Ethnic

Samoan Big Family Connection

    At the very heart of the Samoan culture is the family-not the small biological family but a wonderfully woven, large, extended family of which the individual is but one strand. Each family has a chiefly title is associated with a particular village. And since every individual can trace his or her linage through father, mother, or by adoption, he or she is connected to many families, titles, and villages.

    In a sense a Samoan also has multiple fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters; for with the extended family, children view their uncles, aunts, and cousins as their parents and siblings. Although a child knows who his biological parents are, that does not preclude him from relation to an uncle as he would to his father.

    At the head of every extended family is the titleholder - the chief (matai). Unlike most Polynesian culture where a title is hereditary, Samoa is a democratic aristocracy. When the old chief dies, a new one is chosen by a consensus of all the extended family members not only from that village but from other villages and islands as well. Everyone has a say. Consideration is given to a candidate according to the closeness of his or her connection and his service to the family.

    The choice is important because the chief embodies the family's dignity, holds the family land in trust, represents the family in the village council, and organizes and disciplines members. If a major offense is committed by someone in the family it is the chief, not the quilty member, who can set matters right by making a ritual apology, with a fine mat, before the chief of the offended family.

    In the colder climates of Europe, North America, Japan and very different cultures evolved. There nature dictated the nacessity of producing and preserving in a few short months all that was needed for the rest of the year. The rigors of those environments required a whole series of technological developments for survival. Metal was available and money was introduced. Eventually goods , services, and labor could be converted into that medium. What man produced in the spring and summer of his youth and adult years could be invested and saved for the necessities of his old age.

    The Samoan found another solution to the seasons of life. In the islands, where the climate is warm, the rainfall ample, the soils fertile, and the harvest from the sea abundant, there was little possibility or need for preserving food. There a vastly different culture evolved. The Samoans developed a social technology based on a network of relationships and reciprocal obligations whthin and between entended families. Without access to metal of any kind they produced their own gold in the form of fine mats - mats that could take years to weave.

    A Samoan's saving are the contributions of mats, food, and physical assistance he makes to his relatives in their time of need: at the completion of a house or church, when a tattoo is made, upon the assumption of a title, at marriages and births and deaths. All of these are occasions when he can make his sociological deposits. Withdrawals are made when he and his part of the family require assistance.