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cargo cults

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Allan Adler

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Feb 21, 2008, 10:15:06 PM2/21/08
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How do we know that the objects collected and used by cargo cults
have religious significance, rather than merely artistic significance
which the people take very seriously?
--
Ignorantly,
Allan Adler <a...@zurich.csail.mit.edu>
* Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My actions and
* comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near Boston.

Ben Goren

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Feb 21, 2008, 10:59:22 PM2/21/08
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Allan Adler wrote:

> How do we know that the objects collected and used by cargo
> cults have religious significance, rather than merely artistic
> significance which the people take very seriously?

Not being an expert on the matter, I'd start with any of the dozen
sources spanning a half-century listed at Wikipedia if it was a
serious scholarly answer I was looking for.

But being just an ordinary schmuck, I'm personally satisfied with
the sort of thing that you find in the Smithsonian Magazine
article on the subject. I see nothing whatsoever ``artistic''
in their descriptions of the people's beliefs, and everything
``religious.''

Draw your own conclusions.

Cheers,

b&

--
EAC Memographer
BAAWA Knight of Blasphemy
``All but God can prove this sentence true.''

Apostate

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Feb 21, 2008, 11:49:14 PM2/21/08
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In article <y9363wh...@nestle.csail.mit.edu>, Allan Adler says...

> How do we know that the objects collected and used by cargo cults
> have religious significance, rather than merely artistic significance
> which the people take very seriously?
>

Ask a devotee?

(By now, some may be Useneteers. Maybe one will respond to your
query.)

--
Apostate a.a. #1931
.sig currently undergoing maintenance
mail to X-mailto; Yeehaw = what BillG
wants to coerce into a merger

Mike Combs

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Feb 23, 2008, 11:10:02 AM2/23/08
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"Allan Adler" <a...@nestle.csail.mit.edu> wrote in message
news:y9363wh...@nestle.csail.mit.edu...

> How do we know that the objects collected and used by cargo cults
> have religious significance, rather than merely artistic significance
> which the people take very seriously?

If my understanding is correct, if you ask them what they get out of it,
they reply, "Hopefully, cargo", and not "Artistic edification".

--


Regards,
Mike Combs
----------------------------------------------------------------------
By all that you hold dear on this good Earth
I bid you stand, Men of the West!
Aragorn

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