Full Book Blog: Coming of Age in Samoa

Summary

source: borders.com.au

 Chapter 1 acts as an introduction to the book that gets the reader thinking about how each civilization affects the people within it. Margaret Mead begins by explaining how difficult it is to study the affects of civilization on adolescents since they cannot be studied and controlled like plants and animals.

In chapter 2, Margaret Mead describes a typical day in Samoa. She begins early in the morning, describing the men going to work, young boys fishing and girls giggling. She describes the evening as a lighter time when the Samoans dance and wander through the village together.

Chapter 3 focuses on what the girls learn as they’re growing up. As babies the girls are taken care of by children. They receive a simple education until about the age of five at which point they should, among other things, be housebroken and never address an adult in a standing position. They are then in charge of younger children and learn simple tasks including how to make pin-wheels and break open a coconut. The girls take care of babies and young children until they are strong enough to work on the plantations.

Chapter 4 explains the inner workings of the Samoan household and how the household is actually made up of several households throughout the village. Mead describes the way the different members of the household interact, the role and selection process of the taupo and provides more information on the matai and what they do within the household.

In chapter 5 Mead discusses the different groups of friends a girl has as she ages. She gives several examples of girls who interacted differently with the different groups. Mead also spends a little time discussing the groups of friends the boys have.

Chapter 6 focuses on the role girls play in the community. The organization of young men is called the Aumaga, and the organization of young girls, wives of untitled men and the widows is called the Aualuma. The chapter also discusses the women’s fonos of which there are two kinds: the ones that follow or precede communal work and the ceremonial fonos.

In chapter 7, Mead explains how relationships work between the sexes. Mead explains that there are two types of sex relations besides marriage that are recognized by the community. The first is love affairs between unmarried people and the second is adultery, something that does not always imply a broken marriage in the Samoan culture.

Chapter 8 discusses the important role dance plays in the Samoan culture. Being the single activity that all age groups participate in, dancing emphasizes individuality and can lead to inferiority if one is not a good dancer.

Chapter 9 explores the personality of Samoans and their attitude towards it. The word, musu, means that one is unwilling and obstinate and what Mead finds is that it is treated with “almost superstitious respect.” Once a person demonstrates musu, the Samoan doesn’t question why the person feels that way. They just accept it and move on.

Chapter 10 gives the reader some insight into the average girl. Mead writes about many of the girls individually such as Pele and Tuna.

Chapter 11 focuses on the girls who either deviated from the group with their desire to have more choices than is traditional or who could be classified as delinquents.

Chapter 12 discusses what the older men and women do in the village. Mead discusses the married couple and how choosing whether to live in the husband’s or wife’s family’s house has more effect on the man than it does the woman. Mead also explains how there is little conflict between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law or father-in-law and son-in-law. The elders are due their respect.

Chapter 13 presents a compare and contrast between the Samoan and American youth. Mead discusses the very different social environments between the two cultures.

The final chapter of the book mainly focuses on the education of the youth in America. Mead concludes by explaining how in a civilization where there are so many choices and so many ways of doing things, parents must teach their children how to think, not what to think.

The different appendices describe different information. In Appendix II Mead explains how she went about studying the Samoan girls and what she focused on. Appendix III discusses Samoa and how it was when the book was published. In Appendix V Mead presents some of her findings in the form of tables, lists and descriptions.

Discussion
Overall this was an interesting book. I enjoy learning about other cultures and this was one I’m sure very few people had knowledge of prior to reading the book. However, I’m not sure we needed to read this entire book. Reading a couple of the appendices and maybe four or five chapters at the most probably would have been sufficient to give us a good idea of how an ethnography could be done. I’ve also heard from liberal arts students that they were told this was an example of how not to do an ethnography.

On the plus side, though, every chapter did present interesting information that kept me engaged. As a result of reading this, I might be willing to pick up other ethnography books later down the line to learn about other cultures.