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Coming of Age in Samoa

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Coming of Age in Samoa .^ ^ ^,^ <^ .'A .'\ >r > >r > :: COMING OF AGE S COMING OF AGE IN SAMOA 14 ith Hihbcus in her hair T> l..( To THE Girls of Tau THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED *Ou te avatu lene't tusitala id te ^outou O Teineiti ma le Aualuma o Tail 4SH173 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I AM indebted to the generosity of the Board of Fel- lowships in the Biological Sciences of the National Re- search Council whose award of a fellowship made this investigation possible. I have to thank my father for the gift of my travelling expenses to and from the Samoan Islands. To Prof. Franz Boas I owe the in- spiration and the direction of my problem, the training which prepared me to undertake such an investigation, and the^ticism of my results. For a co-operation which greatly facilitated the prog- ress of my work in the Pacific, I am indebted to Dr. ^Herbert E. Gregory, Director of the B. P. Bishop Mu- ^seum and to Dr. E. C. S. Handy and Miss Stella Jones of the Bishop Museum. To the endorsement of my work by Admiral Stitt and the kindness of Commander Owen Mink, U. S. N., I owe the co-operation of the medical authorities in Samoa, whose assistance greatly simplified and expe- dited my investigation. I have to thank Miss Ellen M. Hodgson, Chief Nurse, the staff nurses, the Sa- moan nurses, and particularly G. F. Pepe for my first contacts and my instruction in the Samoan language. To the hospitality, generosity, and sympathetic co-op- eration of Mr. Edward R. Holt, Chief Pharmacist Mate, and Mrs. Holt, I owe the four months' resi- dence in their home which furnished me with an ab- solutely essential neutral_base from which I could study all the individuals in the village and yet remain [vii] ACKNOWLEDGMENTS aloof from native feuds and lines of demarcation. The success of this investigation depended upon the co-operation and interest of several hundred Samoans. To mention each one individually would be impossible. I owe special thanks to County Chief Ufuti of Vaitogi and to all the members of his household and to the Talking Chief Lolo, who taught me the rudiments of the graceful pattern of social relations which is so char- acteristic of the Samoans. I must specially thank their excellencies, Tufele, Governor of Manu'a, and County Chiefs Tui Olesega, Misa, Sotoa, Asoao, andXeuL the Chiefs Pomele, Nua, Tialigo, Moa, Maualupe, Asi, and the Talking Chiefs Lapui and Muaoj the Samoan pastors Solomona and lakopo, the Samoan teachers,^ Sua, Napoleon, and Etij Toaga, the wife of Sotoa, Fa'apua'a, the Taupo of Fitiuta, Fofoa, Laula, Leauala, and Felofiaina, and the chiefs and people of all the vil- k lages of Manu'a and their children. Their kindness, hospitality, and courtesy made my sojourn among them a happy onej their co-operation and interest made it possible for me to pursue my investigation with peace and profit. The fact that no real names are used in the course of the book is to shield the feelings of those who would not enjoy such publicity. For criticism and assistance in the preparation of this manuscript I am indebted to Dr. R. F. Benedict, Dr. L. S. Cressman, Miss M. E. Eichelberger, and Mrs. M. L. Loeb. j^_ j^_ The American Museum of Natural History, March, 1928. [viii] TABLE OF CONTENTS FACE FOREWORD BY FRANZ BOAS, xiii CIhAFTER I TN3^ntTrTin >j II A DAY IN SAMOA .... III THE EDUCATION OF THE SAMOAN CHILD IV THE SAMOAN HOUSEHOLD . V THE GIRL AND HER AGE GROUP VI THE GIRL IN THE COMMUNITY . VII FORMAL^ SE X RELATIONS ^ Vm THE ROLE OF THE DANCE . IX THE ATTITUDE TOWARDS PERSONALITY X THE EXPERIENCE AND INJO IVIDUALITY^OF THE AVE&SSE' (igL 131 XI THE GIRL IN CONFLICT I51 XII MATURITY AND OLD AGE .... 185 XIII OUR EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS IN THE LIGHT OF SAMOAN CONTRASTS .... 195 XIV EDUCATION FOR CHOICE .... 234 APPENDIX I Notes to Chapters 249 II Methodology of This Study . -259 266 III Samoan Civilisation as It Is To-day . IV The Mentally Defective and the Mentally Dis- eased 278 [ix] TABLE OF CONTENTS APPENDIX PAGU V Materials upon Which the Analysis Is Based . 28? a. Sample Record Sheet b. Table I. Showing Menstrual History, Sex Experi- ence and Residence in Pastor's Household c. Table H. Family Structure, and Analysis of Table d. Intelligence Tests Used e. Check List Used in Investigation of Each Girl's Experience. Glossary of Native Terms Used in the Text . 295 W ILLUSTRATIONS WITH HIBISCUS IN HER HAIR Frontispiece FACING PAGE THE "house to meet THE STRANGEr" i8 REBUILDING THE VILLAGE AFTER A HURRICANE A CHIEF S DAUGHTER AND THE BABY OF THE HOUSE- HOLD WHOSE YELLOW HAIR WILL SOME DAY MAKE A chief's HEADDRESS .... 52 THE LOCAL PARLIAMENT IS CONVENED 80 A DANCING COSTUME FOR EUROPEAN TASTES I 12 BY NAME "house OF MIDNIGHT DARKNESs" I 12 A SPIRIT OF THE WOOD .... 