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Appendix Two – The Methodology in Action - Page A2-2
religious movements appearing in tribal societies in the wake of interaction with
technologically advanced, non-native cultures. These movements focus upon obtaining
the material wealth of the advanced culture through magical thinking as well as through
religious rituals and practices, believing that the materials were intended for the natives
by their deities and ancestors.
Stephen describes an historic example from 1941 in Papua, then an Australian colony,
when a young girl reported being instructed by her god in dreams that her people had
been deceived by the colonial officials and missionaries, and that the ancestors would
return to drive them out. She said her god had also ordered her to preach the message
that villagers must bring out of hiding the relics of the dead and highly dangerous
objects used in destructive sorcery, and place them on open altars in villages to negate
their lethal power. Once these revelations were made public, many people followed the
injunctions, and normal social life was greatly disrupted as cultists stopped work in their
gardens and spent the day in religious observances. When violence broke out, the
resident magistrate imprisoned the girl, which effectively put an end to the cult.
There was also a major influenza outbreak, which severely affected the villages
involved in the cult. Non-participants in the cult viewed this as the inevitable
consequence of exposing the community to the fatal influence of the sorcery objects.
Eventually, normal life and customs resumed. Stephen argues that even if nothing
appeared to have changed, existing cultural practices could be resumed with a renewed
commitment, crucially important when social cohesion and coherence are so significiant
because of a geographically isolated existence.