted military uniforms, they imitated military drills. This turned
Speaker 1: the tide against the Japanese forces. How so they became
Speaker 1: very unpopular. They were trying to disarm and disperse these communities,
Speaker 1: and eventually canoe loads of fanatics sailed out to attack
Speaker 1: Japanese warships. They believed they were invulnerable because of the
Speaker 1: Holy water they had sprinkled themselves with.
Speaker 2: Power belief, right, the power of belief.
Speaker 1: Let's go. You know what's interesting here. I think we
Speaker 1: should go back to John Frum. So we've shown that
Speaker 1: there are multiple iterations of this thing.
Speaker 2: And John Frum wasn't the only deity. It was sort
Speaker 2: of parallel thinking, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So there is a rich folkloric ecosystem,
Speaker 1: which is probably the most protect thing I've said in
Speaker 1: a while.
Speaker 2: But you know what, Ben, it had to be that.
Speaker 2: I'm glad that's the one. It was because that is
Speaker 2: a very smart sounding, pretentious thing you just said.
Speaker 1: Great, Thanks, thanks so much so. John From is still celebrated.
Speaker 1: Every year on February fifteenth, natives of Tanna Island hold
Speaker 1: a celebration in honor of From. People clue themselves in
Speaker 1: US Army pants, they paint USA on their chest. They
Speaker 1: have a replica of a US flag alongside the Marine
Speaker 1: Corps emblem. And then the celebrants of this, dressed as soldiers,
Speaker 1: march in the shadow of the island's active volcano and
Speaker 1: they have replica rifles, red tipped bamboos slung over their shoulder.
Speaker 1: This is considered the holiest religious service that followers of
Speaker 1: the John From religious movement can do. And it's so difficult.
Speaker 1: This is a big topic. We talked about this a
Speaker 1: little bit off. Era is a big topic that we
Speaker 1: could probably return to. There are so many incredible cultural
Speaker 1: impacts that were made by these encounters with US and
Speaker 1: Allied forces. Islanders were First off, they were astonished that
Speaker 1: these that these visitors, at least from the Ally side,
Speaker 1: were way better than the British missionaries had been. And
Speaker 1: then imagine their surprise too when they saw wait, some
Speaker 1: of these soldiers have skin like hours and they're getting
Speaker 1: all the benefits of this cargo, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: the food, the medicine, the treats, the shelter, the technology.
Speaker 1: And in the past, because of their skin colored people
Speaker 1: who lived on these islands had been denied any of
Speaker 1: these benefits by the British and by other European powers.
Speaker 1: So of course they see this, there's something aspirational about it,
Speaker 1: and we see human propensity to create religion. But we
Speaker 1: should go you know what, we would be remiss if
Speaker 1: we didn't cover one of the most infamous examples of
Speaker 1: a quote unquote cargo cult. That's the story of Prince Philip.
Speaker 2: The infamous Prince Philip Movement.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, is that the Prince Philip?
Speaker 2: Oh, yes, yes it is, Yes, it has been. It's
Speaker 2: the Prince Philip. So the Prince Philip Movement began on
Speaker 2: that very island we talked about at the top of
Speaker 2: the show, a Tana in the nineteen sixties. They believed
Speaker 2: that the Prince was some sort of deity unto himself,
Speaker 2: a god among men, right like, brought to this earth
Speaker 2: to fulfill some sort of ancient prophecy. He was the
Speaker 2: son of some kind of mountain spirit who would take
Speaker 2: the form of a very conveniently pale skinned man. As
Speaker 2: we know, Prince Philip was you know, a little pasty
Speaker 2: oh that worked out a little bit on the pasty side,
Speaker 2: a little ghostly in his you know, visage, right, And
Speaker 2: that this man would travel abroad, marry a powerful woman,
Speaker 2: check check, and eventually returned to the island. And when
Speaker 2: the villagers saw this portrait of Prince Philip, I'm quite
Speaker 2: sure how they happened upon said portrait, Ben, Have you
Speaker 2: heard this part of the story?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, So, so we know that this belief probably
Speaker 1: arose sometime in the fifties or sixties, nineteen fifties or sixties,
Speaker 1: and it really picked up steam when the Royal couple
Speaker 1: visited the island in nineteen seventy four and some villagers
Speaker 1: were able to see physically see Prince Philip from a distance. Right.
Speaker 1: He was not aware, by the way, of any of this.
Speaker 1: He did not know what was happening until later a
Speaker 1: guy named John Champion, the British Resident Commissioner of the area,
Speaker 1: informed him about this belief system. And Champion is the
Speaker 1: one that said, hey, Prince Philip, you should send them
Speaker 1: a picture of you that makes sense. So he sends
Speaker 1: the picture and he signs it. The villagers respond by
Speaker 1: sending him a traditional club used to kill livestock. It's
Speaker 1: called a null null and he complies with their request
Speaker 1: to send them a picture of himself posing with the club.
Speaker 1: So he sends it, and I think there was another
Speaker 1: photograph that was sent as recently as the year two thousands.
Speaker 1: It was recently as nineteen years ago.
Speaker 2: And there's a really great mental Fluss article. You know
Speaker 2: how much we love Mental Fluss articles. It doesn't have
Speaker 2: a writing credit on it, which is strange. I guess
Speaker 2: it's just the staff writer. Maybe it was written by committee.
Speaker 2: Who knows, I'll have to ask Will and mangsh But
Speaker 2: it is about the cult of Prince Philip, and it
Speaker 2: talks about how so many world movements, machinations of you know,
Speaker 2: cultural shifts, were attributed by these native folks to Prince
Speaker 2: Philip and his influence, his spiritual kind of web of influence.
