The role of circulation in the modernization and spatialization of Fa'aSamoa

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THE ROLE OF CIRCULATION IN THE MODERNIZATION
AND SPATIALIZATION OF FA ’ ASAMOA
©2000
by
Stephen Ronald Koletty
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(Geography)
August 2000
Stephen Ronald Koletty
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UMI Number 3018098
Copyright 2000 by
Koletty, Stephen Ronald
All rights reserved.
UMI
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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY PA M
LOS ANGELES. CALIFORNIA 90007
This dissertation, written by
under the direction of hiS. Dissertation
Committee, and approved by all its members,
has been presented to and accepted by The
Graduate School, in partial fulfillment of re
quirements for the degree of
,&t;epJh&n..£al£:fc£.y.
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Dan af Graduate Studies
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE
Chairperson
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fo r my fam ily:
my wife, Yuhaniz
my sons, Manoah and Gio
"the wind beneath my wings"
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A dissertation is supposed to be a solitary endeavor, a measure of the
scholarly adeptness of the author. It is indeed a humbling experience, but hardly
solitary. In fact, the successful completion of this dissertation would not have been
possible without the support of many people. I am particularly beholding to
members of my doctoral committee. I am most grateful to my advisor, Curtis
Roseman. His confidence encouraged me; his wisdom inspired me, and his
patience allowed me to sort it all out. Nancy Lutkehaus introduced me to the
anthropologist’ s perspective and the social significance of traditional ceremony and
ritual goods. I am particularly indebted for her very careful editing of my initial
drafts. Laura Pulido joined the committee late, and helped coalesce my thinking
about ethnic groups and identity. I also want to acknowledge Thomas Jablonsky, a
member of my original committee, who left USC for a position at Marguette
University in Milwaukee. He introduced me to the historical geography of ethnic
groups and the importance of the life experiences expressed in the personal and
familial geographies.
There are other members of the USC faculty from whose guidance I
benefitted. Michael Dear challenged and intimidated me with postmodern theory.
Diego Vigil encouraged me and very much believed in this project. I am grateful
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for the wisdom and "in-your-face" common sense of Rod McKenzie. I appreciated
and needed our many office conversations about the ways of the world and the
ways of USC.
I will always have a special place in my heart for my fellow graduate
students at USC. These include Wei Li, James Tyner, Robert Wilton, Steve Flusty,
Paul Robinson, Chris Mayda, Unna Lassiter, Martin Kammerer and others. As a
new doctoral program we did not have much in the way of tradition or the folklore
of previous sojourners to guide us. We had each other for reassurance,
companionship and, when needed, honest criticism. I also want to express my
appreciation to Alon Yaari for his invaluable assistance in preparing the maps for
this dissertation.
I am, of course, greatly indebted to the members of the Samoan community
in Los Angeles without whose friendship and cooperation this research would not
have been possible. In particular, I want to acknowledge my friends in the
Association of Pacific Island Educators (APIE) and the Sisters Alumni of the South
Pacific. There are so many who contributed to my understanding of the Samoan
way. I cannot begin to name all, but I would be reticent if I neglected to mention
Reverend Pita Lauti, Fuiavalii Alailima, Ben Levi, Kathi Kendrick, Mata’ ava
Le'iato, Aoloau and Fuamauga Porotesano, Charles and Malaea Coleman, Saili
Tuitasi, Kiki Simi, Dr. Dhyan Lai and Sunako Simi. I want to extend my
appreciation to the family of Pulu Momoli for their cooperation and understanding.
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V
I want especially to acknowledge Kolokea Foisia and Liz Foisia for their
invaluable assistance and kind patience in support of this research.
I came into the graduate program at USC with an additional set of
responsibilities. As an older student I had a growing family and people who
depended upon me. Graduate study required sacrifice not only of me, but those
close to me as well. I would not have been able to endure the burden without the
love, the active support and patience of my family: my wife Yuhaniz, my sons
Manoah and Gio. I am eternally grateful and to them I dedicate this dissertation.
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VI
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii
LIST OF TABLES ix
LIST OF FIGURES x
ABSTRACT xi
Chapter One. INTRODUCTION 1
1. Objectives of the Dissertation 3
2. Fa'aSamoa 4
3. Organization of the Dissertation 7
Chapter Two. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: CIRCULATION,
CULTURE AND IDENTITY 9
1. Circulation Theory 9
2. Samoans and Circulation 16
3. Caribbean Parallels 20
4. Modem Migrations, Post-settlement Mobility
and Ethnic Identity 23
Diaspora 28
Transnationalism 33
5. Circulation, Culture and Identity in the Pacific 39
6. Conclusion 46
Chapter Three. METHODOLOGY: UNRAVELLING TRAVELLING 48
1 . Qualitative versus Quantitative Approaches 49
2. Constructing a Research Strategy 50
Research Dimensions 52
The Research Plan 56
Refinements to the Research Plan 59
3. Positionality and Access 61
4. Notes on this research 69
5. Conclusion 71
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Chapter Four. SAMOAN MIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT 73
1. Samoan Migrations 73
2. Overseas settlement patterns 81
3. The Samoan community in Los Angeles 86
A Samoan ethnoscape 90
4. The urbanization of fa'aSamoa 95
The reconstructed spatiality of the 'Aiga 96
Diminished role of family chiefs 100
The new status of Samoan churches 104
5. Conclusion 109
Chapter Five. SAMOAN CIRCULATION 111
1. Introduction 111
2. An Ancient Tradition of Mobility 113
3. Aspects of Modem Samoan Circulation 116
A Typology of Urban Samoan Circulation 121
Island hound circuits 121
California hound circuits 124
Travel within California 125
The Circulators 130
The Junction in Southern California 136
4. Fa'alavelave and the Modem Spatiality of
Samoan Ritual Exchange Goods 138
Things May Not Be What They Seem 140
Samoan Ritual Exchange Goods 143
The Geography in Samoan Possessions 146
5. Conclusion 148
Chapter Six. LIFE/TRAVEL HISTORIES 151
1. Introduction 151
2. Pulu Momoli 152
3. Tasi 154
4. Valu 160
5. Lima 167
6. Analysis 178
7. Conclusion 182
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Chapter Seven. CIRCULATIONS WITHIN AN URBAN
SAMOAN FUNERAL 184
1. Introduction 184
2. Transnational Misconceptions 185
3. Reconstructing Circulations from a Small Ritual 187
4. The Spatialities of an Urban Samoan Funeral 188
5. Conclusion 202
Chapter Eight. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 205
1. Summary of Findings 205
2. Fa'aSamoa as a Construction of Multiple Localities 209
3. Fa'aSamoa, Travelling Samoans and 21 st Century Spatialities 211
GLOSSARY 214
BIBLIOGRAPHY 217
APPENDIX: Samoan Circulation Study 226
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 4.1: World Population of Samoans 84
Table 5.1: A Typology of Urban Samoan Circulation Activities 119
Table 6.1: Valu's major travel during fouryears (1993 through 1996) 166
Table 6.2: Lima's major travel during five years (1994 through 1998) 176
Table 7.1: Origins of Mourners and Gifts 191
Table 7.2: Origins of 7e toga and Donations 198
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 4.1: The U.S.S. President Jackson at Pago Pago Harbor, July 1952 76
Figure 42: Samoan Migration Streams 78
Figure 4.3: Samoan Communities in the United States 82
Figure 4.4: Samoans in Greater Los Angeles 87
Figure 4.5: Samoan market in Carson 93
Figure 4.6: Exotic plants outside a Samoan home 94
Figure 4.7: Samoan Churches in Los Angeles, 1998 106
Figure 5.1: Ancient Oceanic Interaction Spheres 114
Figure 5.2: A Modem Oceanic Interaction Sphere Revealed in the Route Map
for Polynesian Airlines, the National Airline of Samoa 117
Figure 5.3: Celebrants at the Pacific Islander Festival, Harbor City 1999 129
Figure 5.4: The Junction in Southern California 137
Figure 7.1: Origins of Mourners 192
Figure 72: Donations by Origin 194
Figure 7.3: 7e toga by Origin 196
Figure 7.4: T e toga displayed at a Samoan funeral 197
Figure 7.5: Samoan gravesites decorated for Christmas 201
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ABSTRACT
Twentieth century migrations have dispersed the people of Samoa in a post
modern archipelago of small communities that span the Pacific Ocean and up and
down the west coast of the United States. Nearly half of the total world population
of Samoans now reside outside their islands in these new urban settings. Their new
geography represents the expression of traditional Samoan values and institutions
across substantial spatial barriers and international boundaries. This dissertation
examines the role that travel plays in the life of this small community of Pacific
Islanders in Los Angeles. Ties to their island home and to one another have not
been severed. Samoans travel frequently back to Samoa, to Hawai’ i and New
Zealand, and to other urban settlements in the United States. Modem mobility is
generally explained in terms of the structure of global economic systems or on
individual economic motivations. Samoan travel usually involves participation in
ceremonials tied to culture and to life course events such as weddings, births,
funerals and the like.