122 IN THE BARK CLOTH COSTUME OF LONG AGO 160 DRESSED UP IN HER BIG SISTER's DANCING SKIRT 160 A TALKING CHIEF THE NATIVE MASTER OF CERE MONIES . 190 / FAMOUS MAKER OF BARK CLOTH 190 [xi] FOREWORD MODERN descriptions of primitive people give us a picture of their culture classified according to the varied ^aspects of human life. We learn about inventions, household ^unoaiy, family and political organisation, and j^gjigious beliefs and practices. Through a com- parative studjTbf-these data and through information that tells us of their growth and development, we endeavour to reconstruct, as well as may be, the history of each particular culture. Some anthropologists even hope that the comparative study will reveal some tend- encies of development that recur so often that signifi- cant generalisations regarding the processes of cultural growth will be discovered. To the lay reader these studies are interesting on account of the strangeness of the scene, the peculiar attitudes characteristic of foreign cultures that set off in stro- ig light our own achievements and behaviour. However, a systematic description of human activi- ties gives us very little insight into the mental attitudes of the individual. His thoughts and actions appear merely as expressions of rigidly defined cultural forms. We learn little about his rational thinking, about his friendships and conflicts with his fellowmen. The per- sonal side of the life of the individual is almost_eiim- [xiii] J.J FOREWORD ^ inated in the systematic presentation of the cultural life of the people. The picture is standardised, like a col- lection of laws that tell us how we should behave, and not how we behave j like rules set down defining the style of art, but not the way in which the artist elab- orates his ideas of beauty j like a list of inventions, anc'. not the way in which the individual overcomes tech- nical difficulties that present themselves. And yet the way in which the personality reacts to culture is a matter that should concern us deeply and that makes the studies of foreign cultures a fruitful and useful field of research. We are accustomed to consider all those actions that are part and parcel of oui' own culture, standards which we follow automatically, as common to all mankind. They are deeply ingrained / in our behaviour. We are moulded in their forms so that we cannot think but that they must be valid every- where. I Courtesy, modesty, good manners, conformity td. definite ethical standards are universal, but what con-/ stitutes courtesy, modesty, good manners, and ethicai standards is not universal. It is instructive to know that standards-differ in the most unexpected ways. It is still more important to know how the individual . reacts to these standards. ^ In our own civilisation the individual is beset witi i difficulties which we are likely to ascribe to fundamentaJ human traits. When we speak about the difficulties o.'' childhood and of adolescence, we are thinking of then x [xiv] , J FOREWORD as unavoidable periods of adjustment through which every one has to pass. The whole psycho-analytic ap- proach is largely based on this supposition. The anthropologist doubts the correctness of these views, but up to this time hardly any one has taken the pains to identif^hjmself sufficiently with a primitive population to obtain an insight into these problems. We feel, therefore, grateful to Miss Mead for having undertaken to identify herself so completely with Samoan youth that she gives us a lucid and clear pic- ture of the joys and difficulties encountered by the young individual in a culture so entirely different from our own. "^i.e csults of her painstaking investigation confirm he suspicion long held by anthropologists, that *• much c what we ascribe to human nature '.is no more than a reaction to the restraints put upon us by our civilisation. Franz Boas. [xv] COMING OF AGE IN SAMOA INTRODUCTION DURING the last hundred years parents and teachers have ceased to take childhood and adolescence for granted. Jlhey have attempted to fit education to the needs of the child, rather than to press the child into an inflexible educational mould. To this new task they have been spurred by two forces, the growth of the S£ience of psychology, and the difficulties and malad- justments of youth. Psychology suggesfed-that much might be gained by a knowledge of the way in which children developed, of the stages through which they passed, of what the adult world might reasonably expect of the baby of two months or the child of two years. And the fulminations of the pulpit, the loudly voiced laments of the conservative social philosopher, the rec- ords of juvenile courts and social agencies all suggested that something must be done with the period which science had named adolescence.
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