Final answer:
The Highlanders in New Guinea believed the Leahy brothers were spirits or supernatural beings when they first encountered them in the film First Contact.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the film First Contact, the Highlanders in New Guinea initially believed that the Leahy brothers were spirits or supernatural beings. This film documents the encounter between the Highlanders and the Leahy brothers, who were amongst the first Europeans to make contact with the indigenous societies in the highlands of Papua New Guinea in the 1930s.
The Highlanders had no prior exposure to the outside world, and the sudden appearance of people with different skin colors, modern clothing, and unfamiliar technology led to a perception rooted in the Highlanders' own mythology and belief systems. Often in such encounters, indigenous peoples would interpret these foreign elements through the lens of their cultural understanding, leading to the belief that the Leahy brothers possessed otherworldly origins.