Religious movements in Melanesia whose participants await the arrival of an abundance of goods and a social utopia.

Cargo cults probably have some continuity with wealth rituals and exchange activities that were part of the precolonial Melanesian world. Precontact economic activities such as gardening, hunting, and fishing had corresponding rituals, while reciprocal exchanges of valuable items such as pigs, shells, and pottery were means of negotiating human relationships. Notions of reciprocity informed relationships with human beings and with the various kinds of spirits. In retrospect, it seems that Melanesians participated in the rituals introduced by missionaries to find the "road of the cargo," the way to acquire the goods and prestige enjoyed by white-skinned people. Because colonial administrators and missionaries expressed little interest in the material goods possessed by Melanesians, the way of exchange employed in traditional society would not work. Cargo similar to that of the white people was, it seemed, needed in order to negotiate relationships with them.

Cargo cults proliferated in Melanesia following first colonial contact. In about 1860 missionaries in Irian Jaya wrote a report on a cult that foretold a golden age. In 1877 the Tuka Cult emerged in Fiji with a prophet announcing that the present order would be reversed, with Fijians becoming the masters and the British the servants, and the roles of chiefs and commoners also being reversed. In the following century, more than two hundred cults were reported throughout Melanesia, and many more mentioned in government and missionary reports. Cults have declined since the attainment of independence by most Melanesian countries in the 1970s and 1980s. There is, however, some overlap between the classic cargo cults and both current Christian revival movements and socioeconomic/political movements. Several of the political movements, such as the Pomio Kivung movement in East New Britain, developed from cargo cults. Some cults have also developed into independent churches, such as the Paliau Church in Manus and the Hehela Church on Buka Island.

In Irian Jaya, where the Free Papua movement has been trying since the mid-1960s to establish a Melanesian state independent of Indonesia, there have been recent reports of anti-Indonesian cargo cults. These cults place their hope in the help of the ancestors to drive out the Indonesians. Some of their members also belong to rebel groups of the Free Papua movement.

Cargo cults look forward to a time when the ancestors will return and the colonial masters depart, or to a time in which whites will share their wealth, and the knowledge of how to acquire it, with Melanesians. Under colonial rule, people experienced a sense of deprivation leading to anticolonial sentiment and a nostalgia for the way of the ancestors. A prophet or messiah figure who claims to bear a message from the ancestors or from God is usually the stimulus to cult development.

The cults, like indigenous religions, and like Christianity, which was introduced during the colonial period, are sustained by myths and rituals. There are many Melanesian myths that describe the relationship of two brothers, and such myths are frequently retold to emphasize the ideal relationship that should prevail between black and white people. Cargo cults often have attracted the attention of government officers because of their ecstatic or threatening elements. In order to end the unsatisfactory colonial age and to usher in a new era, existing gardens, livestock, and dwellings may be destroyed. In order to enlist the aid of ancestors and indigenous spirits, adherents may enter trance states in which to receive messages. In order to signal the new age, former proprieties may be reversed and sexual promiscuity encouraged. Such excesses tend to alarm authorities, but in the logic of the cults they are part of the preparation for the new dispensation.

Occurring in situations of rapid socioeconomic and religious change, cargo cults tend to draw elements from indigenous tradition, from Christianity, and from experiences of modern technology. Hence, cult leaders and members may, for example, reinstate indigenous rituals, insist on an absolute observance of the Ten Commandments, and erect telephone lines to communicate with the ancestors. Because wealth and the exchange of wealth are important aspects of precolonial Melanesian societies, it is not surprising that wealth (cargo) should become a focal symbol in the vision of a golden age. The image of ships or airplanes arriving laden with abundant wealth for all point, like images of abundant pigs and shells in traditional mythology, to the possibility of a rich and peaceful life.

    Some cargo cults are short-lived, while others go through many phases. One cult dating from the late nineteenth century in the southern Madang area of Papua New Guinea began with the attempts of Melanesians to learn the myth and the ritual that, they assumed, went along with the way of life of the German missionaries and colonial officers prior to World War I and with that of the Australians and Americans afterward. The participants alternately rejected Christianity and placed their reliance on indigenous myth and ritual and combined Christianity with indigenous traditions. Associated with the move toward self-government and independence in the early 1970s, the movement continues today in independent Papua New Guinea, taking the form of a Christian congregation.