Cargo cult

The phrase was coined by Western observers in the 1940s to describe religious movements in Melanesia that formed after contact with Allied forces in World War II. Indigenous people saw large amounts of manufactured goods (“cargo”) arrive via military logistics, and after the troops left they built symbolic airstrips, mock planes, and other rituals in hopes of attracting similar cargo again.

The label was applied by outsiders, not by the communities themselves, and later broadened metaphorically (e.g., Feynman’s “cargo cult science”) to describe imitating form without understanding substance.