How American are American Samoans?
Since the 19th century, historians have defined three major waves of American immigration particularly from countries in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. In the case of American Samoans, the native population of the United States Territory of American Samoa, emigration from these islands began in the 1950’s. However, unlike other ethnic groups, like the Mexicans and Chinese, who were also arriving in the U.S. around the same period, American Samoa was already part of the union for nearly 50 years, yet, the natives’ desire to migrate to Hawai’i and the mainland seemed to surface slowly. Although explanations for this delay in the movement of American Samoans are complex, historians have argued that besides the growth in curiosity and adventure of the outside world, American Samoans were forced to leave their homes because they simply had no other alternative to choose from. With the involvement of the United States, especially that of the U.S. Navy, the Samoans grew dependent on the resources, protection, and economic prosperity that the American foreigners introduced and continued to provide from the time of the cession of the islands in 1900. When the U.S. naval base, which was established in Pago Pago, the current capital city, was relocated to Hawai’i in the early 1950’s, work in American Samoa was limited and the natives were not willing nor prepared to return to farm and agricultural work. As migration to the "mainland" became more appealing to the islanders, their American Samoan status as U.S. Nationals was, (and continues to be to this day), confusing and somewhat contradictory to the policies of American citizenship. As American Samoans have discovered, U.S. Nationals are granted "privileges" such as entrance to the United States. However, American citizenship is not part of the package, which greatly limits the political voice of these natives. To understand the disrupted social, political, and economic state in which the American government left American Samoa with the closing of its naval base, a brief historical overview of the Samoan archipelago is necessary, which will discuss the appeal of the islands and its location to foreign powers, U.S. diplomacy, and the push and pull for migration to the U.S. mainland.
Samoan people are known for their rich culture and heritage, but the history of their islands is virtually unknown. From 1870 to 1914, countries like Germany, France, the U.
Living Life in American Samoa There are many different people living in this world with different culture diversity, and ways of making a living. American Samoans are one of these countries with different cultures and different ways of living. Living life in American Samoa is more unique from other countries. First of all, living life in American Samoa is easier then any other countries as far as I know. In American Samoa we get food free because the Samoans mainly live off the land. There
developed. Culture also plays a key role in how specific individuals define sex. Political, anthropological, and social debates occur because of ambiguous terms and cultural differences regarding sex, as well as because social taboos do not always dictate behavior. Margaret Mead, in her anthropology essay Sex in Samoa, claims that the Samoan adolescent girls experienced sexual freedom and love-making. Differences, in the Samoan and American cultures regarding sex, caused the debate over
vivid language and thick description to describe the Samoan girls’ life from childhood to adolescent. She lived in the native family to observe their lifestyle, and to learn their language and traditional cultures. Mead compared and contrasted the differences between The holistic approach sees human behavior as a complex set of interacting behaviors and ideas. Samoan and Americans. She especially pointed out the conflict and distress among the Samoan adolescent girls. “The holistic approach sees human
the life of the Samoan people who live on the islands in the South Pacific. It will express the life styles of the Samoan culture in terms of traditional lifeway: the location of the group, material culture and subsistence. As well as talking about the effects of globalization: giving a brief history and what led them to their present location. Followed by the current status of the group: describing the government, economy, health, and education levels. Traditional Lifeway Samoan people are brought
identities, through our communication encounters (Guo, 2016). Megan identifies herself as of Samoan-Tokelauan ethnicity (collectivism) but considers her ‘home’ as Seattle in the United States of America (individualism). Thus, she is influenced by collectivist and individualist worldviews. Individualism versus collectivism determines how people live together, alone, in families or tribes and their values and how they communicate (Samovar, Porter, McDaniel & Roy, 2015, p.233). Both of these worldviews
human nature in a plethora of diverse ways. Some focus on what they think humans are born as, what their life goals are, or what morals classify them as human. Mead and Marx both focus on the surroundings of certain types of people, and describe how this changes their human nature. In the process, they both describe similar but different human natures. Mead believes human nature is cultural, and therefore can be shaped by nurture. Marx believes there is a true human nature, that of a free species
the American island of Hawaii and New Zealand. In total, Samoa covers about 2,934 Square kilometres of land (Palenapa, 1993). The majority of Samoans live in these islands. Millions of others, however, live in other countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America among others. Although no culture can be said to be superior to the rest, the Samoan culture is one of the most prestigious ones in the world. This research provides an in-depth analysis of the Samoan culture
social environment. One of Mead’s biggest challenges was probably the fact that her fieldwork was done entirely in the Samoan language. In Samoa, few, if any natives spoke English. To get information, Mead spent her time talking to approximately 25 Samoan women. However, she spent much of her focus on two young Samoan women, Fa’apua’a Fa’amu and Fofoa. It is said that one Samoan woman’s life is very much like the next. At the time of her visit to Samoa, Mead, a graduate student was only 23 years
The reading contains: psychology, anthropology, sociology, biology. The opening of the stage for coming of Age in Samoa, in which an “investigator selects a Samoan kid to watch and see that girl develops from an adolescent to her grown”. She starts by debating numerous practices to observing and determining in what way adolescent develops and reacts contrarily dependent on situations. Mead sets out to answer the question: “is adolescence necessarily as stormy as it is in our society”? To discover
culture in order to even start a study on a specific culture. In the films "Shock of the Other" and "Margaret Mead and Samoa" we, as the viewer get to see how these fieldworks are done from a perspective myself, as a student, have never gotten to see before. In both of these films quite "famous" anthropologists the first, Margaret Mead, an American journeyed to the South Pacific territory of Samoa in 1925 to do her fieldwork. The other anthropologist David Maybury-Lewis who was born in Hyderabad, Pakistan
In 2015 the populations of America is around 320,386,661 people and among those people 12.61% are African American, 9.11% are mixed, 4.75% are Asian, 0.95% are American Indian and Alaska Native, other 0.17% are Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander (en.wikipedia.org).All these numbers just showed that children who born in America will live in one of the biggest melting pot of the
constraints. Emigration of Samoans to New Zealand and other countries as to seek for better living standards also highlighted the need of people to escape from village strict governance system and as results of banishments in many affected families. The youthful working age groups of families are being sent abroad and also realized the common economic challenges with other Pacific countries. It has reported that nearly 60% of Pacific Islanders with the growing numbers of Samoans are struggling in terms
over like which family we are born into. Cultural determinism is the certainty that the values in which we grew up in determines who we are at an expressive and controlled way which we are instead of biologically inherited. Margaret mead was an American Anthropologist who was featured writer and speaker in mass media from 1960s and 1970s. She was the first women to go into anthropology.
Historiography of U.S. German Relations Historiography on American German relations from the end of the Civil War up to the First World War is a rather obscure subject. Rather than having its own specialized and narrow individualized study, it is studied primarily in thematic articles dealing with specific events that marked such relations or in contrast to growing British-American rapprochement during this period, written in the context of European foreign relations historiography. There
her work, Margaret Mead was of the minority of anthropologists that had such interest and the capability to do so. Mead is at the forefront of understanding various oceanic cultures and correlating such findings to that of other cultures, namely, American society. Her biggest contributions revolve around the notion of “cultural configuration”, indicating that cultural