Mambu is the name of a native of New Guinea who led what has become known as a 'Cargo' cult. These cults, common in Melanesia, are partly religious, political and economic in nature. Participants in the cult engage in exotic rites, the purpose of which is to gain possession of European manufactured goods, such as knives, medicines, razor blades, tinned foods etc. The volume discusses why these cults occur and examines a way of life of a New Guinea people and their reactions to European penetration and achievement. First published in 1960.

Product Description: Commonly regarded as relics of an outgrown and mostly discredited colonialism, Christian missionaries are still playing an active role in many parts of the world and their number is, in fact, increasing. In this book, Kenelm Burridge examines these individuals and the work they do from a new perspective, combining anthropology with insights from history, sociology, missiology and theology, in an attempt to expose and explicate the contradictions and ambiguities involved in missionary endeavours and to establish a theory about the apparently inevitable processes that arise out of the nature of Christianity and the building of a Christian community...read more