Introduction
Summary
The growth of both science and psychology has impacted the way children and adolescence develop and how they pass through the stages of their life. Adolescence is described as a period which children were passing through a time of conflict and distress. Anthropologist have begun to study people in how they respond to the culture they grow up in and the conditions which they are surrounded by. A lot of the stages they go through in life are a factor of how they perceive the world around them. It's something that can be studied and observed from all over the globe. This book focuses on the study of a young girls upbringing in Samoa. It's a south sea island, thirteen degrees from the equator. Her ways of culture were different from the American culture and her path in her adolescence years is also different. The goal of this research being to answer the question of whether an adolescence upbringing is results in similar findings or do the different conditions influence it greatly. Striving to impact and contrast the way one educates their children.Discussion
I've always found it interesting that we don't realize how much of our environment and culture impacts our upbringing. While I've always been a strong believer that adolescence is a critical time in a person's life, thus explains why I personally have been involved in youth ministry for many years now. I appreciated how the author made an effort to learn about the culture and even the language before entering the country to do this study. I think it's important to try and put yourself in the shoes of others as you try and learn and interact with them in their culture.
Chapter 2: A Day in Samoa
Summary
This chapter gives you a description of what a day would be like for the Samoan people. Their day starts at dawn and various individuals have different tasks that last through the night. It presents different scenarios that they might encounter and how they would act or respond.
Discussion
This chapter gave good insight to their daily lives and I find that to be very important to provide at the beginning of a study. It helps lay the foundation for those studying the lifestyle and culture of a certain group of people.
Appendix II
Summary
This appendix lays out the methodology and methods used for this study. It discussed the amount and variety of the information which she studied and explained the things that were included in (and not included) in her reported findings.
Discussion
I appreciated her honesty in how she collected her information and even the difficulties or findings that weren't obtained with their given reasons. To be completely honest I haven't read an ethnography before, but I did value her describing her methodology and methods used in a study.
Appendix V
Summary
This appendix describes in more detail the various factors which were evaluated on each girl as well as what age group and how those groups were categorized. The quantitative data was listed in forms of tables for the reader as well.
Discussion
I thought this depicted well that the author not only worked hard to perform her research of the Samoan people but that she gained their confidence to get such confidential information. These appendices remind me of a modern day research journal that you would categorize and organize your thoughts and findings.
Chapter 3: The Education of a Samoan Child
Summary
This chapter begins with discussing about a child's day of birth and the events that are a part of infancy. It progresses to discussing the early years of a child and then as the child gets older it continues in the duties, responsibilities and things which they learn growing up. Towards the end of the chapter it talks about the chief of the Samoan people and the role that he is for the community.
Discussion
I thought it was interesting to know that they do not keep track of birthdays. It was interesting to see the story of a child's education taken from the first day of their life and through their early adult years. It portrayed a picture that gave both genders way of their upbringing and allows you to see those years in parallel.
Chapter 4: The Samoan Household
Summary
The samoan village is made up of 30 to 40 households, with various different titles among the village. The household can consist of people who are blood related, married, adopted or have no close relationship to one another. The members can also be scattered among 3 to 4 houses. In the household age determines authority rather than relationship and that associate is often displayed outside in the community as well. There are some places where age doesn't determine authority, but overall the household is like a family unit open to other as well. There is also a distinction between genders as the they get older. Marriage often binds families together and one is obligated to help the other out when in need. Cooking is done by both genders and the elderly often advise the younger ones. Rank in the village and in the household mirror each other but doesn't really affect the younger children. The chapter goes on to discuss the Malae household and the roles of other people in the village.
Discussion
I found it interesting to know more about how the household function and how age had an impact on the role they played. It was also interesting to see how ranks varied for age or different groups of people. I also enjoyed the fact that what was considered the household wasn't constrained to just one particular place. It really brought everyone together.
Chapter 5: The Girl and Her Age Group
Summary
This chapter talks about how youth are a part of their society. Girls are often divided and associate with girls there own age. They are also responsible for different task depending on their age which signifies their maturity level. The same can be applied to the boys; however, they are known to associate with boys of different ages in comparison with the girls.
Discussion
This was an interesting chapter to see how much responsibility is put on them as youth. I find it interesting how interactions are grouped and done by gender, where they don't associate with the opposing gender.
Chapter 6: The Girl In the Community
Summary
The youth before age 15 or 16 are ignored until then and they have no social standing and no recognized group activity. The organization is structured and follows the order based on the title someone holds. Depending on the title you hold it defines your responsibilities and duties you are in charge of part-taking in. The roles and groups are specifically for men and women and it also defines the boundaries they have within the society.
Discussion
It was interesting to see the structure of the culture. It was also neat to see what kind of boundaries and duties these roles were defined by. We don't typically think of such constraints in an environment like ours, but this was important to note in order to understand their culture.
Chapter 7: Formal Sex Relations
Summary
The chapter begins discussing of how a girls perspective changes from childhood as she gets older in life. It discusses some of the common and uncommon practices between the relationships between the genders. It discusses the relationships that exist in and out of the marriage.
Discussion
It was interesting to note the comparison to the Christian view and how it compares to the culture of the Samoans. Much like our culture the relations between genders can vary and consist of various practices. They not only noted what was viewed as common and uncommon but also what they saw as humorous or frowned upon.
Chapter 8: The Role of Dance
Summary
Dance is an activity that is done by both genders and all ages. It is often done in groups and depending on age it varies in skill. It is widely encouraged throughout the culture and is even found among characters such as the jester. There is no formal teacher for dance but is often an analysis of one's education.
