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.

Book Reading #42: Coming of Age in Samoa

 Appendix III
Summary
Appendix III discusses Samoa and how it was when this book was published. Mead describes the geography, housing, clothing, some of the small household changes that have taken place as a result of outside influence and the interaction with the Naval Government. She discusses schooling and how the blending different European beliefs and mechanical devices have created a kind of flexibility within the culture.

Mead also discusses how Samoa is different from the Samoa “before white influence.” She concludes by pointing out that the Samoans have benefited from outside influences – doing away with things such as war, blood revenge, etc. – without negative effects. Mead also writes that the Samoans have taken parts from our culture that made life more comfortable without losing their own ways and culture.

Discussion
This was a good section to read after having read the book. I found the comparison between Samoa before and after “white influence” to be interesting. I also liked reading about how they have incorporated different parts of our culture into theirs without fully losing sight of their own way of doing things.

Book Reading #40: Coming of Age in Samoa

Chapter 14
Summary
The final chapter of the book mainly focuses on the education of the youth in America. Mead again brings up the point about how boys and girls have to make many decisions at a young age and face conflicting standards. Mead discusses how people are blinded by the American theory of endless possibilities and thus feel overwhelmed by the choices available to them even when there are not as many as they think there are. The author also brings up the family and how parents raise their daughters in ways that conflict with standards outside of the home.

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.

Discussion
While reading this last chapter I had to keep in mind when this book was written. While I can draw parallels between some of the stuff she writes and while some of it does still apply even now, some of it was a little out dated (as to be expected from a book originally published in 1930). Still, she makes some good points. I especially liked how she said, “The children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” This is very important, and Mead put it very well in such few words.

Book Reading #38: Coming of Age in Samoa

Chapter 13
Summary
This chapter presents a compare and contrast between the Samoan and American youth. Mead discusses the very different social environments between the two cultures. She discusses how American children have many more choices and double standards depending on who they are with. She discusses how much more the Samoan child knows about life, death and sex and how no Samoan child is spoiled. Another important point Mead makes has to do with strong feelings and the specialization of feeling. Samoans do not display these kinds of feelings to the same magnitude that Americans do. Mead also discusses education and how American children attend school and do work they cannot relate to their parents’ work, making the activities seem less useful. In contrast, Samoan children are put to work at an early age doing activities alongside the adults that visibly benefit the family/community.

Discussion
After all the readings we’ve done about the Samoan culture, it was interesting to read Mead’s analysis on the Samoan and American youths. I found the part about American children dreading school since they did not see its purpose to be an interesting part. I remember dreading school as a child but being much more interested in work at home where I could help my mom. Then my parents introduced me to money and started giving me money when I made the A-Honor Roll, and I finally found a purpose for school. :)

Book Reading #36: Coming of Age in Samoa

Chapter 12
Summary
This chapter 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.

Mead describes the married women of age twenty to thirty as busy and cheerful. However the men are described as striving for titles and acquiring reputations. It is a more difficult time for them. Mead also tells of how when a man reaches the age of fifty-five or sixty, his title is taken from him and given to another younger man. Women between the age of forty-five and fifty-five are described as doing the hardest work of the village.

Discussion
In every chapter we seem to see major differences between this culture and our own – as to be expected – and this chapter is no different. I found it interesting how Mead described older women as being the “mistress of housebound crafts” while the older men are described as being able to tell the lore of fishing but not the technique. I also found it interesting that there is little to no friction between in-laws. The elders simply get the respect they deserve.

Book Reading #33: Coming of Age in Samoa

Chapter 11
Summary
This chapter 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. Ana, Sona and Lita fell into the first group, but did not ever encounter any real conflicts with their families. However, the delinquents, Lola and Mala, did encounter some conflict. Lola was “quarrelsome, insubordinate, impertinent” and after a love affair accused her rival of being a thief. No other family group aside from her mother’s household would accept her after that. Mala stole a toy, which branded her as a thief, which no one wanted around since their homes are so open. Mead believes both the delinquents acted this way from a lack of affection.

Discussion
I like sections that focus on the individual girls the most, so I really liked this chapter. It was interesting to see what made a girl a delinquent and how several catalysts for conflict in our culture (like jealousy and religion) did not have a great impact on these people.

Book Reading #31: Coming of Age in Samoa

Chapter 10
Summary
This chapter gives the reader some insight into the average girl. Mead begins by discussing how the children have seen life and death many times with the adults making little effort to keep them innocent in such matters.

Mead then writes about many of the girls individually. She discusses Pele and how the girl would delight in telling Mead about how her little sister was of “disputed parentage.” She writes of Tuna who was a calculating child and less giving than other children. She writes about several other girls as well and concludes by saying that the girls experienced an orderly development of “slowly maturing interests and activities.”