Speaker 2: They actually claimed that his powers gave black men the
Speaker 2: ability to become president of the United States, and that
Speaker 2: he possessed a kind of magic that allowed the US
Speaker 2: forces to locate Osama bin Laden.
Speaker 1: Interesting. Interesting. He was also said at times to be
Speaker 1: a brother to John Frum. What I think will startle
Speaker 1: many people is to know that this continued so far
Speaker 1: into the modern age. In two thousand and seven, BBC's
Speaker 1: Channel four broadcast a reality show called Meet the Natives,
Speaker 1: which I think is a tone deaf name. Five men
Speaker 1: from the Prince Philip movement went on a visit to
Speaker 1: Britain and their trip culminated in an audience with Prince Philip.
Speaker 1: They actually met, physically met him, talked to him, They
Speaker 1: got a new photoph the exchanged some gifts.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine how cool that must be if you
Speaker 2: really believed this stuff. It'd be like meeting Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: That's the amazing thing. Yeah, it's It kind of makes
Speaker 1: you think about the ideas of various ancient civilizations where
Speaker 1: there were god emperors. How powerful is it to meet
Speaker 1: someone who has at the center of your religion. Now,
Speaker 1: this also goes into an ethical thing that I wanted
Speaker 1: to I wanted to ask everybody listening about if you
Speaker 1: found out that there was some part of the world
Speaker 1: where you had never been, maybe even never thought about visiting,
Speaker 1: and that people in this part of the world knew
Speaker 1: about you and worshiped you. What would you do? Would
Speaker 1: you go, would you allow yourself to be worshiped? Or
Speaker 1: would you say, Hey, I'm just a person, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? I you know, I burned my bell
Speaker 1: bottoms one leg at a time, like everybody else in
Speaker 1: the post disco era.
Speaker 2: That's right. I put my sacrificial robes on with a drawstrain,
Speaker 2: just like the rest of you. Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: I too love Tushy Bidetz and Miller like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and piniccolatas and occasionally walks in the rain.
Speaker 1: So what would you do? It's an interesting question. It's
Speaker 1: an ethical dilemma. We know what Prince Philip did.
Speaker 2: He kind of leaned into it a little bit, it
Speaker 2: really did. Yeah, that's almost got a problematic, is it not.
Speaker 1: It's I would say, I would say almost kind is
Speaker 1: a good qualifier. He has other stuff he's done and
Speaker 1: things that he said that were very racist. Yeah, way
Speaker 1: more offensive.
Speaker 2: That's also true. But here's the thing, though, Ben is
Speaker 2: it more or less offensive if it's truly these people's
Speaker 2: belief to like reign on their belief, party on their
Speaker 2: faith parade?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Or is it more respectful just to go along with it,
Speaker 2: even if you happen to be at the center of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know. It's I mean, it's a quandary.
Speaker 1: It's a quagmire. I'm not sure what the right thing
Speaker 1: to do would be. If somebody has such tremendous faith
Speaker 1: in you, you don't want to let them down, you know,
Speaker 1: So we want to hear from you. Let us know
Speaker 1: what you think, let us know what your decision would be.
Speaker 1: You can tell us, along with your fellow listeners on Instagram,
Speaker 1: on Twitter, on Facebook, and as always, we look forward
Speaker 1: to hearing your takes and to hearing your discussions. These
Speaker 1: are active religious movements. They're still around, so let's all
Speaker 1: be respectful of people's beliefs.
Speaker 2: What would you do, though, if folks worshiped you and
Speaker 2: revered you and held you up as a god, would
Speaker 2: you burst their bubble? Or would you go with it?
Speaker 2: Let us know. You can write to us at Ridiculous
Speaker 2: at iHeartRadio dot com. The aforementioned Facebook page we recommend
Speaker 2: you joining is called Ridiculous Historians. I think all you
Speaker 2: have to do is name one of our names or
Speaker 2: say something clever that lets us know you actually seen
Speaker 2: on the show, and then you can be part of
Speaker 2: a really cool group of like minded history buffs that
Speaker 2: post a lot of memes and ask a lot of
Speaker 2: fun questions, and we lurk in there occasionally and pop
Speaker 2: into threads from time to time. You can also find
Speaker 2: me and Ben collectively individually rather at our Instagram handles.
Speaker 2: Mine is at how Now Noel Brown.
Speaker 1: Mine is at Ben Bolin tune In. I don't remember
Speaker 1: when this episode will come out, but I'll probably be
Speaker 1: on some more strange shenanigans and misadventures, so so let
Speaker 1: me let me know. I'll also be asking for some
Speaker 1: travel advice. And if you if you log into that Facebook, honestly,
Speaker 1: just like make us laugh, do something make us laugh.
Speaker 1: We're in a big thanks to our guest super producer
Speaker 1: Paul Mission Control Deck and Paul Invisible Air High five
Speaker 1: Up Top Boom, and as always, a big big thanks
Speaker 1: to Casey LaBouche Hegrim, Thanks.
Speaker 2: To Alex Williams who composed our theme. Thanks to our
Speaker 2: reach associate Gabe Lusier, and thanks to Chris fhrasiotis here
Speaker 2: in spirit as per usual, and Ben, thanks to you, buddy.
Speaker 1: Thanks to you, no I almost called you Buckaroo. But
Speaker 1: those are fighting words for people over.
Speaker 2: No fighting here, sir.
Speaker 1: We're all about peace.
Speaker 2: See you next time. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
Speaker 2: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 2: your favorite shows.