Drawing upon years of personal involvement with the Los Angeles commu
nity this research employed an ethnographic approach involving participant
observation and semi-structured interviews. The dissertation details specific
characteristics of the settlement in Los Angeles and considers the accommodations
of key institutions of Samoan culture to the urban experience. This study examines
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the various types and purposes of Samoan travel, identifies the principal travellers,
and describes the various circuits that converge on Los Angeles. This modem
travel behavior draws on a cultural tradition of mobility. The personal life/travel
histories of selected Los Angeles Samoans show that modem Samoan circulation
manifests Samoan tradition and social activity thrust onto a transnational inter
action sphere. The extent of the various circulations stimulated by a single event,
the funeral of an elder and community leader, demonstrates the significance of
Samoan travel and the adaptation of Samoan protocols to modem conditions.
The circulation activities of urban Samoans compels reconsidering existing
models of immigrant culture and travel behavior. They must account for a more
complex array of sociocultural and family motivations residing within a much more
complex transnational spatiality.
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1
Chapter One. INTRODUCTION
In the early 1950's, Samoans began emigrating in substantial numbers from
Western Samoa and the United States Territory of American Samoa. This move
ment has resulted in the formation of a number of migrant communities outside the
Samoan archipelago, especially within certain urban areas of the United States and
New Zealand. These urban Samoan settlements are not very large; nonetheless
their numbers account for a considerable proportion of the total world Samoan
population. There are now about 160,000 Samoans abroad compared to slightly
more than 200,000 in the archipelago. More Samoans now live in Southern
California than in American Samoa.
This new geography represents the expression of traditional Samoan values
and institutions across immense spatial barriers, international boundaries, and
world inequalities. Samoan migration and circulation behavior is an assertive
response of Samoan culture to challenges and opportunities posed by changing
conditions of the late twentieth century. Traditional societies are not passive
acceptors of modernization; they have resisted, modified and manipulated these
changes (Skeldon 1990, pl35). Rather than being overwhelmed by forces of
modernization, Samoans have been adapting on their own terms. From this
perspective Samoan migration represents a dramatic expansion of the Samoan
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cultural sphere, and Samoan circulation behavior represents an expansion of village
activity into this sphere. The link between Samoans and their island home has not
been severed. There is a great deal of traveling back and forth between Samoan
immigrant communities and Samoa. In 1985, more than half of the 85,634 arrivals
in Western Samoa were returning Western Samoan citizens (Western Samoa 1987),
an amount equal to one fourth of this island nation's population. Considerable
circulation also occurs between the different Samoan immigrant communities. A
great deal of this circular and cyclical migration involves participation in tradi
tional Samoan ceremonies, village activities, and life cycle events. Previous
studies of the Samoan migration and overseas Samoan communities have not
investigated this substantial mobility or this perspective.
The research plan is organized into four phases. Employing an ethno
graphic approach the study begins with an enquiry of selected households in the
Samoan community of south Los Angeles County and traces their web of spatial
linkages with Samoa and other migrant communities in California, Hawai’i and
New Zealand. This project examines modem Samoan circulatory behavior with the
aim of understanding the culture of circulation. This is established by focusing on
the movements stimulated by traditional Samoan practices and life cycle events.
Whereas migration disperses Samoans, this type of circular mobility
accomplishes the spatial expansion of the Samoan way of life and facilitates the
modernization of fa ’ aSamoa. For Third World peoples modernization is code for
the process of "westernization." Here, I use the term to describe the accommoda
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tion of Samoan culture to the modem world system and specifically to the contem
porary urban setting of its overseas population. In this sense modernization entails
the introduction of western influences into Samoan culture, but also involves the
appropriation of foreign elements for traditional Samoan purposes. By illuminating
the cultural, social and familial motivations for travel, this research makes an
important contribution to understanding the role of circulation in this process.
Furthermore, it highlights the importance of circulation in maintaining the ethnic
identity of a small immigrant community, a relationship not generally addressed in
the research on population mobility or on American ethnic groups. Modem
explanations for mobility and circulation largely ignore indigenous perspectives
and traditions. Unpacking the social, cultural and familial motivations for Pacific
islander travel provides important insights including an ancient heritage of travel
that must also be considered in the discourse. Studies of transnational communities
generally overlook connections between places of settlement. Examining the
connections between Samoan population centers fills a gap in our knowledge of
contemporary Samoan culture, and demonstrates the need to engage the broader
socio-spatial networks that define transnational communities.
1. Objectives of the Dissertation:
The overall purpose of this research is to illuminate the cultural basis of
modem circulation. Specifically, this dissertation will: 1) examine the circulation
behavior that occurs between a Samoan immigrant community and other Samoan
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immigrant settlements as well as their island home and describe its spatial
form/pattem; 2) investigate the socio-cultural dynamics underlying the extensive
traveling of urban Samoan immigrants, specifically the contemporary variants of
certain traditional Samoan ceremonies and other community functions that stimu
late Samoan circulation; 3) define the function of this mobility in the spatial
expansion of fa 'aSamoa, the Samoan way of life; and 4) explore the manner in
which circulation facilitates cultural accommodation of foreign (non-Samoan)
influences.
2. Fa’aSamoa
The central focus of this dissertation involves the intersection of movement
with social change and fa ’ aSamoa. Fa ’ aSdmoa translates literally as the Samoan
way. Any research project whose subject involves Samoans must consider the
influence of
fa ’ aSamoa. So the concept requires some elaboration. The expression is a potent
label that refers specifically and generally to Samoan culture, values, traditions and
social institutions. Different scholars find agreement on important features, but
emphasize different particulars. The principal social institutions are the aiga (the
extended family), the matai (the family chiefs), nu’ u (village), and the Samoan
church. Within these institutions social values revolve around tautua (service),
fa alavelave (sharing), and fesoasoani (help). Franco (1992) argues and I agree that
this list should also include malaga (travel). The Samoan tradition of malaga
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involves a kind of formal group travel or a delegation. This custom of mobility has
traditionally knit Samoan society together. Nowadays, more pervasive and
extensive traveling characterizes modem Samoan mobility patterns. The impor
tance of this modem circulation to contemporary fa ’ aSamoa compels consideration
of a broader understanding of malaga. This dissertation examines the range of
travel activities that tie the Samoan community in Los Angeles with a greater
Samoan spatiality that spans the Pacific. Malaga and the other elements of
fa ’ aSamoa require further commentary, and are discussed more fully within the text
in the context of actual circumstance.
The Samoans I am studying in this dissertation reside in urban Los Angeles.
Here the Samoan way cannot be considered in isolation. Here fa 'aSamoa is
revealed where there is a sharp contrast to the western cultural values prevailing in
the dominant society. Samoans living in Los Angeles must somehow accommo
date this apparent contradiction in cultural values. Two dissimilar approaches to
understanding this accommodation view the two cultures either as a polarity or as
different centralities. Bousseau (1993) essentializes this contrast as a polarity, an
inevitable conflict between the institutions and values of a collectivist society
(Samoan) and those of an individualist society (western). Bousseau's task is to
explain Samoan behavior to teachers and public officials in Los Angeles. Her
focus then is on the very different responses of Samoans to challenges of city life.
Much earlier and from the very different setting of Western Samoa, Pitt (1970)
acknowledged this apparent polarity between fa ’ aSamoa and fa ’ apalagi (the
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6
western way). However, he argued that the two cultures represented different
centralities which were not mutually repellent, but required different behaviors in
different social settings. Specifically examining the role of fa ’ aSamoa in the
economic development of Western Samoa, Pitt argued that what appeared to be
economic underdevelopment from a western perspective, in fact, was indeed
positive economic development when viewed from a Samoan perspective. Los
Angeles is a long way from Samoa, but I favor Chapman's (1985) observation on
the influence of modem mobility on Pacific Islander identity: "People involved in
such a dynamic process do not see themselves as belonging exclusively to a city or
a village birthplace, as being explicitly modem or explicitly traditional in their
personal behaviors and collective orientations, but as belonging to both societies
and simultaneously pursuing the goals of each." There are indeed substantial
contradictions between the two cultures. Rather than dwell upon the conflicts, I
chose to focus on the manner in which core Samoan values accommodate these
challenges.
