Vailala Madness

Social movement in the Papuan Gulf, in the Territory of Papua The Vailala Madness was a social movement in the Territory of Papua, which is in the Papuan Gulf, beginning in the later part of 1919 and declining after 1922. It was the first well-documented cargo cult, a class of millenarian religion-political movements. Name The name of the movement, the Vailala Madness, was based on observations of the behavior of people who participated in it, notably speaking in tongues (glossolalia) and loss of bodily control such as body shaking. In the indigenous language, the body shaking is termed iki haveva,[what language is this?] or "belly-don't know", roughly meaning "dizziness".[citation needed] Return of the Ancestors Central to the movement was the belief that a 'Ghost Steamer' piloted by the returning dead would soon arrive, bringing with it a cargo that would not only contain departed relatives, but also tinned food, tools, and various other resources. Some followers of the movement also believed that the cargo would include guns that they could use to expel the colonizers.[citation needed] White ancestors The movement believed that the ancestors who returned with the ship would be w