Discussion
I like how we got to learn a little more about the individual girls in this chapter. While it had already been mentioned that the children were present when women gave birth, I was surprised to think that the small children knew so much about death. I’m reminded of a show I watched recently in which a little girl’s bird died. Not wanting to explain death to her, the parents continuously told the girl that the bird was just sleeping.

Book Reading #28: Coming of Age in Samoa

Chapter 9
Summary
This chapter 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.

Mead also found that when describing a person, a Samoan generally lists their traits in a pattern (sex, age, rank, relationship, defects and activities). Attitudes tend to be described as being either good or bad, easy or difficult. Mead also notes that judgments tended to be made in terms of age groups and that when asked personal questions, they tended to reply, “I don’t know.”

Discussion
I found it funny that Mead resorted to putting a taboo on the use of “I don’t know” when asking the children questions. I also found it interesting how they do not try to figure out why someone acts obstinate or is unwilling. Mead points out how this gives them privacy since they have little privacy in other areas of their lives. I guess I understand that, but I wonder if misunderstandings occur between people more often because they don’t try to understand why the person feels the way they do and upset more than once because of the same thing.

Book Reading #25: Coming of Age in Samoa

Chapter 8
Summary
This chapter 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.

In dancing there are three main styles: the dance of the taupo (characterized as grave, aloof and beautiful), the dance of the boys (characterized as being “jollier” than the girls’ dance) and the dance of the jesters (described as honoring the taupo or the manaia by mocking them).

Discussion
I think the amount of creativity that goes into each dancer’s dance is very interesting. However, I find it is sad that if someone isn’t a good dancer, they will be made fun of. Never being much of a dancer myself, I feel kind of bad for the girl named Masina that Mead describes as being deplored by her contemporaries and made fun of by the younger children for her inability to dance.

Book Reading #22: Coming of Age in Samoa

Chapter 7
Summary
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.

In young lover affairs the boy calls upon the help of a soa, a friend who acts as ambassador between the boy and girl. Mead discusses the difficulty the boy has in choosing a soa and how getting a woman ambassador, a soafafine, is thought to be even better than a soa but a woman ambassador is more difficult to come by. Mead also discusses the moetotolo, the sleep crawler.

Mead explains how virginity is thought to add to a girl’s attractiveness and compares a normal girl’s sexual relationships to a taupo’s sexual relationships. Mead concludes by discussing divorce and mentioning how a woman’s rank can never exceed her husband’s rank.

Discussion
Some of the things mentioned in this chapter were very surprising to me: like how adultery is not entirely frowned upon and how simple it is to divorce. It is interesting how very different there culture is from ours.

I also found the idea of elopement in the culture to be strange. I can’t see why a girl would risk elopement when “nine times out of ten” the guy’s only motive is vanity and display, but for the girl it can lead to her getting beating by her family.

Book Reading #19: Coming of Age in Samoa

Chapter 6
Summary
This chapter 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 Aumaga is a lot like the organization of older men. They do the heavy work of the village and play a great part in the social intercourse between villages. The Aualuma is less formalized, and they do “hardly any work.” Their main function is to be village hostesses  and ceremonial helpers at certain meetings for the wives of matais.

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. Mead also mentions several taboos and explains how relationship group matters are different from the group matters already described.

Discussion
I’m not sure if it’s just because I’m use to our culture or not, but the formation of their groups sounds very complex and the different roles they play and rules they follow also sound complex.

I think it’s interesting how talking chiefs and chiefs must be spoken to with a different set of verbs and nouns suitable to his rank. It reminds me of the Japanese with the formal and informal speech – one thing that makes the language more difficult to learn. I wonder if Mead had to follow these rules too (as I’m sure she did), and if she ever messed up. When I took Japanese and had to carry on a conversation with my professor's Japanese wife, I was really nervous about insulting her by conjugating a verb in the informal rather than formal form.

Book Reading #15: Coming of Age in Samoa

Chapter 5
Summary
In chapter 5 Mead discusses the different groups of friends a girl has as she ages. When the girls get to the age of about seven, the girls make friends outside of their family. The friends come from both relationship and neighborhood groups. No intense friendships are made at this age.

Mead gives several examples of girls who interacted differently with these groups. One girl, Luna, tended to stay closer to her aunt and grandmother. A different girl, Vina, was always the “little girl” of the group, because she followed a group of older girls around.

When the girls reach the age of sixteen or seventeen their group of friends still relies on relatives but is limited to smaller groups of two or three. Proximity does not play a role in the selection of friends at this point. Instead, relationships and similar sex interests plays a role.

