Throw the Eyes of Samoa's Youth

Throw the Eyes of Samoa's Youth

Samoa is located about halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand in the South Pacific. It is also very close to the international dateline and the equator. Samoa are islands that total in land area of approximately 2934 sq km, consisting of the two large islands named Upolu and Savai'i. The two island make must of Samoa. The other eight small islands include: Manono, Apolima, Nuutele, Nuulua, Namua, Fanuatapu, Nuusafee and Nuulopa. The main island of Upolu is home to about 30% of the Samoan population and the capital is Apia. The climate is tropical with the average temperature of 80 degree F, it has a dry and a wet season, the rainy season least from November to April.

One of first things you find when reading Coming of Age in Samoa by Margaret Mead is of the infant to children experience. Present at the birth should be the father the father's mother or sister and the mother's relatives. There are also other villagers in the house as well, since birth is not seen as a private matter. Once the birth has occurred a midwife cuts the umbilical cord, the child is a boy the cord is put into the sea in hopes that he will be a skilled fisher man, is it is a girl it is buried under a paper mulberry tree in hopes that she will do good in household tasks. As early as birth we can see the future sway of Samoan society. Babies are always nursed and given other food with in a week of their birth. After two to three years of nursing they are weaned and given to a young girl in the family to take care of the child.

In the Samoan society children raise children in a sense. Young children mostly girls are in charge of taking care of a child. The head "nursemaid" is usually a child of six or seven years old, she is to keep order among the children. Very young children are not disciplined extremely often the load of the punishments usually falls on the oldest child. "Ð'... where there are duly constituted elders in authority to punish the older children who can't keep the babies still." Pg 25 Their duty is to make sure things run smoothly with all the children in the household. If a young child gets out of line especially if they are being noisy the head child is to blame. In taking care of children, older children learn responsibility and are socialized.

Both boys and girls are forced to take part in child keeping, nevertheless, when males reach around the ages of eight and nine they leave to do more adventurous chores. Even before this age boy can be found doing more interesting work as long as they are well behaved and useful. Females, as efficient as they could be, do not get this same opportunities in tell much older. It takes up to the ages of around puberty for females to do more out going tasks and even then it is not a matter of maturity but physical strength. At this point the adolescent no longer has to tend to children, as the next youngest in line is given the overall responsibility of child care for the house. Margaret Mead points out that, the worse time in a female Samoan's life is over. Simply for the fact they no longer have to be "tyrannized over by two-year-old tyrants" pg 28 The pressures of the household which is usually on a stay at home mother or father in our society is placed on younger children under the age of fourteen. The adolescent female no longer has to deal with these pressures.

It's not in till a girl can spent long amounts of time on a project that she is viewed as an individual. Extended fishing trips need a certain amount of personalized time and effort and cannot be done under a certain age. In addition to this, girls at this age must also learn to weave fish baskets, to capture jellyfish, and know the difference between seasonal and non-seasonal fish (which could literally be the difference between life or death). Although females of this age group are learning more tasks that involve being away from the home, the ability to perform domestic duty are still very important to unmarried Samoan girls. These sorts of abilities are how males, which are interested, will rank them. The possibility of marriage is bad if a girl is lazy and hopeless in domestic tasks. A skilled weaver is also highly valued among Samoan bachelors.

Around the ages of seventeen or eighteen young men are put into groups called the Aumaga which consists of young men and older men which don't have titles. The english translation for these groups are called "the strength of the village" The chief who supervises the Aumaga, do not look highly upon absences for any group activities. His peers will mock and discriminate against them. However young man are given more tools to learn and much more variety of occupations to choose from. There are several types of occupations, which have a certain amount of prestige to the Samoans. They include fishermen, an orator, a wood carver and a house builder. Being a good fisherman means that he is able to provide good gifts to offer to the female he is courting, a must if he wants to advance with her. A skilled house builder can become very wealthily and gain high status. House builders are treated all most as well as chiefs are. There is a vocabulary, which is only used for people of high rank; carpenters are an example of those who use them. With any of the prestigious occupations there is a demand that any man should not over excel in their skill level. His elder must approve of him. If a man does excel he must do it slowly and gradually, if he does this well enough and is welling to accept responsibility his chances of becoming a chief are very high.

There are few men that will ever become chiefs, for most just being apart of the Fono is good enough. The Fono are a group of men that are the assembly of headmen. This means that they