The emphasis of this dissertation is not fa ’ aSamoa. My task is to explain
the role of mobility in modem fa 'aSamoa. Cultures are dynamic and responsive to
change over time. Although some might mourn the loss of traditional cultures in
the modem world, if they are to survive they must respond to the social and
economic challenges which now confront them. Isolation is no longer an option.
The question is whether these cultures westernize or do they find a way to appro
priate elements of modem global (western) culture into their own traditions.
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Modem technologies have allowed cultures to expand beyond their traditional
realm. In this world system people turn to their traditions to solve problems which
they have never before encountered (Small 1997). Are traditional mobility
activities sufficient to sustain these cultures across the vast geographical spaces and
cultural settings in which they must now function? How do traditional mobility
activities now facilitate the modernization of these cultures?
3. Organization of the Dissertation:
This dissertation is organized into eight chapters. The second chapter
examines the theoretical framework which underpins this research. Here I examine
the prominent explanations for circulation and inventory the very limited research
that specifically considers Samoan circulation. I then consider contemporary
characterizations of modem migrations as diasporas and as transnational move
ments. These perspectives suggest that post-settlement mobility and cultural
identity ought to be shaped in specific ways that should be reflected in the Samoan
experience. This contrasts with an islander perspective of ethnic identity and their
ancient tradition of mobility. The third chapter details the ethnographic methodol
ogy employed in this research and the circumstances of my access to the Samoan
community in Los Angeles. Chapter four describes the history of recent Samoan
migration and the pattern of overseas settlements. I detail specific characteristics
of the settlement in Los Angeles and consider the accommodations of key institu
tions of Samoan culture to the urban experience. Focusing specifically on Samoan
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8
circulation patterns, chapter five begins by considering the implications of prehis
toric Oceanic interaction spheres mapped by archeologists. Then I examine the
dimensions of modem Samoan mobility. I describe the various types and purposes
of their travel, identify the principal travellers, and describe the various circuits
that converge on Los Angeles. I also consider the movement of Samoan ritual
goods whose symbolic significance defines the spatial domain of fa 'aSamoa.
Chapter six explores the life/travel histories of selected Samoan circulators from
the Los Angeles community. These personal trajectories show that modem
Samoan circulation activities are largely a manifestation of Samoan tradition and
social activity thrust onto a transnational interaction sphere. Chapter seven investi
gates the significance and extent of the various circulations stimulated by a single
event, the funeral of an elder and community leader who was one of the pioneers of
the Los Angeles Samoan community. The activities set in motion by this funeral
demonstrates both the magnitude of travel between communities and the adaptation
of Samoan protocols to modem conditions. My conclusion, chapter eight, summa
rizes the findings of this dissertation. I also discuss the contemporary character of
urban Samoan culture. Contemporary fa 'aSamoa is a construction of its multiple
localities. Circulation activities are vital in facilitating the modernization and
spatialization of Samoan culture. Finally, I evaluate the implications of this
research and point toward future research questions.
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9
Chapter Two.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK:
CIRCULATION, CULTURE AND IDENTITY
This chapter examines several distinct literatures which contribute to our
understanding of Samoans and their circulation in a modem and global context
The chapter begins with an examination of the concept of circulation and explana
tions for circulation particularly as they have been used to explain Pacific Islander
mobility. In this context I then consider the limited research pertaining to Samoan
mobility. As the thrust of this dissertation is to highlight the role of circulation in
the modem globalized culture, I then review certain elements of the recent dis
course on modem migrations. Specifically, I look at how conceptualizations of
diasporas and transnationalism inform us about travel vectors subsequent to
settlement and the nature of cultural identity among immigrants in their modem
circumstances. Finally, I contrast these perspectives with a Pacific Islander
construction of identity and the ancient role of circulation in this identity.
1. Circulation Theory:
Human mobility takes many forms. Circulation embraces "... a great
variety of movements, usually short term, repetitive, or cyclical in nature but all
having in common the lack of any declared intention of a permanent or long-lasting
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change in residence." (Zelinsky 1971, p226) My dissertation research examines a
particular situation of international and domestic circulation involving movement
between urban areas as well as between an underdeveloped region and an advanced
urban setting. There is no separate body of theory explaining circulation. Rather,
theoretical explanations emerge from a large body of micro-level studies that tend
to highlight the particularities of mobility in different third world situations
(Bedford 1982). Explanations for third world circulation coalesce into generaliza
tions that largely mirror international migration theory (Massey et al 1993).
Economic aspects of circulation have most often been emphasized, but there has
been a continuing effort to allow for the social and cultural context in which
circulation occurs especially in the Pacific. Although these explanations furnish
important insights to population mobility in the third world, they fail to explain
contemporary Samoan circulation behavior.
Modernization encompasses the whole range of socioeconomic changes that
accompany the transformation of a traditional rural society into a complex urban
industrial society. Zelinsky's "Hypothesis of the Mobility Transition" (1971)
recognized patterned regularities in the growth of personal mobility through space
time and argued that these regularities are an essential component of the modern
ization process. Zelinsky assumed that premodem mobility was very limited, and
predicted that modernization will encourage a "vigorous acceleration of circula
tion." The evidence in the Pacific and in many other locales demonstrates that
circulation was a common feature in many societies precontact Skeldon (1990)
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1 1
adjusted Zelinsky’ s mobility transition model to incorporate premodem mobility.
Further, Zelinsky's conception of modernization assumed a repetition of the
Western experience. For much of the third world and most of the Pacific, the
processes of colonization were more influential than modernization. Elements of
modernization were introduced by colonizing nations to support their development,
and in many cases socioeconomic change was specifically discouraged.
In certain political and economic settings labor circulation is seen as an
expanded social field, a continuing dialectic between the centrifugal attraction of
wage employment and the centripetal power of village obligations, social relation
ships, and kinship (Mitchell 1969). This explanation makes a clear distinction
between economic factors and personal needs, but presumes a geographic separa
tion of the two. The emphasis is on the social forces that connect origin and
destination and how these affect mobility decisions of individual circulators.
However, in Samoa as in many Pacific societies such decisions involve households
and often extended families. This explanation also implies a polarity between
origin and destination, but circulation may very well represent a special kind of
linkage. Further, the notion of polarity implies that circulation will cease when a
balance exists between centrifugal and centripetal forces. Samoan patterns of
circulation argue that these social forces are much more widespread in multiple
locales, that they link places of settlement with each other as well as with their
origin society, and that there are also social forces at the destination settlements
that influence mobility decisions at the origin.
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Labor circulation is also explained as a strategy to maximize family welfare
and avoid risk. The key insight here is that circulation is often not the result of a
decision by an isolated individual. For Samoans such decisions are often made by
households and even extended families. Attempting to explain movement on the
basis of individual benefit may be misguided. In some situations the purpose may
not be to maximize individual income but to increase the status of the family
relative to other fam ilies in the locality. So the incentive for a family member to
travel may come about because of a change in another household's income and
status. Households also participate in circulation as a strategy to diversify their
resource base and avoid risk. Brookfield (1973) argues that in an uncertain world
the wisest peasant strategy is to keep the range of choices open and to widen the
ranges. Circulation can be viewed as a spatial manifestation of keeping resource
options available.
The penetration of western capitalism into peasant and tribal societies
creates disruptions and dislocations (Amin 1974; Conway et al 1990). Taxes, trade
stores, and new currencies increase local demands for cash. Subsistence economies
cannot generate sufficient surpluses and must seek external sources of wage labor.
Village economies are impoverished, rural society is stratified and regional
disparities are intensified. Traditional cultural values, already weakened by
colonial administration, are overwhelmed. The economies of Pacific Islands are
extremely peripheral to the world market and have no ability to exert any control
over this process. Monumental inequalities between the small island states and
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urbanized nations of the Pacific Rim encourage substantial population movement
Economic choices and migration decisions are thus predetermined. International
circulation is just one more destructive manifestation of global capitalism's annihi
lation of traditional cultural values.
