Preview

Sociological Perspective on the New Guinea Cargo Cult

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
897 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Sociological Perspective on the New Guinea Cargo Cult
The New Guinea cargo plane cult from a functionalist perspective stresses that the un-industrialization of the cult is due to the developed world not sharing technological advances with the tribe (cult). The tribe leader's ability to explain the purpose of the cargo planes and the tribe's inability to succeed with riches like that of the white man had a large affect on the tribe's belief system. The tribes simple way of life was disturbed by the discovery of cargo planes in the sky, shocking whatever beliefs the tribe had prior to that discovery. It was the conclusion of the leaders or elders of the community that the planes where gifts from there ancestors and that their inability to succeed like other cultures was do to the white man coxing the plane to land in their fields, therefore stealing the riches that the cults ancestors sent to them. The manifest function of the leaders needing to explain what was happening was do to the culture shock the tribe received when the first saw the planes, while however the latent function of the of this was to keep the tribe unified through ignorance. It was the only way to keep a small community of confused people together do to the fact that people do not like to be separated from the people whom they've become familiar with.
Though the manifest functions of adoring the cargo planes proves to be a shift of blame from the tribe leaders to the white man, the latent function has proved to unify the tribe in faith and in their daily walk of life. Solidarity is their shining light of hope in a world that has left them, however to analyze a group of people from a sociological perspective one must provide more than one perspective.
Karl Marx developed the conflict theory and concluded that "the key to human history is class struggle. In every society, some small group controls the means of production and exploits those who are not in control (Henslin,2004 pg.15)". According to Karl Marx "authority that people consider

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Belonging Essay

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The cyclic nature of access and maintenance of power includes propagandizing that accentuates belonging to tribes and incites xenophobia’s. In the film, a symbolic nirvana of Chief Bromden’s tribal background is portrayed through persistent tribal rhythms in the final scene as he elopes into the life-affirming wilderness. Pre Columbian America represents a period before colonization where the fundamental truth of belonging to the Earth, and to one another atomically satisfied a simple path to happiness. This is also supported in ‘symphony of science’, whereby powerful use of anaphora, “we are all connected; to each other, biologically; to the earth, chemically; to the rest of the universe atomically” redefines the scientific truth that every human being shares a common ground with one another. However, European immigration eventually usurped the native culture and tribes like Chief’s were forced to assimilate into the ‘white man’s’ way of life; institutionalization. Even today, the underlying human instinct to belong to a tribe is accentuated as the conformist notions of society coincide with one’s struggle to reach autonomous culture. In ‘Ancestors’, irony emphasizes the physical, emotional and ideological gap between Peter and his Ancestors, and illustrates the possibility of him ever belonging to his Polish culture as being utterly farfetched, “from…

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Chumash vs San

    • 1318 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Sometimes a more elaborate material life isn’t always the better one. The Chumash peoples enjoyed a rich environment, a growing and settled population, flourishing commerce involving a market-based system (“individuals acting out of a profit motive”), and technological innovation with the creation of the planked canoe, aka tomol. Yet as fabulous as this innovation seemed, it caused major inequality in Chumash society. The elite craft guild, more commonly referred to as the Brotherhood of the Tomol, not only monopolized canoe production but elevated themselves to a position of immense power within the Chumash peoples and deepened the class distinction. After the innovation, emerged the permanent and hereditary political elite among the Chumash: the Chumash chiefs, all of whom were, not coincidentally, canoe owners. These high-ranking officers had fancy and elaborate burials, and were often buried with parts of their very own canoes. The more equality-seeking San peoples, however, had no formal leaders, chiefs, priests, or craft specialists. Political decisions were merely made by individual families and camps after group gatherings.…

    • 1318 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nacirema Tribe Analysis

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages

    I continued to read, and the more I read, the more confusing it became. The author speaks of things that this tribe do in their day to day lives in a prehistoric kind of way, but the similarities are just way to coincidental to our way of life. I asked myself, is this what we used to develop ourselves with? I mean is this the basis we have come to utilize our way of life? As I continued to read, I wonder how it is that no one I know has never spoke of such a tribe.…

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In part one of the book, Chang informs the reader about the communal land and farming of the Creek Indians, and the way in which the Creeks battled to maintain the possession of their land. It also, includes the transforming practices and roles of the people prior to the privatization of landownership. Chang includes the evolving use of land, the increased use of slaves, and the lack of compromise concerning power and property.…

