by Shirley Barry

From 1926 to 1928, Margaret Mead lived among the villagers in Tau, one of the smaller islands in the American Samoa (A.S.) island group; she published Coming of Age in Samoa in 1928. In my last three columns, I have discussed the changes—and the similarities—in A.S. between the 1920s and the new millennium.

In the last chapter of her 1928 book, Mead wrote, "we are in a period of transition." After revisiting A.S. in 1951 and again in 1971, Mead, in addendums to her book, reflected on the transition from a new perspective—the passing of time. And, since more time has passed, I can reflect on her reflections.

In 1951 the Navy still administered the island with "benevolent noninterference in native affairs." People still lived in the traditional fales without walls or furniture. In many villages, water was still carried from local springs. Samoans relied entirely on their own foods raised on their own plantations. Stone tools had been replaced; other than that, "none of the native arts have been lost."

Very little of this is true any more. Now, A.S. is administered (and funded) by the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI). The traditional fono (organization of titled men) has been formalized into a two-house legislature and the Samoans elect their own governor. The local government is accountable to the DOI. As Mead observed, "Samoans’ keen feelings for social distinction make them particularly able to co-operate with a government in which there is a hierarchy of officialdom." And officialdom there is; 40 percent of the people employed in A.S. work for a government entity.

With more western style employment, Samoans have adapted a more westernized life style. Most Samoans live in cinder block houses with running water, electricity, and furniture. They rely on imports of taro and fish from neighboring islands that have fewer western employment opportunities. They also rely on imports of the traditional fine mats that are given out on special occasions. (This is true more on the main island of Tutuila than it is on the smaller, more isolated islands of A.S.)

As Mead noted in 1951, the matai (headman) no longer has the power of life or death over the members of the household. Individuals, still today, benefit from the communal ownership of property and from the claims he has on family land. And in 2003, more so than ever, the household benefits from the individuals’ ability to obtain higher education and outside employment.

Despite the changes in government and lifestyle, the Samoan culture has remained remarkably resilient. In 1951 Mead wrote that surely readers must be forcibly struck by "the extreme flexibility of the civilisation as it is found today [1951]. This flexibility is the result of the blending of the various European ideas, beliefs, mechanical devices, with the old primitive culture….In many parts of the South Seas contact with white civilisation has resulted in the complete degeneration of native life….In Samoa this is not so."

After her 1971 visit, she wrote that one of her expectations in 1928 was that "Samoan life would change even more than it has. I feared that the grace and zest and gaiety of the Samoans…would disappear altogether," changed beyond recognition by the diffusion of western culture around the world. As Mead went on to say, such has not been the case: "And I did not know then, could not know then, how extraordinarily persistent Samoan culture would prove." She was amazed that, "fifty years later the grace that I had attempted to record as something that was surely going to vanish would still be there."

By 1971, more Samoans were able to travel to the mainland than in 1951, when Samoans had to wait for a berth on a Navy ship for transportation to the mainland. Consequently, Mead met several Samoans living in the U.S. Of them, she wrote, "I saw how effortlessly they put on and put off American clothes, American speech, and American manners, without losing their Samoan distinctiveness."

In 2003 this statement made 30 years ago is still true. I think that Samoans have not so much adopted the western culture as they have adapted to it. As Mead astutely observed in 1951, "the Samoans have only taken such parts of our culture as has made their life more comfortable, [and] their culture more flexible." The Samoans retain the grace, the zest, the gaiety that Mead wrote about in 1928.

The future may not be so rosy for the Samoans, however. In 1971 Mead wrote, "the Samoans are taking a proud place [in the post WWII world], a place so proud and happy they are overflowing on their small islands, and what Westernization threatened before, overpopulation threatens today." She was right to be concerned about this. In 1930, shortly after her book was written, the population of A.S. was 10,055 people. By 1970 the population had grown to 27,159 people. In 2000 the population more than doubled from its 1970 level to 57,066 people. The islands of A.S. are made up of only 76 square miles of land, much of it steep volcanic mountains that are uninhabitable. Samoans have adapted so far by using formerly tilled land for homes and importing the food they can no longer grow. Family members provide support to the household by working for the government or the tuna canneries (the second-largest employers in A.S.), or seeking employment in the U.S. (generally either Hawaii or California). These strategies, however, can work for only so long; the Samoan culture will be hard-pressed to retain its resilience if and when the population of A.S. doubles again.

All quotes are from Coming of Age in Samoa by Margaret Mead; copyrighted 1928, 1955, 1961.