Applying migration theory to circulation situations carries certain perceptu
al baggage. Migration theories tend to be silent on the issues which most concern
this dissertation. They were not constructed to explain circular migration and short
term travel. So it is not surprising that social and cultural linkages are overlooked
in favor of economic and structural explanations. These theories certainly do not
tell us much about post settlement travel and the effect of this travel on cultural
identity. Further, most explanations for migration embrace certain underlying
assumptions which obscure our understanding of less permanent movements. By
and large the presumption holds that return or circular migration is uncommon and
travel for visiting unimportant. Post migration travel between settlements is not
considered at all except in the case of secondary migration. As for the function of
travel in or on cultural identity, the inherent suggestion still is that circulation is
part of the modernization project of the circulators' society. The premise is that
this modernization is inevitable, and clearly, modernization is code for westerniza
tion.
These explanations posit third world societies as victims, unable to assert
choices in their own destinies. Chapman and Prothero argue that "...circulation, far
from being transitional or ephemeral, is a time honoured and enduring mode of
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behavior... found at all stages of socioeconomic change" (1985, p6). They find in
these explanatory models an analytical bias which obscures "indigenous elements"
of third world mobility systems. In fact, westernization and modernization have
only reinforced customary circuits of mobility and added new ones (p8). Where
once there was a path, now there is a road. In developing countries circulation has
expanded spatially to accommodate a much greater territorial separation of obliga
tions, activities and goods. Thus, the social structure is bi- or multilocal and the
various destinations actually become a sociospatial extension of the "home"
community.
Zelinsky has recently (1993) acknowledged this inadequate treatment of
third world conditions and has endorsed Ronald Skeldon’ s improvement of his
model. Drawing from the considerable research on mobility in South America, the
Pacific, and Sub-Saharan Africa, Skeldon (1990) observed that increases in
migration does not imply a demise of traditional and circular forms of mobility
(pi06). Although outmigration has been particularly pronounced among Pacific
island nations, the growth in international circulation has been spectacular. The
traditional circuits of mobility have been modified to incorporate new destinations.
Circular mobility patterns also exist within Western societies. Roseman
(1992) identifies ten specific types of cyclical and polygonal migration in Western
settings that describe migrants with multiple residential locations. Certain multi
local orientations stimulate frequent visits back "home" "...during vacation and
holiday periods and for special family events" (p36). Behr and Gober (1982) argue
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that dominant concepts of residence and home are not universal. They are not
necessarily linked to a particular structure, a particular locality, or to each other.
So change in residence may not imply the same social reorientation that is common
in Anglo culture (pi80). "Ethnocentric assumptions inherent in migration defini
tions result in culturally biased notions of how and why human spatial movement
occurs." (pl81)
Discussions as to whether Third World circulation patterns are to be found
in the United States have been rendered moot by recent changes in international
and domestic migration patterns. The Third World has come to the First World
bringing with them their mobility behavior. Of the research on the mobility of
American immigrant groups, the work of a group of researchers headed by Douglas
Massey is particularly informative. Massey and his team studied the Mexican
migrant community as a binational entity and collected data on both sides of the
border (Massey, et al 1987). Their research revealed strong links between sending
communities in Mexico and certain migrant communities in the United States, but
did not explore the links between places of settlement. They found the elaborate
network of interpersonal ties form a single continuum of social relationships.
Thus, settling abroad rarely implies a break with social life in the home communi
ty. Social networks are maintained and reinforced by a constant circulation of
people, goods, and capital between sending and receiving communities (p308).
"Rituals associated with life milestones are especially important in linking settled
migrants in the United States with their relatives back home" (p 141). In many
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localities in Mexico the fiesta of the local patron saint has assumed particular
symbolic importance for migrants as this is a special day for recognition of los
ausentes, the absent ones.
The circulation behavior of migrant Samoans appears distinctive because so
much mobility involves travel to their home villages and other immigrant settle
ments to participate in certain rituals and celebrations. There are economic as well
as political and religious aspects to this ritual circulation, but it is clearly an
expression of Samoan culture. It is important to maintaining an immigrant's status
within his/her family, in his/her home village, and facilitates incorporation of
Western values into Samoan society. It is certainly significant to maintaining a
distinct Samoan identity abroad. Other researchers have observed Samoan
circulation activity, but their research emphasis lay elsewhere.
2. Samoans and Circulation:
Spatial mobility is an essential characteristic of contemporary Samoan
social processes. Yet, the circulation patterns between Samoa and Samoan com
munities abroad have yet to be systematically examined. Claims are regularly
made about the true function of circulation in modem Samoan culture, but only the
broadest outline of Samoan mobility is known. Actual numbers of circular mi
grants remain obscure (Hanna et al, 1990), and overall patterns are not known.
Contemporary circulation behavior of Samoans was first observed by Pitt
(1970) who documented emerging rural to urban circulation associated with wage
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labor. He noted that absentee migrants were still expected to participate in village
life, particularly on the occasion of important ceremonials. However, Pitt claimed
that most overseas Samoans had not returned to Samoa for even a short stay
(p 182). His perspective on this issue was limited as he was primarily concerned
with internal movements. During this same period of his research in the mid
1960's, nearly two thirds of the 14,417 arrivals in Western Samoa were returning
Samoans (Western Samoa, 1967).
While investigating the practice of Samoan migrants sending remittances
back home and its impact on the economic development of Western Samoa,
Shankman (1976) observed that the largest remittances were usually brought in
person, and that these 'special' visits were associated with fa alavelave redistribu
tion activities (p60). Among other functions remittances were used to finance
visits to overseas communities and to support future migration expenses (p81).
Kallen (1982) investigated the kinship based network of chain migration
from Western Samoa to New Zealand, and explored the relationship between this
migration and social change in Western Samoa. She found a substantial amount of
residential mobility, "...a 'commuter' pattern of migration between village and
town." However, Kallen did not really distinguish circulation from other more
permanent movements. Her focus was the "kinship bridge" rather than the traffic it
carried. In the Western Samoa Migration Survey of 590 households in Western
Samoa, she asked specific questions pertaining to "the number and frequency of
visits overseas by household members" and "the number and frequency of visitors
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from overseas to Western Samoan households". Kallen reported these responses to
be significant and that they correlated positively with other variables. However,
she provided no tabulations or summary data, and does not identify which vari
ables.
Van der Ryn (1991) argues that the matai system, the Samoan system of
chiefs, has been the major force shaping their international migration trends and in
incorporating foreign influences into Samoan society. He also asserts that the
matai system with its attendant transactions is in large part responsible for the
maintenance of f a ! aSamoa abroad. His case study of a California Samoan acquir
ing a matai title exhibits the considerable international circulation involved with
this ritual.
Researchers studying the urban Samoan settlements appear to be more
aware of the circulation activity than those conducting research in the islands.
Frequency of return visits to the islands are often noted. Lewthwaite (1972)
reported that "planeloads" of California Samoans were constantly returning home
to visit while matais and pastors made trips to the migrant communities (pl46-
148). Janes' (1990) research on stress among immigrant Samoans in the San
Francisco area revealed that three fourths of his sample had returned to the islands
at least once. In fact, he asserts that "Samoa and San Francisco constitute a single
social field in which there is a substantial circulation of members." (1990, p58)
Obviously, this social field has a much greater spatial complexity and perhaps
encompasses all of the overseas Samoan communities.
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In the 1970’s, Robin Lyons (1980) investigated the dynamic between
Samoan migration and assimilation by surveying 423 households in two locations
in Hawaii and four locations in American Samoa. Lyons viewed the circulation
between American Samoa and overseas Samoan communities as an important
assimilation process. He found that the 'action space' for American Samoans had
expanded beyond Tutuila to include Hawai’ i, California, and other locations in the
United States. More than forty percent of his respondents in American Samoa had
visited someplace outside of the archipelago (p68), and Samoans in Hawai’ i
frequently visit their home villages and islands. Lyons concludes that emigration
from American Samoa is not a one-way relocation and does not irrevocably cut ties
with natal place and kin (p72).