Discussion
This chapter pointed out the importance of dance in the culture of the Samoans. It was interesting to see how it varies from very young ages to older generations, how it could be very informally organized and also be within a framework of actions. I found it interesting how they discussed the difference between someone's cannot dance because of the someone's personality to be more shy and reserved, versus, someone who may have had physical problems but danced anyway. It seems that the emphasized the importance of being bold and wanting to be expressive and less on how you were expressive as we often do in our culture today.
Chapter 9: The Attitude Towards Personality
This chapter expands on the details of the Samoan culture in regards to people's personalities. The author describes the term "musu" attitude and how it's common among the culture. Also she presents the term "Ta iloy" which is what they answer when they don't want to answer a question. It is also common for the negative opinions of someone to be expressed versus what is common in other cultures. It is also common for them not to have privacy in a lot of aspects of life.
Discussion
I thought it was interesting how the Samoans perceived attitude. Although I could relate to how they present their attitude. For some reason it reminded me somewhat of the Hispanic culture and I was able to pick out the similarities.
Chapter 10: The Experience and Individuality of the Average Girl
This chapter explains how it is for a girl to grow up in the Samoan culture in that they grew up tending to children at a young age and knew more about biology, life and death compared to knowing about society organization. The chapter expands on some of the things girls may see and a sense that the cuture is not big on public display of affection, but they are open about intimate relations. The chapter closes out on discussing some of the things which girls were known to be skilled in and what they were allowed to know as part of the culture.
Discussion
I thought this chapter really presented what growing up from a females perspective was for the Samoan culture. I do agree to some extent it is important to be open about real life issues. I know for me I was raised knowing that death was concept that wasn't hid from me at a young age. I think it allowed me to get a better perspective on how I should appreciate each and every day, not taking much for granted.
Chapter 11: The Girl In Conflict
The author goes fruther into explaining the two scenarios which a girl could be considered 'in conflict' or those that would be considered deviants. One category would be considered the good deviants of society, but in a sense they go against the normal cultural standard. Or they can fall into the negative deviant categories in that they did things that were frowned upon and delinquent in nature.
Discussion
It was interesting to see the two extremes in deviants in the culture. While I still feel that those standards somewhat hold for an American culture, I found it interesting that they do not always strive to be over-achievers in what they do, seeing that out of the ordinary. Compared to our culture here where we praise being the best and better than someone else. I was raised always hearing that as a Hispanic we weren't very supportive to seeing others succeed and we have a negative response to others doing well in life, I've only seen that in some aspects of my upbringing but have never chosen to accept that into my own way of thinking.
Chapter 12: Maturity and Old Age
This chapter begins in talking about how the Samoan culture defines the roles of married and unmarried adults. Woman and Men are not considered to be the same person once they are married, rather they are still separte belonging to there individual families. One of the most defining moments in a woman's life is the birth of her first child. Pregnancy brings about a lot of taboos that woman must take precaution towards. Where the woman have a lot of responsibilies and certain skills they are required to attain that is not an exception for woman as they get older. Even in there old age they are required to do things and maintain their skills. That requirement in role isn't the case for males in society.
Discussion
I found this aspect interesting as well in a sense that we value getting older, being considered wiser and living a life of leisure in our retirement. Or where man have usually had the dominate place in our society and woman aren't always seen as capable for doing different roles in our society. I found the adult aspects to be rather interesting, perhaps a bit odd, in a sense that certain taboos exists when woman are pregnant.
Chapter 13: Our Educational Problems in the Light of Samoan Contrasts
This chapter presents a comparison between the Samoan culture and the western American culture. In summarizing the previous points made in the former chapters the author provides suggestions in order to better our society and culture in what we can learn from the Samoan culture. For example she suggest being more open about life's issues and having a household that consists of more individuals or not putting an emphasis on affections.
Discussion
I was excited to see her applying her findings to our culture as Americans. I do agree with her in some sense that we should be a bit more open in our society in important issues. I am somewhat skeptical to think that our society would be so accepting to such views or changes but it definitely is useful to consider for our personal way of thinking.
Chapter 14: Education for Choice
This chapter covers the diffiencies of our education system in America and the author provides from the insight of the Samoan culture ways that our society could be improved. In educating children how to make choices an less on the stress of what choice to make it would alleviate a lot of the stress that children (she focused primarily on girl's perspective) would have in making life choices.
Discussion
I can agree to the suggestion that we should be more concerned with allowing our children to have choices, but of course I think that choices should be constraint to some boundaries for the safety and best of the child. I think a parent should definitely be open to talking to their children and not just instructing them that it has to be done this way 'because I said so' mentality. That in my opinion only creates a more rebellious response from the child. However, if the truth of why things are done a certain way and teaching the child the reasoning can greatly impact the direction children choose to go. In a sense that they don't feel pressured but they feel that living a certain way is based on a foundation of principles and beliefs.
Appendix III: Samoan Civilization as it is Today
This appendix provided information about how the Samoan culture was in the time of her research. It dicusses the impact that European-based countries and beliefs have impacted the Samoan culture. She does provide information which presents the way it was before that impact and how it differs compared to her time of research in regards to social structure, economy, government and way of life.
Discussion
I found this Appendix to be valuable information. I think it's important to consider the way an society and space is before the impact of different factors (such as change in who resides in the space or how things are done and advancement in knowledge or technology). As an ethnographer it's important to consider how such factors change the way things are done and how that could impact your results of your study.
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