Samoans

PRONUNCIATION: suh-MOH-uhns
LOCATION: Polynesian archipelago comprising Samoa (former Western Samoa) and American Samoa; west coast of the United States (including Hawaii)
LANGUAGE: Samoan; English
RELIGION: Christianity (Methodist, Seventh Day Adventist, Catholic, Mormon)

INTRODUCTION

Samoans are the residents of a chain of islands within the Polynesian culture area of the South Pacific. The Samoan archipelago is politically divided into the independent nation of Samoa and the unincorporated United States territory of American Samoa. In 1962, Samoa became the first Pacific Island nation to gain independence. The population of Samoa in 2007 was estimated at around 186,000 people, while that of American Samoa was only around 66,900 in the last (2006) census. There has been an extensive migration (an estimated 65,000) of Samoans from American Samoa to the west coast of the United States; another 20,000 have left American Samoa and now reside in Hawaii. However, since 2002 there has been no official record keeping of either migrations or returns. This chapter will focus on the Samoan way of life, or, as it is called by Samoans themselves, fa'a Samoa.

LOCATION AND HOMELAND

Samoa is located about 2,300 mi southwest of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. Samoa is made up of two main islands, Upolo and Savai'i, and a few smaller surrounding islands. Samoa was a possession of the Germans, the British, and a trustee of New Zealand before gaining its independence and setting a political model for many other South Pacific societies. Samoa is located in the heart of Polynesia and, as such, has many cultural and historical ties with neighboring Tonga, the Cook Islands, and Tahiti.

The two main Samoan islands are of volcanic origin and, as a result, are mountainous with rocky soil and lush vegetation due to the tropical climate and ample rainfall. The average humidity in the Samoan archipelago is 80%. Of the two main islands of Samoa, Savai'i is more rural and has a much smaller population than Upolo. The only city in Samoa, Apia, is located on Upolo.

LANGUAGE

The official language of Samoa is Samoan. Samoan belongs to the Polynesian group of the Austronesian language family and is closely related to the other languages of Polynesia including Tahitian, Tonga, Maori, and Rarotongan. Although English is spoken by educated Samoans in the city of Apia, it is rarely spoken by rural Samoans.

FOLKLORE

Samoans have a creation myth very similar to that of the Christian faith. The creator god in Samoan cosmology is Tagaloa. Many of the traditional myths have been forgotten due to the massive conversion to Christianity in the islands. An important figure in Samoan history is the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, who spent the final years of his life there and is buried there.

RELIGION

Christianity is the dominant, if not the only, religion practiced in Samoa. Ninety-eight percent of Samoans are professed Christians. Samoans are extremely proud of their devotion to the Christian faith and their adherence to its practices. Several Christian denominations including the Methodists, Seventh Day Adventists, Catholics, and Mormons coexist within Samoan villages.

MAJOR HOLIDAYS

Samoans celebrate holidays in the Christian calendar as well as some secular holidays. Samoan Mother's Day is celebrated on May 15 and is a public holiday. There are elaborate song and dance performances by the Women's Committees throughout the country in recognition of the contribution of mothers to Samoan society. Samoan National Independence celebrations are multi-day events.

RITES OF PASSAGE

Child rearing in Samoan society is hierarchically organized. Children, from the time they are toddlers, are expected to obey their elders without questioning or hesitation. There is no tolerance for misbehavior or disobedience. Older siblings are expected to take care of their smaller brothers and sisters. Adulthood in traditional Samoan society is marked by the tattoo.

In traditional Samoan belief systems, death was marked by the separation of the body and soul. The soul was believed to live on as an "ancestor spirit" called aitu. The placation of the aitu was an important part of religious life in precontact Samoa.

INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS

Status governs every interaction in Samoan society. Greetings are determined by the relative status of the individuals involved. A very informal greeting in Samoa is talofa. More formal greetings at a household dictate that neither party speaks until the visitor is seated. Then the host will begin a formal greeting and introduction with, "Susu maia lau susuga," which translates roughly as "Welcome, sir."

Individuals who have left their villages to take up residence in Apia will return to their villages for important ceremonial occasions.