Studying the Samoan communities in Hawai’ i, Franco (1987, 1992) charac
terizes Samoan mobility as an international movement network based largely on
traditional concepts and values. This movement combines unidirectional, perma
nent migration and circulatory temporary movements within a geographic expanse
encompassing New Zealand, Samoa, Hawai'i and the United States mainland The
circulation component include traditional malaga and what Franco (1992) calls
’ aiga-malaga, a catch-all for other less formal movements. Baker views the
enhancement of the malaga tradition as the potential mechanism of this network:
... the Samoan ’ aiga has become geographically expanded with only
modest modifications of the traditional tautua, or service, expected
of its members. Malaga, or intergroup visiting and resource shar
ing,... in the past was based on intervillage visiting for ritual occa
sions. In the modem setting, malaga movements have become
wider in scope, and Samoans travel through New Zealand, Samoa,
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Hawaii and mainland United States. The modem malaga, which
brings migrants home or American Samoans to Hawaii for visits,
continually reinforces the pattern of Samoan values, social organiza
tions, and behavior. (Baker 1986, pl73)
Clearly, this spatial mobility, malaga and otherwise, is an essential charac
teristic of contemporary Samoan social processes. Yet, the circulation patterns
between Samoa and Samoan communities abroad have yet to be systematically
examined. Claims are regularly made about the true function of circulation in
modem Samoan culture. Only the broadest outline of Samoan mobility is known.
Actual numbers of circular migrants remain obscure (Hanna et al, 1990), and
overall patterns are not known.
3. Caribbean Parallels:
In several important ways Samoan migration and settlement patterns mirror
that of another American offshore possession, Puerto Rico. It, too, is an island
territory of the United States. The history of its association with the United States
covers the same period of time. In fact possession of American Samoa came about
at the end of the last century during the period of United States overseas expansion
in which Puerto Rico was acquired. Like Puerto Ricans, American Samoans are
U.S. nationals, not full citizens, but a protected class with the right to travel freely
within U.S. national territory. Since the early 1950's both territories have experi
enced a period of massive migration to America's major urban areas. Where Puerto
Ricans have favored New York and major urban areas of the U.S. east coast,
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Samoans have favored Hawai’ i and urban destinations on the U.S. west coast. In
both cases, the migrations have been accompanied by substantial circulation
between the immigrant communities and their island home.
There are also important differences between the two movements. Ameri
can Samoa’ s cultural bond with Western Samoa requires that Samoan migration
and circulation also be considered in its international context On the other hand,
Puerto Rican migration is about twenty times larger than that of Samoa, involving
millions of people. Still, more than half the population of both island territories
now reside off-island. Where Samoan circulation has historic and also ancient
antecedents, Puerto Rican circulation is a contemporary phenomena.
Passalacqua (1994, p.103) describes the resulting pattern of Puerto Rican
settlement as a veritable human archipelago of more than five million people."
Their migration has been characterized by considerable return migration and
substantial circulation. Every day five thousand Puerto Ricans are literally up in
the air, coming and going to and from the island and the U.S. (Passalacqua 1994,
p. 103) The massive amount of scholarly research on this migration links this
movement to fluctuating economic conditions in the island and demand for labor in
the United States. Periods of economic "boom" pulls Puerto Ricans to U.S. cities
while periods of economic "bust" pushes them back to the island (Passalacqua
1994, p. 105). This ebb and flow had been observed quite early in the Puerto Rican
migration to New York. Some researchers in the fifties even referred to San Juan
as a commuting suburb of New York (Santiago 1994). Passalacqua (1994) charac-
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terizes this ebb and flow as commuter style migration, and argues that the large
numbers of Puerto Ricans leaving and coming to the island each year may even
represent seasonal commuting.
The prevailing literature on the Puerto Rican migrations might lead one to
believe that such movements are all about economic cycles and labor flows. Yet,
there are casual but telling references to other motivations. Conway (1989)
observed that many Puerto Ricans maintain a livelihood of split families, two
homes, - one in Puerto Rico, the other in New York - and social commitments to
obligations back home. "Riquenos consistently returned home, they sent for
relatives, repatriated daughters to give them a 'proper Catholic upbringing', sought
wives back home...(p 33)" Leymarie (1994) notes that Puerto Ricans frequently
travel to the island ".ior sentimental reasons: for the holidays, to visit relatives,
attend a cousin's wedding or a grand-parent's funeral." Most scholars do not seem
to consider these social commitments a major factor in this commuting. Nor have I
encountered any specific elaboration on these socio-cultural circuits or circuits that
link the different Puerto Rican immigrant settlements.
My reconnaissance of the research on the Puerto Rican migration revealed
only the occasional mention of movement responding to social events. My sense is
that the data sets involved are massive and accessible but lacking in the details
which would reveal these movements. There is also a scholarly bias that favors
structural explanations so scholars tend to disregard the role of this social and
familial travel in the spatialization of Puerto Rican society. Such insight can be
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best achieved through small scale studies of specific households where the stories
of the events that stimulate this travel reveal their importance in knitting together
the socio-cultural fabric of these people.
A good demonstration of this can be found in Christine Ho’s study of the
small community of Affo-Trinidadians in Los Angeles (1985). Her study traces the
transnational social networks of thirty Trinidadians revealing a vibrant transconti
nental social circulation field linking Los Angeles with Trinidadian communities in
major urban areas of United States, Canada, Great Britain and the West Indies.
These linkages are kinship based and manifested in the frequent visiting associated
with life cycle events (ie. weddings, illness, funerals), holidays and interestingly,
return visits to the islands at carnival time. None of this traveling is explained by
economic or structural models, and a larger data set would have obscured this
socio-spatial network. Ho finds that these linkages and the visiting that sustains
them is key to understanding the endurance of Affo-Trinidadian cultural identity in
Los Angeles.
4. Modern Migrations, Post-settlement Mobility and Ethnic Identity:
Western researchers are accustomed to thinking of immigrant culture
primarily from the perspective of their destination, the "host" society. For a long
time theories regarding American ethnic groups considered only their adaptation to
the dominant culture. The three principal ideas have been "assimilation," the
"melting pot,” and "cultural pluralism" (Gordon 1964; Newman 1973; Postiglione
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1983). Cultural pluralism has emerged as the accepted paradigm, but there is
substantial debate about what is meant by pluralism. Clearly, there is some
adaptation by immigrant cultures, but it is also clear that ethnic identity is retained.
How? Until recently, an implicit assumption of American ethnic theory was that
once immigrants arrive at their destination their links with the parent culture are
severed. Gordon (1964) argued that "structural pluralism" was a more accurate
term for the American situation. He observed that some groups maintain them
selves as structurally separate subsocieties while at the same time acculturating to
American social values (pl59). Maintenance of distinct cultural identity has often
been described in terms of resistance to the assimilative power of the host culture.
The source of this resistance was presumed inherent only in certain immigrant
cultures. Newman (1973) believed that some groups such as the Amish, Hasidic
Jews, and Chinese maintained their ethnic identity through self-enforced segrega
tion. Interestingly, he perceived a role for mobility in cultural identity, but only in
the form of a nomadic lifestyle such as that of Gypsies. The relationship between
post-settlement mobility and ethnic identity and specifically the reinforcement of
identity through continued contact with the parent culture was largely neglected by
ethnic theory until recently.
In the most recent development of American ethnic theory, cultural plural
ism has been reconstructed as "multiculturalism." Where cultural pluralism
acknowledged the persistence of the diverse cultural traditions residing within
American society, multiculturalism recognizes the claims to a cultural identity
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distinct from American society. This small change in emphasis represents an
significant shift in power relations within American society. Previous thinking on
ethnicity focused on the fit of different cultural groups into American society. Now
different identity groups emphasize their lack of fit. The key factor here is that the
different groups themselves now guide the discourse on the terms of their relation
ship with the rest of society. Further, multiculturalism has promoted the identity
claims of marginalized groups other than racial and ethnic communities. Contem
porary notions of culture have been refabricated and amplified to include women,
gays, disabled, the aged and others. Cultural recognition provides these groups
another platform to articulate long held grievances, but at the same time, despite
their disparate histories of oppression, gives them standing equal to that of racial
and ethnic groups (Lavie and Swedenburg 1996). Their inclusion has been one
inducement for some American ethnic groups to reassert their cultural authenticity
via claims of membership in a transnational collectivity.
