Talk:Vailala Madness

Differences vs Cargo Cult article
This article seems to imply in some places that this was the first actual cargo cult, which seems to disagree with Cargo Cult itself, which states the first was in 1885. Anybody care to resolve the discrepancy? I don't. Eaglizard 01:52, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

This was the first well documented cargo cult
There are two points to bear in mind: (1) cargo cult is a term that developed around 1941, and was then retrospectively applied to religious movements, but only movements in Melanesia. This is fairly arbitrary. (2) some of the movements that would later be classified as cargo cults are poorly known. It ins't clear why they are classified one way or another, and we don't know much about them anyway.

The cargo cult page needs fixing - the Taro cult was not a cargo cult by any definition, and it is usually not accepted that the Tuka movement was a cargo cult. But again, this is fruitless debate, it is a matter of definition. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.139.143.143 (talk) 04:10, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Tags
I have added a number of tags to this article which needs a complete ovehaul. Not only are there no in line citations, the whole tone of the article is completely unacceptable for wikipedia. Almost every sentence conatins a phrase such as "many say", "is likely", "is clear". These are weasel words and should be removed. Where something "is clear" full citations should be made to support such claims rendering weasel words unnecessary. Fenix down (talk) 13:22, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

Origin of name
The article misses entirely the point and origin of the name. "Vailala" refers to the Vailala River and the surrounding district, some 40km west of Kerema, the Gulf provincial headquarters. It was in this district that the cult originated and had its strongest forms. Of course, by the time I lived there in the 1960s, the cult had long vanished.

According to "The Pacific Islands: An Encyclopedia" by Brij V. Lal & Kate Fortune, University of Hawaii Press, 2000, p303, the movement began among the Elema people at Orokolo, which is just to the west of the Vailala River mouth, and part of the district. It indicates from Diary materials, that it began with gifts of money to the London Missionary Society at the Orokolo station; there was the expectation of entering into reciprocity with outsiders, combining material and spiritual goals. Over time, these goals being unfulfilled, the movement was diverted by a man named Evara, who "emceed" or lead out in "collective trance states and xenophobic behaviour, encouraged the destruction of native ceremonial items, claimed to be contacting the dead through a make-believe wireless, and allowed for hopes that a cargo ship manned by the ancestors would soon loom over the horizon. The anatomic bodily jerking and curious speech convinced the government anthropologist F E Williams, who arrived late on the scene (1920) that the situation was pathological. The phenomena of trance and possession, so common in small scale black religious traditions, eluded him; and and it was the catching on of these altered states that made the movement spread along to Toaripi country in the eastern Gulf."

The Toaripi (or East Elema people) are found east of Kerema, which indicates a direction of spread. The article needs to take more account of the geographical factors, rather than the generalisation of Papua Gulf. Incidentally, the article refers to politician, Sir Albert Maori Kiki. Kiki's home village was Orokolo, mentioned above. Ptilinopus (talk) 14:56, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

tags
the phrases "it is clear", "according to ..." etc etc are often qualified "by whom" etc etc. i find overuse of this method irritating and it ought to be replaced by references or simply left out altogether. some of these articles cannot easily be sourced - we big boys (and a few more intelligent girls) know this and do not wish a sanctimonious clever-clogs to point out the obvious. this is, of course, only my opinion. g.j.f. edinburg,  november 2022  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.249.184.180 (talk) 10:51, 17 November 2022 (UTC)