Editing Cargo cult programming (section)

==Etymology==
{{main|Cargo cult}}
[[File:JohnFrumCrossTanna1967.jpg|thumb|[[John Frum]] cross on [[Tanna Island]], Vanuatu]]
[[Cargo cult]]s are [[millenarian]] movements that arose in [[Melanesia]] under colonial rule, and inspired [[Richard Feynman]] to coin the expression [[cargo cult science]]. In Feynman's description, after the end of the Second World War practitioners believed that air delivery of cargo would resume if they carried out the proper rituals, such as building runways, lighting fires next to them, and wearing headphones carved from wood while sitting in fabricated control towers. "The form is perfect.  It looks exactly the way it looked before.  But it doesn’t work."

The term then became used more widely as a metaphor for empty rituals. The term "cargo-cult programming" appeared in version 2.5.1 of the [[Jargon File]], a glossary of computing slang, released in January 1991. The term "cargo cult" in anthropology, meanwhile, is increasingly avoided for failing to represent the complexity of Melanesian beliefs.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2018 |title=Cargo cults |encyclopedia=The Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology |url=https://www.anthroencyclopedia.com/entry/cargo-cults |access-date=2024-01-17 |last=Lindstrom |first=Lamont}}</ref><ref name="jarvis">{{Cite web |last=Jarvis |first=Brooke |date=2019 |title=Who Is John Frum? |url=https://www.topic.com/who-is-john-frum |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190418154125/https://www.topic.com/who-is-john-frum |archive-date=2019-04-18 |website=Topic}}</ref>