Mead also spends a little time discussing the groups of friends the boys have. Young boys follow the same social pattern as the young girls. However, the sixteen and seventeen year old boys gang together just as they do in the younger age group. The boys also have two special relationships that form between two boys both called the soa.

The author also notes that grouping is influenced in many cases by rank and prospective rank as well.

Discussion
This chapter was a bit denser than the others. There was a lot to take in about the social workings of their groups and the times at which the groups change. In ways it sounds very different from groups of friends here. At the ages described here I had several different groups of friends all at once: the school group, neighborhood group, the common interests group, and the family group.

Book Reading #12: Coming of Age in Samoa

Chapter 4
Summary
This chapter explains the inner workings of the Samoan household and how the household is actually be 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.

Discussion
One of the more interesting aspects of the household that I read about was how the girls can move from household to household. She can rate the different households open to her and then choose which one she would most like to be a part of. This can be very advantageous to her since some will give her more freedoms or have the best food. I also enjoyed the stories about the selection of the taupo and matai near the end of the chapter. It is one of first looks into the lives of specific Samoans.

Book Reading #9: Coming of Age in Samoa

Chapter 3
Summary
The focus of this chapter is 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. Girls are often pushed aside, but boys are better tolerated and become good at making themselves useful. The girls take care of babies and young children until they are strong enough to work on the plantations. When the girls get older, they can also go on fishing expeditions.

The main focus for girls in the home is to weave, and it is important to be good at domestic tasks, because it will better ensure they will be married later in life. The first few years of a girl’s life is thought to be the worst due to them having to raise children, but her teen years are thought to be some of her best. As it says in the book, “What she loses in prestige, she gains in freedom.” It is also noted that women do not wish to marry young because in their teen years they have few responsibilities.

Discussion
I found so much of this chapter interesting with so many things to report on that I found it difficult to write a summary. I had to leave a lot of interesting facts out like how housekeeping is usually done by children under the age of fourteen, giving birth is not a private matter, and young men don’t wish to associate with unskilled young women for fear they may come to want to marry them. The culture is vastly different from ours and Margaret Mead captures it quite well – though somewhat briefly – in this chapter as she has also done in chapter 2.

Book Reading #6: Coming of Age in Samoa

Chapter 2
Summary
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. Mead also mentions a couple of superstitions about ghosts and how the women pour water over the fish the fishermen bring back to rid them of their taboos.

Discussion
Mead jumps right into the action. In some ways I feel the chapter assumes we already have some knowledge about the Samoans, but this actually makes for a better read. We are instantly immersed in their typical day. We learn about their distribution of work, the activities they do for fun and the approximate times at which they do everything. I found it interesting to read about the order in which they eat supper: first the head of household, then the women and children, followed last by the boys. In other cultures I’ve read about it’s always been the males first and the females last.

Appendix II
Summary
In this section Mead explains how she went about studying the Samoan girls and what she focused on. She mentions how she spent six months there focusing on sixty-eight girls between the ages of nine and twenty. She also explains her methods and why she chose to go about things the way she did. She interviewed the girls in the Samoan language, questioned them about what industrial knowledge they already possess and gave them makeshift intelligence tests involving color-naming, opposites and substitution. She also discusses what the data represents and reminds the reader that the focus is on the children and things related to the children.

Discussion
I enjoyed reading about her methodology. This section also helped me to better understand what to expect from this book. She uses a couple of the girl’s names in this section which threw me for a moment since I’m not sure who the girls are yet – though I am interested in finding out in later readings.

Appendix V
Summary
In this section Mead presents some of her findings in the form of tables, lists and descriptions. She shows the reader a sample record sheet for each girl, a table reporting information about the girls’ menstrual cycles, sexual experiences and family structure. She reports on the intelligence tests used and some of her findings about the tests and presents a checklist she used while investigating the girls’ experience in activities like weaving, cooking and kava making.

Discussion
Appendix V was a good section to read right after Appendix II. It takes the information a step further by sharing some of it with us through tables, lists and descriptive paragraphs. I did find Table I, the table about their menstrual cycles and sexual experiences to be a little odd, but that area is an area of adolescence that shouldn’t be overlooked. I also thought it was interesting to learn that the girls had a “vivid interest in words,” which made the opposites test an easy one for them.

Book Reading #2 – Coming of Age in Samoa

Chapter 1
Summary
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. Mead then begins to describe a culture very different from our own, the Samoan culture, and how studying girls from such a civilization can benefit us due to the major differences between our civilization and theirs.

Discussion
The Introduction does a good job of laying out what is to be accomplished through the book and why it is important. I am very interested to read this book, because I am both curious about their civilization and curious to see how different or similar the girls are in regards to the different aspects of adolescent life.