Final answer:
In the film, First Contact, the Highlanders in Papua, New Guinea believed that the Leahy brothers were ancestors from the dead.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the film, First Contact, the Highlanders in Papua, New Guinea believed that the Leahy brothers were ancestors from the dead. The film documents the real-life encounters between Western explorer Michael Leahy and the indigenous tribes of Papua, New Guinea in the 1930s. The Highlanders, who had never seen foreigners before, interpreted the presence of the Leahy brothers as spirits or ancestors returning from the dead. This belief is one of the central themes explored in the film as it reflects the clash between different cultural understandings and perceptions.