Unmarried females are almost always chaperoned in Samoan society. Premarital sexual relationships are very difficult to arrange. "Sleep crawling," moetotolo in Samoan, exists as one solution to this problem for young Samoans. Typically a young man with an interest in a young woman will wait until her household and her chaperones are asleep and then crawl on all fours into her house and hope to have a sexual encounter with her. In some cases, the young woman will send the suitor away. In other cases, the woman will become pregnant and marriage may ensue.

LIVING CONDITIONS

Large amounts of foreign aid have come to Samoa since its independence. This aid has modernized even the most remote parts of rural Savai'i, where there are many European-style houses with wooden frames, corrugated iron roofs, and louvered glass windows. Some homes even have pickup trucks. There are, however, still traditional Samoan-style houses to be found in Samoa. Traditional Samoan houses are rectangular and built on black, volcanic boulder foundations. Traditional roofs are high-peaked and covered with thatch. There are no walls on traditional Samoan dwellings, but shutters or blinds of plaited coconut leaves can be lowered to keep out the blowing rain.

The Samoan standard of living is hard to describe. On the one hand, food is plentiful and the atmosphere is relaxed. On the other hand, people are always striving to find ways to make money. The economy of the country is very limited, with most money coming from foreign aid and private aid sent by relatives who work overseas. This third source of money accounts for the majority of the income of the average Samoan. Cash crop exportation is practiced widely, but it only accounts for a very small portion of a family's income.

Samoa has a chiefly socio-political system called the matai system. Matai is the Samoan word for "chief." Every Samoan extended family has a matai. In Samoa, there are two types of chiefs: high chiefs and talking chiefs. Talking chiefs are skilled in special forms of the Samoan language and are responsible for making public speeches. Talking chiefs are of lower rank than high chiefs. Within Samoan villages, the various matai from extended families meet regularly to discuss problems and issues and also to determine resolutions.

FAMILY LIFE

Traditional marriage in Samoan society consists of an exchange of goods between the two families with the bride and groom cohabiting afterwards. In the early period after the final exchange, the couple is likely to live with the bride's family, although later the couple will move near the groom's father's household. Marriage within the village is discouraged, and anyone from either the mother's or father's descent group is a prohibited partner. Prior to their conversion to Christianity, high-ranking Samoan men practiced polygyny (having many wives at once). Church weddings are important in Samoan society today, but they are expensive and not every family can afford to provide one for their children.

Households in traditional Samoan society were centered on the extended family. The nuclear family has now become the most common domestic unit. Nuclear families can be very large by American standards. Many women have as many as a dozen children. Couples want to have as many children as possible, and improved health care and nutrition have contributed to lower infant mortality rates.

The Samoan kinship terminology is of the Hawaiian type. This means that there is a single term for the mother, mother's sisters, and father's sisters, and a single term for the father, father's brothers, and mother's brothers. This pattern persists through each generation, so that female cousins (in the American sense) are called "sisters" and male cousins are called "brothers."

CLOTHING

Traditional Samoan attire has been adapted to modern life in Samoa. The wraparound skirt called lavalava is worn by men and children. Even important village leaders that work in the city may choose to wear a formal lavalava, a sport shirt, and a wide leather belt around their waist. Women wear dresses or matching long blouses and skirts called puletasi. Civil servants, both male and female, often wear uniforms of dark colors. Tattooing is an important aspect of body adornment in Samoa. Samoa is one of the areas of Polynesia that has seen a resurgence of the tradition of tattooing. Young men more than young women have returned to the custom of tattooing.

FOOD

Traditional Samoan foods included taro root, yams, bananas, coconuts, breadfruit, fish, turtles, and chicken. Even though pigs are raised, pork is reserved for ceremonial occasions. Samoan meals are invariably accompanied by a salted coconut cream condiment called pe'epe'e, which is poured over boiled taro root and heated before serving. For many rural Samoans, this is the staple foodstuff and is served at the two daily meals. Coconut meat is not eaten in Samoa. For a Samoan, eating coconut meat indicates poverty and a lack of food. The favorite Samoan beverage is koko Samoa which is made from fermented cocoa beans, water, and brown Fijian sugar. It is an essential component of the village meal in Samoa. Imported American foods can also be purchased in Apia and in small village shops in the rural reas.

