skepticism and scoffing by the leader of a neighboring clan of the Kawelka
tribe. Again, such a circumstance of skepticism and doubt was new in local
ritual history. New cult practices to strengthen group fertility and secure
environmental cosmic favor were known and indeed were continuing to
circulate and become adopted by successive groups in chains of exchanges
along with the hiring of ritual specialists. But these cults offered long-term
and unquantifiable benefits, with an expectation that the cosmic powers
would be renewed over the generations by a repeat of the basic rituals,
after which the cult stones were secretly buried in clan group territory, to
be mobilized later.
The new cult, by contrast, claimed to produce quick, identifiable results
and its leaders set a time when they would hold a great celebration dance,
bring out the boxes, and open them up expecting tofind treasures of state
money (at that time Australian dollars, the colonial currency and marker of
power to purchase new commodities).
In previous practices, also, ancestors would not be approached to send
immediate benefits of wealth, although their general beneficence would be
sought, in particular in situations of sickness or in-group conflicts. The red
box cultists had renamed the ancestors, previously known as the spirit
people (kor wamb), as the wind people (köpkö wamb). The wind people
were supposed to have the power now tofly from the local area down to
the coastal city of Port Moresby, the political capital where the new House
of Assembly was located and where the colonial Administration head-
quarters were, andflying back and forth they could supposedly tap into
the power to transform base metal into money. Some of the cult leaders
went down to Moresby by plane and were said to contact the wind people
there and gain intelligence about the progress in the making of the money.
All of this imagery arose out of two new sources. One was the actual
factor of increased contact with the outside world, symbolized by Port
Moresby, which was also a target of labor migrants. The second was the
image offlying, brought into being by experiences of planes that brought
cargo from the coast and carried important people both ways.‘Wind’was
the symbol of the new powers of mobility. The whole enterprise of the cult
was called‘wind work’(köpkö kongon).
Certain elements of the secret rituals were also said to have been
imported from Madang, a coastal city located in the middle of a region
that had experienced long and repeated efforts by local leaders or‘big-men’
to create wealth by ritual means. In his discussion of such cults Jarvie
tended to stress the importance of‘prophets’or new leaders who could
2 CHANGE 15