American ethnic theory exhibits the evolution in thinking about differences
within American society, but it also encloses a structural weakness. American
ethnic theories emerged from assertive social philosophies. "They were, at first,
desirable, celebrated, and inherently ideological social doctrines in the United
States."(Postiglione 1983, p.12) Assimilation, "melting pot", and now cultural
pluralism were each in their time popular perceptions of the proper relationship
between American society and immigrant groups. Theory modeled popular and
widely accepted values. It follows then that American ethnic theory actually tells
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us more about Americans than it does about ethnic groups. It is not informing us of
the dynamic acculturation of an immigrant community so much as it is portraying
manifest attitudes of the dominant culture. It is certainly convenient that theories
of cultural pluralism are with us today to help explain a multicultural society in
which we so fervently believe. When Americans fervently believed in assimila
tion, most immigrants were busy trying to assimilate as quickly as possible, and
that is what ethnic theory described. The authority of American ethnic theory is
compromised because its explanations have been blind to both its perspective as
that of the dominant society and the persuasive power of American public values.
However, it would be rash to assume that we now have lots of cultures only
because American society now encourages cultural pluralism, and now there may
be some social value in being culturally distinct.
Even if it were possible to divorce American ethnic theory from its ideolog
ical roots, another deficiency distorts our perspective. American ethnic theory
considers immigrants as part of American society and not as part of their origin
society. Multiculturalism seems to break from this American tradition because it
privileges the viewpoints of specific identity groups. However, their arguments for
cultural authenticity often take the form of what Powell (1999) calls "binary
analysis," counterpointing the attributes of dominant American society. Such
analysis is refreshing because of the different perspective, but the discussion still is
about relations within American society. Today, other notions about connections
beyond American society inform us.
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Where Zelinsky’ s Hypothesis linked changes in mobility and space-time
relationships with modernization, postmodern thinking has introduced new per
spectives on space-time considerations and provides new insight into ethnic
identity and the dialectic between parent culture and immigrant community abroad.
Harvey (1989) characterizes the intense time-space compression of contemporary
times in terms of its disorienting and disruptive impacts. The transition from
Fordism was facilitated by new organizational forms and new technology. Ad
vances in communications techno-logy drives the collapse of spatial barriers. This
same technology gives capitalists the power to exploit minute spatial differences,
and so functions to encourage these differences. Harvey’ s compelling analysis of
the impacts of time-space compression are cast in economic terms. The remote
economies of the Third World are the victims, condemned to perpetual underdevel
opment by capitalist manipulation of the same processes that promise access to
modernization. However, this postmodern proximity facilitates access both ways.
The same time-space compression also encourages cultural dispersion and provides
a means for an ethnic group to reinforce its identity while at some distance from its
hearth. In particular, those cultural activities that require circulation back to the
hearth or visits to other settlements are promoted by this time-space compression
and privilege the maintenance of cultural identity of those ethnic groups that
emphasize such practices.
The mass reshuffling of populations in the late twentieth century has
prompted new assessments of immigrants and their relationships to their countries
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of settlement and their connection to the home society. Diaspora and transnational
ism are the new terms frequently employed to describe distinctive conditions of
migration, settlement, persistence of cultural identity and ties to homeland.
Diasporas and transnationalism view people as a collectivity, breaking out of the
conceptual boundaries of immigration which views only the population component
that cross a border (Conzen 1999). Too often these terms are used interchangeably
to describe the very same population movements. There is also considerable
overlap in the manner in which these terms are used to describe the immigrant
communities resulting from these movements and by implication the role of
migration and settlement in shaping the ethnic identity of these peoples. It is not
my intention to explore all the variant definitions encased within these terms.
However, probing the distinct situations implied by these terms illuminates our
understanding of the conditions of immigrant settlement in the modem urban
setting and how these conditions might shape both mobility subsequent to settle
ment and ethnic identity.
Diaspora:
In recent years it has become fashionable among some scholars to describe
almost any modem migration and settlement as a diaspora. The term is now being
used so indiscriminately that as Tololyan (1996) astutely observes, "Where once
were dispersions, there is now diaspora." The penchant for calling almost any
migration a diaspora is a marked departure from its customary usage. It has always
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been used to connote an involuntary mass migration of a people from their tradi
tional homeland to a condition of perpetual exile within another country as well as
a condition of alienation within that other society. In the past the emphasis was
clearly upon estrangement from a homeland. Jews, Armenians and Africans were
seen to be the archetype diasporas. Nowadays, the emphasis has shifted to favor
estrangement from a host society; the term is used to describe almost any group of
people living outside their homeland.
Although he acknowledges that the traditional notion of a diaspora has
prevailed for some 2500 years, Cohen (1997) observes that the term is being used
in new, interesting and suggestive ways. He has constructed a typology of dias
poras in an attempt to capture these new meanings. In addition to the long held
concept of what he calls "victim" diasporas, Cohen finds similarities in other
population movements that he identifies as "labor", "imperial", "cultural" and
"trade" diasporas. Yet even with all its modem forms Cohen views diasporas as a
discreet condition of certain populations.
Cohen proposes an array of features common to diasporas even within an
expanded definition. These include: "(1) dispersal from an original homeland,
often traumatically; (2) alternatively, the expansion from a homeland in search of
work, in pursuit of trade or to further colonial ambitions; (3) a collective memory
and myth about the homeland; (4) an idealization of the supposed ancestral home;
(5) a return movement; (6) a strong ethnic group consciousness sustained over a
long time; (8) a troubled relationship with host societies; (8) a sense of solidarity
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with co-ethnic members in other countries; and (9) the possibility of a distinctive
creative, enriching life in tolerant host countries.” (p. 180)
The term diaspora, even in its modem usage, still entails more specificity
than the frequency of its usage would suggest But what reason is there to expand
on the accepted meaning of a diaspora? Tdldlyan argues that global conditions in
recent decades have stimulated cohesive immigrant communities worldwide to
redefine their condition as a diaspora.
The conditions that shape modem migrations also shape the socio-political
context in which the immigrants live and the relations they have with their host
countries. These conditions include accelerated immigration to industrial nations,
the reception of the host country to new immigrants within its society, social
structure and institutions which accompany the immigrants, the proportion of
immigrants in relation to their origin population, maintaining a collective identity.
However, transformations in the structure of the modem nation state have created a
political climate more conducive to a claim of diaspora. These include the devolu
tion of state power in Europe; the growing authority of special interests in shaping
the United States governmental agenda; and also the emergence of the state of
Israel which has actualized the validity of the diasporic dream of a return home.
Travel: Estrangement from the homeland is still very much a part of the
modem conception of diaspora. "To see oneself in a diaspora is to imagine oneself
as being outside a territory, part of a population exiled from a homeland." (Basch et
al 1994) Travel within the context of this estrangement to privilege circulation
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between immigrant settlements over maintaining linkages with the homeland.
Further, the maintenance of an identity shared among a dispersed diasporic
collective lies in the frequency of connections with other places of settlement.
Increasingly, crucial dimensions of diasporic social life involve travel (Clifford
1997).
Ethnic Identity: Diasporas must exist as a collectivity rather than a scatter
ing of individuals. Within a diasporic community, members must have specific
social identities constructed via interaction with norms, values, discourses and
practices of the diaspora's communal institutions (Tololyan 1996). These in turn
are part of a heterogenous set of norms, and knowledges, of behaviors and cultural
practices which are imbedded in the transnational formation which includes both
homeland and diaspora (Tdlolyan 1996).
Diasporic identity differs from an ethnic identity. Where ethnic identity is
substantially shaped by relations with the dominant society, a diaspora involves a
continuing commitment to connections with homeland and kin communities in
other places. "In an ethnic community such a commitment is absent, weak, at best
intermittent and manifested by individuals rather than the community as a whole."
(Tololyan 1996)
At this point the question must be asked whether the migration and settle
ment abroad of Samoans constitute a diaspora. There are certainly elements of the
modem geography of Samoans which fit within the contemporary use of the term.
However, there are other features of this geography which argue otherwise, and I
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find these more compelling. Certainly, there was no traumatic event which exiled
these people. Nor can you describe Samoans as being estranged from their island
homeland. As I will show in this dissertation, the amount of travel and other
communication between Samoa and the overseas settlements is considerable.
