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Prometheus on the Fortunate Isles Prometheus on the Fortunate Isles - A Human Ecological Study on Environment, Culture and Identity in Samoa A Minor Field Study, September-November 2010 From 1892 until 2011, the International Date Line passed west of Samoa, but at the end of the year, Samoa switched sides, jumping forward by one day. However, at the time of our field study in 2010, this was still the place of the last sunset of the world. Photo by Louise Nevander 2010. Anna Nevander and Louise Nevander Thesis for the Fil. Mag. degree Spring semester 2015 Supervisor: Professor Thomas Malm Acknowledgements A great thanks to Professor Thomas Malm and to Gunilla Nevander, and to the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency for the Minor Field Study scholarship which made this field study possible. II Table of contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................. II ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................................... 1 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 3 1.1. BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................................................ 6 1.2. AIM AND PURPOSE .................................................................................................................................... 7 1.3. PROBLEM FORMULATION ......................................................................................................................... 7 1.4. HYPOTHESES .............................................................................................................................................. 8 1.5. SCOPE .......................................................................................................................................................... 9 1.6. DISPOSITION ............................................................................................................................................ 10 2. DEFINITION OF CENTRAL THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS AND CONCEPTS ........... 10 2.1. THE HUMAN ECOLOGICAL TRIANGLE ................................................................................................... 11 2.2. ALIENATION ............................................................................................................................................. 11 2.3. SYSTEMS THEORY AND CYBERNETICS .................................................................................................. 13 2.3.1. Defining the concept of a system ............................................................................................. 13 2.3.2. Defining a “system collapse” ..................................................................................................... 17 2.4. LAND, RITUAL AND MYTH ...................................................................................................................... 18 3. BACKGROUND ON THE SAMOAN SYSTEM ........................................................................ 21 3.1. LAND TENURE IN SAMOA AND THE LAND TITLES REGISTRATION ACT 2008 ............................ 21 3.2. THE FA´AMATAI SYSTEM ......................................................................................................................... 25 3.3. PSYCHOLOGICAL AFFECTS TO LAND IN SAMOA .................................................................................. 28 4. METHOD AND MATERIAL ...................................................................................................... 31 4.1.1. The methodological framework: positioning the researcher in theory and practise ........................................................................................................................................................... 31 4.1.2. Reflections on the researcher role: possible sources of errors and misinterpretations, and counter-strategies ................................................................................... 39 4.2. MATERIAL ................................................................................................................................................. 45 5. RESULTS ...................................................................................................................................... 46 5.1. THE SAMOAN PSYCHOLOGICAL AFFECTS TO LAND – THE INFORMANTS’ RESPONSES ................ 47 5.2. CATCHING SIGHT OF ONESELF THROUGH THE OTHER – THE PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION ...... 60 6. DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................................ 63 6.1. CULTURAL CHANGE – THE DEATH OF A CULTURE? ........................................................................... 63 6.1.1. The Fa´a Samoa – a systemic approach ............................................................................... 63 6.1.2. Myths as maps ................................................................................................................................. 65 6.1.3. Your epistemology ......................................................................................................................... 66 6.1.4. It is only a story... ........................................................................................................................... 68 6.1.5. The parents have eaten sour grapes, but their children's mouths pucker at the taste… .............................................................................................................................................................. 69 7. CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................................................ 71 8. SOURCES ...................................................................................................................................... 72 III Abstract The thesis is centered around an eight week long minor field study conducted on the Polynesian Islands of Samoa in 2010. Samoa is one of the worlds least developed countries according to the UN. However; people do not starve in Samoa. In Samoa, most land is still communaly owned, and every Samoan has through family ties access to so called customary lands. Moreover, customary land is inalienable in Samoa, that is, it cannot be bought or sold. In 2008, the government of Samoa introduced a new bill concerning registration of customary lands, the LTRA 2008. The registration of customary lands opens up for the possibility of abandoning the inalienable status of the customary lands. Regarding this, some people have expressed a fear that this change in the system of land ownership will not only lead to an abandonment of the customary land system, but also to the abandonment of the traditional Samoan culture and system of sharing, the Fa´a Samoa, since the sharing of land and resources is percieved as being the heart of the cultural system, also referred to as a system of belonging. In the study the emotions and associations that underlie how Samoans relate to land are investigated, and how these might change given an introduction of Western land ownership concepts. Also the consequenses of such a change are discussed. The results of the study show that Samoans are psychologically more connected to their land and environment than Westerners, that is, not to nature in a general sense, but to a specific environment, to place, to a specific piece of land, to a physically identifiable place or piece of land. In a psychological sense, they belong, they are rooted in a way that we in the West are generally not. Moreover, with the implementation of LTRA 2008, customary lands might become alienable. 1 The main conclucions drawn from the study are that there is a difference between being connected to a specific environment and being connected to nature in general, and that the possibility of alienation of customary lands has the potential of offsetting a fundamental transformation of how Samoans relate to and deal with land issues and also of the Samoan society and culture as a whole. If customary lands become alienable, Samoans risk losing their connectedness with a specific piece of land. If so, they will become more alienated from their environment, from their culture, and also from their identity as Samoans. 2 1. General introduction It is an expression of great poverty when people need lots of possessions, because it proves that they lack the things that are of the Great Spirit. - Samoan high chief Tuiavii (Scheurmann 1988: 62; our translation) Samoa is one of the worlds least developed countries (UN 2015a), and had an annual GDP Per Capita (Current Prices, US Dollars) of US$ 3607.5 (GDP 2012, UN 2015b). The Pacific Islands is the region in the world that receives most foreign aid per capita (United Nations Development System in FiJi and Samoa 2008: 9). Yet no one is hungry in Samoa and no one lacks a roof over their head. This fact is what evoked our interest in these faraway Polynesian islands. Samoa is one of the last places in the world where land is still communal (81 % 2002) (Ye 2010: 832) and where material goods, such as mobile phones, in large are considered communal property as well and continuosly circulated in the community. Children are handled in the same way, considered a communal responsibility. The economical culture is relatively egalitarian
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