    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Whiteness of Ceremony

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Throughout Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko, there is a constant reminder of the “whiteness“ surrounding the Laguna Pueblos. Through this reminder, Silko proves that the Native Americans gain nothing but pain and sadness from this “whiteness.” The whiteness looms over the Pueblos like clouds over the plains. The “whiteness” shown in Ceremony is represented by the white smoke, the white people, and the white man’s war, are all symbols of the sense of nothingness.…

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Heritage: Family and Life

    • 857 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The writer is a woman of mixed race and cultures; part Chickasaw Indian, and part Caucasian. As a child and also into her adult years, she often wondered at the calmness and acceptance of her Native American grandparents as they were forced to move from place to place; often losing their possessions and even much of their culture all for the sake of ‘progress’. And yet they never showed anger towards anyone. They came to understand that material belongings are not always promised and therefore, to hold on to that of true value in life: family, those close to them, heritage. These circumstances did not always make sense to the writer during her childhood and she often felt isolated and even ashamed of who she was.…

    • 857 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Before the introduction of the "pale face" Native Americans lived a calm and serene life. They lived in big communities and help one another in order to survive. They had a form of religion, poly-theistic, that would be their main form of salvation. They had chiefs and warriors. They had teepees that would allow them to quickly pack up and move. The Native Americans were a nomadic, primitive people that did not live up to the whiter man's view of "civilization". However, the white man, pale face, felt the need to change the Native Americans barbaric ways of life. The Americans were smart in their efforts in trying to convert the Indians. They would go after the kids because they were still young and gullible. "Yes, my child, several others besides Judewin are going away with the palefaces. Your brother said the missionaries had inquired about his little sister... "Did he tell them to take me, mother" (40). The children were impressionable. In this first story, the daughter gets hooked on going with the missionaries…

    • 1275 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Next we will take a look into the Conflict theory. After witnessing the Industrial revolution, and how peasants left the city to work and were still barely making enough money to eat, Karl Marx, the…

    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kiowa Culture

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages

    ne of the common features found in the literature about Native American folklores is that it exhibits a big and rapid influence by the dominant culture which results in the discontinuity between old and new, mostly the latter selected over the former. This book’s chapters except for the prologue and epilogue each chapter is consisted of three voices: folktale narrative, historical, and modern personal feelings. The author seems to model via this format how in Kiowa people’s conscience the time and space work and how they view the discord between the enriched past and nihilistic present for them, as seen in the different tones. This book explains how the mixing of culture during their history has molded Kiowa’s contrasting views towards the…

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The colonizers like the historians did not care for the lost culture or the wounded families, instead, they focused on the potential money they could earn and the business available to them. Trask asks, “… why did scholars, presumably well-trained and thoughtful, neglect our language?” The writer goes further to states that language is not only a form of communication but also a passage to learn what the people think and feel. It is a representation of their culture and their identity. The ignorance of the historians to learn the language of the Hawaiians resembles how the Hawaiian International Corporation was trying to get Gilbert to sell the land. However, Gilbert did not even understand what they were saying and thought that they were just people shipping the weekly grocery goods. This failed attempt to convince Gilbert could have been due to the language barrier and indifference to what the locals were…

    • 1616 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    These people thought this “new world” would have gold, so they set sail to find it. While sailing, The Sea Venture was destroyed, they lost most of their supplies. When the colonists got there they started searching right away, they left their muskets by the shore while in the water but then they got shot by arrows and they didn’t have their guns to shoot back. When they did get their muskets, they take forever to load and the indians could shoot 10 arrows by the time they reload.They thought they found paradise so they settled. They built jamestown, with huge walls around so the indians couldn’t enter. They were starving so they turned to cannibalism and dug up peoples graves and ate them. They also resorted to eating their horses. Then terrible…

    • 161 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    the way the the «white man» is represented and perceived, despite the third person narration.…

    • 1075 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Marxist perspective was created by Karl Marx (1828-1883) a German Philosopher. Marx highlighted the importance of class conflict and social change during the industrial era in England throughout the nineteenth century. Marx was considered a conflict theorist who believed that conflict was a necessity for society to survive. Marx believed that due to the conflict created in capitalist society, two distinct classes would be created these include the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Marx held that society will create much…

    • 1650 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Social Stratification

    • 1577 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Karl Marx (1818-1883) is the major proponent of the conflict theory which was termed Marxism. He was mainly concerned with how economic determinism influences all other issues like stratification in influencing conflict. Marx was of the view that people are in…

    • 1577 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Karl Marx, a 19th century sociologist, philosopher and political economist who suggested a theory explaining the conflict between capital and labour, and the role of classes in the state, has had a profound influence on political thinking all over the world.…

    • 546 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays