Who is Prince Philip?

Encyclopedia of Opinion

Question: Who is Prince Philip?
Position‹3 of 3: Prince Philip is a deity
Argument: Cargo cults view the Prince as a God

Because of a prophecy and US troops' impact on Pacific Island nations, many of these cultures believe the Prince is an ancient deity. Vanuatu's Kastom people worship Prince Philip as the second coming of their God.

The argument

There is a prophecy in ancient Yaohnanen lore, which predicts that the son of a mountain spirit will venture abroad and marry a powerful woman. The prophecy further states that this spirit would eventually return to the Yaohnanen people. The Yaohnanen tribesmen believe that this mountain spirit is Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The presence of troops in the Pacific due to the Second World War was viewed as an indication of the Apocalypse. This appears to have given credence to an earlier 'John Frum Movement', dating from the 1930s. The John Frum Movement and the Prince Philip Movement appear to have combined in the 1950s or 1960s. Based on this, it is likely that the presence of US troops prompted the people on Tanna to deify Prince Philip. According to one theory, the fact that the British Colonial Administration spoke in such high terms of the Queen and Prince Philip resulted in the people on Tanna associating Prince Philip with the mountain spirit from the prophecy. The people on Tanna also believe that Prince Philip works in mysterious ways to benefit the Island. They often attribute anything good that happens on Tanna to the mystical work of Prince Philip. Even the increase in interracial marriage both on Tanna and in other places has been accredited to the Prince.

Context

Prince Philip is the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, the current Queen of England. Unbeknownst to many British people, the Kastom people, who live around the village of Yaohnanen on the southern island of Tanna in Vanuatu, view him as a divine being. He has been deified there since the 1950s and 1960s.

Premises

[P1]An ancient Yaohnanen prophecy holds that a mountain spirit's son would travel abroad, marry a powerful woman, and return to the people of Tanna. [P2] The Tannese identify Prince Philip with this prophesied spirit, prompted by wartime events and British colonial reverence for the royal couple. [P3] They attribute beneficial mystical workings on the island to Prince Philip, treating him as a divine agent. [C] Therefore, within the Tanna cargo cults Prince Philip is regarded as a deity.

Counter-arguments

It was prophesied that Prince Philip would return to Tanna on June 10, 2010 (Prince Philip's birthday), in order to live and roam amongst his people. This prophecy did not materialise, as Prince Philip did not return to Tanna on this given date.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The prophecy as reported reaches outside audiences through a long chain of translation, missionary account and journalistic retelling, and its details have shifted with each telling — which makes it weak evidence about what the tradition originally held. [Rejecting P2] The premise offers two explanations at once: an old prophecy fulfilled, and an identification prompted by wartime encounters and colonial deference. The second suggests a recent construction rather than the recognition of something ancient. [Rejecting P3] Attributing good events after the fact is a general feature of religious and folk explanation and does not by itself distinguish deification from reverence for a distant patron. The expectation of a return that went unmet, without the belief being abandoned, suggests a relationship more flexible than the word 'deity' implies.