Cargo and condescension

Abstract

‘Cargoism’ is the widely used derivative of what used to be the great insult in colonial Melanesia, ‘cargo cultism.’ Now, however, it refers to all kinds of social, economic and institutional behavior that results from inflated expectations and a naiveté of market economics. Development economists and anthropologists have long abandoned linear ideas of growth that make LDC’s look ‘backward’, and yet the local meaning of capitalism (and cargo) remains ignored in big picture discussions of politicoeconomic growth. This essay remembers Madang’s legendary ‘cargoist’ Yali Singina for what he meant then, and means now, and looks at his global reputation through a personal lens.