EDUCATION

The literacy rate in Samoa is approximately 90%. Education is seen as essential by parents for the success of their children. Even in the most rural villages, parents will send at least some of their children off to school. Those that do not go to school will stay at home and help with the household chores and gardening.

CULTURAL HERITAGE

In Samoa, as opposed to American Samoa, traditional Samoan songs are the favorites of young and old alike. In American Samoa, American popular music sung in English is the favorite form of music among young people. Polynesian dancing is still practiced in Samoa. Oratory is considered a verbal art among all Samoans. Political deliberations required well crafted oratory from senior male village leaders.

WORK

There are a number of occupations that Samoans engage in today. The urban center of Apia provides many of the modern careers that Americans are familiar with such as bureaucrats, teachers, nurses, clerks, entrepreneurs, and secretaries, to name a few. Men hold approximately 60% of the wage-earning jobs.

SPORTS

Cricket is an important game for Samoans and every village has a cricket pitch laid through the middle of the village green. Samoan-style cricket is a modification of the British form, in which the cricket bat now resembles a traditional war club and the teams number around 30-40 per side. Rugby is also a very big spectator and participant sport in Samoa. Boxing, wrestling, and American football are also important sports in both parts of Samoa. There are a number of professional football players in the United States who are of Samoan descent.

ENTERTAINMENT AND RECREATION

For Samoans that live in or near Apia, most of the amenities and pleasures of modern, urban living can be found. Long-boat races called fautasi are enjoyed at important festivals and public celebrations. Dominos are a favorite pastime of Samoan men in rural and urban areas alike.

FOLK ART, CRAFTS, AND HOBBIES

The traditional art of barkcloth (siapo) manufacturing has been all but lost in Samoan culture today. The artists who specialized in house construction, canoe building, and tattooing were organized into guilds in traditional society. These individuals worked for families of high status who could afford to pay them.

SOCIAL PROBLEMS

Migration out of the area is a major problem for both Samoa and American Samoa. Over 60% of the American Samoan population has immigrated to the mainland and Hawaii. Samoans have immigrated to American Samoa and now, as a group, form the majority portion of the population. Limited economic opportunities are a problem for Samoans. The chance of finding economic prosperity in the United States drives Samoans to leave their home islands.

GENDER ISSUES

Samoans conceive of gender as being a social role that an individual plays. In the Samoan conception of gender, there are five gender roles: boy, girl, man, woman, and male transvestite (fa'afafine in Samoan). The distinction between a girl and a woman in Christian Samoa centers on sexual activity. Teine (girls) are not sexually active while fafine (women) are sexually active. Although male transvestites are called teine, there is an assumption especially in urban areas of Samoa that fa'afafine are sexually active. There is no comparable female transvestite role for women in Samoan society.

Samoan gender is not seen as a temperament. Instead, Samoan gender is seen as a social role to be played by individuals. As a result, differences between the sexes are less significant than in societies where gender is a temperament. All adults are expected to be respectful, dignified, and strong. Adulthood is informally marked by the starting of a family and formally marked through the awarding of a title. In Samoa, status is determined by an individual's titles.

Brother-sister relations are the most important cross-sex relationships in Samoan society. It is important to remember that in Samoan kinship, all cousins are brothers and sisters. The Samoan word for the brother-sister relation is feagaiga. There was no word for the relationship of marriage in pre-Christian Samoa.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lockwood, Victoria S., Thomas G. Harding, and Ben J. Wallace, ed. Contemporary Pacific Societies: Studies in Development and Change. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1993.

Mageo, Jeannette Marie. "Samoans." In Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender: Men and Women in the World's Cultures, Volume 2. Edited by Carol R. Ember and Melvin Ember. New York: Springer, 2003.

O'Meara, Tim. Samoan Planters: Tradition and Economic Development in Polynesia. Chicago: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1990.

-by J. Williams