Furthermore, Cohen and other scholars assert that a diasporic identity is shaped
over several generations. It requires both the persistence of cultural identity
coupled with an idealization of homeland. The Samoan migration has only been
going on for the latter half of this century. There just has not been a sufficient
incubation time for a diaspora to manifest Another consideration that argues
against diaspora is that the migrations have largely taken place within national
boundaries. For the most part American Samoans have migrated to destinations in
the United States, and Western Samoans have migrated to destinations in New
Zealand. To be sure, secondary migrations have carried Samoans to settlements
elsewhere, even across international boundaries. However, one of the base criteria
of a diaspora is migration to a foreign land. At a minimum this requires movement
across an international boundary. Relocations within the archipelago really do not
qualify as an estrangement. Furthermore, the active participation of families in
selecting those who emigrate and subsequent ongoing communication, remittances
and visits between the islands and the settlements argue against a diaspora claim.
Despite these contraindicators, the most compelling case for diaspora
comes from Samoans themselves. Some Samoan leaders in the overseas settle
ments are beginning to define their modem dispersions as a diaspora. Tololyan
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(1996) claims the distinguishing feature of a diaspora is the existence of a multi
tiered minority consisting of the committed, the activists, and sometimes a handful
of radical activists or militants. This cadre politically engages the host society’ s
political structure and mobilizes the community and its institutions to represent
and support the greater transnational community. Embracing the label of diaspora
serves a political purpose by advancing the interests of an immigrant population
with a transnational ethnic agenda, but it also capitalizes on the traditional notion
of diaspora and casts the image of the immigrant as a victim, a sort of perpetual
refugee with a righteous grievance. Clifford (1997, p250) asks, "... what articula
tions of identity are currently being replaced by diaspora claims?" Even in this era
of modem or postmodern theorizing, conceptions of American ethnic identity
continue to be driven by larger political ideology.
One outcome of such a reinterpretation of their migration experience will be
to strengthen ties to home culture. A renewed emphasis on fa 'aSamoa and in
creased circulation between settlements and island villages are likely manifesta
tions. Beyond a more politicized identity, this situation allows grievances against
the dominant society, real and otherwise, to shape fa 'aSamoa.
Transnationalism:
Transnationalism is the catch-all term for those processes by which immi
grants forge and sustain multi-stranded social relations that link together their
societies of origin and settlement (Basch et al 1994, p7).
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The transnational community is an analog of the transnational corporation
(Keamey & Nagengast 1989). The transnational corporation operates globally to
take advantage of differences in availability and costs of raw materials and labor,
and in the location of differing market opportunities. The transnational community
also responds and is itself a response to global differences, but to differences in
labor markets, domestic and international political and economic climates, United
States immigration law and its enforcement and local and international political
conditions. However, where transnational corporations react by shifting invest
ments, the transnational community responds with migration.
Modem immigrants build social fields that cross geographic, cultural and
political boundaries (Basch et al 1994). It follows then that initiation of these
social fields is the product of immigrants rather than society of origin. Yet, much of
Samoan migration has been a family enterprise where individuals were consciously
sent for the purpose of expanding the family’ s resource base and spatializing the
existing social field.
An essential element of transnationalism is the multiplicity of involvements
that transmigrants sustain in both home and host societies. (Basch et al 1994) The
emphasis here is with continued linkages with their home societies as contrasted
with the daily pervasive interactions that occur with and within host society.
However, this analysis disregards the significance of links with other places of
settlement.
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It is generally assumed that transnationalism is made possible by advances
in modem technology that diminished the effects of time and space. Basch et al
(1994) point out that the presence of technological innovations does not explain
why immigrants invest so much in maintaining home ties, nor why transport and
communications systems bridge distance between some locations and not others.
They assert that the global nature of capitalism necessitates the maintenance of
family ties among persons spread across the globe. This implies that family ties
might not be maintained were it not for capitalism. Basch, Schiller and Blanc
argue that the modem context of global capitalism is responsible for the diffusion
of families across the globe and in its relentless machinations provides a motivation
to maintain family linkages as the principal and most reliable resource available to
those caught up in it. However, family linkages have a much more ancient genesis
than capitalism. Family linkages are maintained without capitalism, and probably
persevere despite it.
Travel: In a diaspora, the tension of a cultural identity that also involves
estrangement from their homeland would encourage circulation between immigrant
settlements in place of travel to and from their homeland. Transnational communi
ties, on the other hand, ought to have more direct and robust linkages with their
homeland than with other places of settlement.
The lived experiences of transmigrants challenge the traditional presump
tion of conflating geographic space with social identity (Basch, Schiller and Blanc
1994). The formation of social ties often takes the form of expanded social
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networks connecting different places of settlement. Basch, Schiller and Blanc
(1994) argue that these "...'spider-web' networks of transmigrants must be located
within the hegemonic processes of multiple nation states..." Sadly, they do not
elaborate much on this contention, but the implications are substantial. They assert
the priority of social networks linking immigrant settlements and their homeland.
Further, they also suggest that relationships between nations shape the social ties
between communities of immigrants of common origin within those nations. It
follows then that the priority relations are with the country of origin over immi
grant communities within the same nation. This stands in sharp contrast with
traditional thinking about immigrants maintaining connections with their home
society. It was long assumed that once here immigrants, save the occasional letter,
severed their connections with homeland. Basch, Schiller and Blanc imply a
hierarchy of social contact: first with the home society; then with settlements in
other nations, and finally with kindred settlements within the host nation.
In their research, Basch, Schiller and Blanc probe the boundaries of
emerging "geographically, borderless, deterritorialized nation-states." In this new
geography they still see the hegemony of nations as the sculptor, yet their own
research shows that the bonds of family and society endure despite contravening
national interests. The real underpinnings of transnationalism are the patterns of
family, identity and resources that cross national boundaries and link the country of
origin with the country of settlement (Small 1997, pl92).
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Ethnic Identity: Where diaspora connotes a socio-cultural and political
identity shaped by an estrangement from their homeland, transnationalism presup
poses a socio-cultural identity that manifests a continuing relationship to their
country of origin. The result is an expanded socio-cultural sphere incorporating
new places into a national identity.
According to Basch et al (1994), social identities of transmigrants are
produced by categories of race/ethnicity embedded within the nations of which
they are involved, that is to say the nation of their origin and the nation of their
settlement (p34).
Ethnicity in the transnational community is not like ethnicity in minority
enclaves that have become effectively detached from their homelands. It is more
than the persistence of cultural identities and forms originally implanted by early
immigrants. Ethnicity is something constantly created and recreated under novel
social, economic, and political conditions (Kearney & Nagengast 1989).
In their study of rural Latino communities in California, Kearney &
Nagengast (1989) argue that three structural conditions of the transnational
community promote an ethnic identity. These include the formation of enclaves,
labor market segregation, and "replenishment” with new immigrants. Yet two of
these features, enclaves and labor market segregation, are absent in Samoan
immigrant communities. For instance, Kearney & Nagengast (1989) argue that
enclavement is a product of macro-economic and transnational processes that
intersect with race and class, thus it is the crucible in which ethnicity is nurtured.
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Samoans tend to cluster, but there are no exclusive enclaves. While Samoans tend
to hold lower paying jobs, they are not segregated into one sector of the labor
market. Only the last of these structural conditions, replenishment, fits urban
Samoan experience. Replenishment describes continuing immigration, this not
only replaces community members but reinforces the cultural base.
At some point it is necessary to determine whether the transnational model
is appropriate to explain specific features of Samoan migration and settlement.
While I believe it is more so than not, the Keamey & Nagengast study suggests the
model is not a good fit. The principal difficulty is that the Samoan migration and
settlement in the United States and Western Samoan migration to New Zealand has
been largely confined to movement within the national territory. Inasmuch as no
national boundaries have been crossed, the Samoan experience fails this fundamen
tal test of transnationalism. The Samoan condition then is much like that of other
United States' nationals such as Puerto Ricans, Guamanians, Hawaiians or for that
matter Navajos and Eskimos. Such populations tend to be overlooked by the
transnational literature. Yet in these situations as well as that of the Samoans, there
is most certainly a spatial barrier as well as a substantial cultural boundary of sorts
between the society of origin and the society of settlement. Transnationalism
describes a cultural spatiality that is not hindered by national boundaries. It
follows that the presence or absence of boundaries ought not be the principle test of
a transnational condition. We must conclude that urban Samoans belong to this
special class of transnationalism.
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5. Circulation, Culture and Identity in the Pacific:
Recent discussions about the resilience of immigrant cultural identity have
been invigorated by acknowledging the continuing linkages between immigrant
groups and their origin cultures. Familiar notions of ethnicity and identity have to
be reconcieved in light of the modem disruption of traditional concepts of locality.
Scholars are now compelled to consider the effect of cultures in transit. Clifford
(1997) calls them "travelling cultures." These are not traditional cultures of
nomads but cultures of modem travellers. Appadurai (1996) argues that the scope
and volume of human movement characteristic of the contemporary world compels
a new notion of nation: a postmodern nationality constructed by the processes of
deterritorialization and the formation of translocalities. Yet, imbedded within such
models are implicit assumptions that the intersection of travel and culture are
manifestations of modernity and that traveling Westerners are exploiters and
entrepreneurs while third world travellers are victims and casualties.
This section turns to examine the intersections of circulation, migration and
identity. Here, I explore some distinctive aspects of Pacific Islander identity in
general and fa ’ aSamoa in particular, with special attention to the role of migration
and circulation within this identity.
As much as we try to theorize on the influence that globalization, migration,
and urban settlement have on shaping ethnic identity, for every group of people the
foundation of their difference is the distinct values, beliefs and behaviors which set
them apart as a people. For any immigrant group, cultural origin establishes the
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basis for difference which then is shaped by their interactions with the host society.
Long held concepts of culture, ethnic group, race, and nation are social construc
tions tied to specific social and geographic boundaries and inhibit our understand
ing of the transnational phenomenon (Basch et al 1994, p34).
Fa ’ aSamoa, the Samoan way, is not a construction of urban America.
Samoan culture has a long history. Archeological evidence reveals that the
Samoan archipelago has been continuously inhabited for at least 3000 years. Nor
has this been a culture nourished in isolation. Peoples of the Pacific have been
involved with one another for thousands of years. By analyzing similarities in
artifacts, anthropologists (Weisler 1998) have been able to identify several ancient
interarchipelago "interaction spheres"(see Figure 5.1). Cultural and linguistic
similarities throughout Polynesia and the islanders' own traditions and testimony
speak to a vibrant social intercourse across vast reaches of the Pacific. For exam
ple, the most important chiefly titles in Samoa commemorate a successful uprising
against Tongan invaders nearly a thousand years ago.
Pacific islander identity evolved in a setting very different from that of most
other peoples. I am not advancing an environmental determinist explanation for
islander culture. Nonetheless, their culture had to respond to a set of environmental
challenges quite different from those faced by land based societies. A salient
feature of Pacific cultures was the fact they were not isolated but were frequent and
deliberate travelers over long ocean distances.
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Where Europeans consider the Pacific as an expanse void of places. Pacific
Islanders see it as full of places. Islanders see the whole Pacific as their neighbor
hood (Ward 1989). For this to be so, Ward (1989) explains, islanders must have a
different perception of distances, that somehow collapses the space between places
(p.240). However, the spaces between Pacific places is the ocean. Lewis (1994)
demonstrated that Pacific Islanders have viewed the ocean very differently. In
many ways they knew their ocean environment as others might know a familiar
landscape. For thousands of years islanders have travelled frequently and deliber
ately between their far flung islands. They understood the expanse of ocean not as
empty space but as a place filled with distinguishing features they learned to read
to find their way. Pacific island wayfinding was not simply an alternative indige
nous technology but a different way of knowing. Traveling is part of their heritage
and, I argue, part of their identity today.
Europeans only began to fully explore the Pacific in the late 1700's and
early 1800's. These emissaries of western science and enlightenment could not
fathom how "primitive" islanders could successfully traverse the great distances
between Pacific islands without the products of "modem" science/technology.
Despite the evidence and testimony before them, they denied the existence of this
indigenous knowledge (Lewis 1994). In so doing, they were not just denying data,
they were denying a different way of knowing. It was part of who these people
were. It was a denial of their culture. Recently western scholars have begun to
begrudgingly acknowledge the wayfinding skills of islanders. In 1976 the HokU-
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le ’ a, a reconstruction of an Hawaiian voyaging canoe, sailed from Hawai’i to Tahiti
in 31 days. This 2500 mile voyage was navigated without any modem instrumen
tation and employed only the traditional wayfinding techniques of Pacific Islanders
(Lewis 1994). While the resuscitation of this old knowledge may fill an interesting
gap in western understanding of the Pacific, for islanders across the Pacific it has
signaled a resurgent expression of island culture. There is something about this
heritage of voyaging that resonates. Now most major island groups in Polynesia
have voyaging canoes once more plying the waves between the islands. In 1995
the Hokule ’ a sailed the Pacific coast of the United States stopping at every port
with a substantial Pacific Islander community. At every port-of-call the voyagers
were welcomed with traditional island ceremony. For urban islanders the arrival of
the Hokule ’ a was a vivid demonstration of their island origin and their continuing
ties to family and culture in Oceania— a reminder that for islanders the American
west coast is the Pacific's east coast.
The idea of ethnic identity is a social construct and a distinctly Western
one. There are indeed substantial differences between groups of peoples. Ethnic
theory purports to explain how these groups perceive themselves in relationship to
other groups. Yet, each group has their own notion of difference. Pacific Islanders
do not necessarily share western assumptions about what makes others the same or
different (Linnekin & Poyer 1990). Linnekin & Poyer (1990) argue that ".. an
Oceanic theory of cultural identity privileges environment, behavior and situational
flexibility over descent, innate characteristics and unchanging boundaries (p.6)."
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"Western paradigms of group identity rely both on a biological theory of inheri
tance and on a psychological model of a discrete bounded individual (Linnekin &
Poyer 1990, p.7)." Where westerners view ethnic group affiliation as largely
predetermined regardless of individual behavior, for Pacific Islanders ethnic group
affiliation must be demonstrated by individual behavior.
Certain presuppositions about group identity are shared throughout
Oceania: That people can voluntarily shift their social identities, that a person can
maintain more than one identity simultaneously, and that behavioral attributes—
such as residence, language, dress, participation in exchanges— are not only
significant markers but are also effective determinants of identity (Linnekin &
Poyer 1990, p.9)." For Pacific Islanders people are not simply bom into social
groups but become members through their actions. Identity in Oceanic societies is
a social product continually demonstrated (Linnekin & Poyer 1990, p.8). In
Samoan culture even kinship is a status that is made and must be maintained, and
therefor has an achieved dimension (Van der Ryn 1991, p.9).
We know that Pacific Islanders traveled deliberately and frequently across
substantial expanses of open ocean. Now we know something about their wayfind-
ing skills and how they were able to accomplish this feat. We do not know why
they bothered. Trade, resource scarcity, population pressures, warfare have all
been suggested and have some merit. However, these theories fail to fully explain
all the traveling, nor do they explain why voyages linked some places and not
others. I would argue that then as now they traveled to maintain and reinforce
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social linkages. It was a cultural imperative for islanders to maintain these social
linkages because they shared language, culture and, undoubtedly, genealogy as
well. These linkages were part of who they were. To not maintain them would be
to forfeit part of their identity. The only way to maintain a social linkage over such
distances was by voyaging. Thus, voyaging and all that went with it became part
of who they were, a part of their identity. It follows that maintaining social
relations over great distance is a cultural imperative. Being a Samoan is not as
much about ancestry as it is about maintaining social relations with aiga and with
other Samoans and following Samoan custom, fa 'aSamoa.
In her ethnography of another Polynesian immigrant culture, Cathy Small
(1997) traces the transnational experiences of an extended family of Tongan
immigrants in both their island village and in urban America. She finds a situation
characterized by paradox and ambiguity that defy long held notions about the
"push-pull" influences to which migration responds. "Migration was not about
rejecting a traditional way of life, or leaving Tonga and family behind, or replacing
Tongan values with American values (p.47)." In fact, "... going to America, the
ultimate act of Westernization, was Tongan." Yet, at the same time, what it meant
to be Tongan both in urban America and in Tonga was evolving. Elements of
western material culture were being incorporated into anga fakaTonga, the Tongan
way, while core values were being maintained and geographically expanded.
The conceptual basis for my research effort is that Samoan migration and
circulation behavior is an assertive response of Samoan culture to challenges and
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opportunities posed by conditions of the late twentieth century. Rather than being
overwhelmed by forces of modernization, Samoa is adapting on its own terms.
Van der Ryn (1991) argues that the manner of incorporation of foreign elements
into Samoan society does not evidence "Westernization" but signifies "Samoaniza-
tion." From this perspective Samoan migration represents a dramatic expansion of
the Samoan cultural sphere, and Samoan circulation behavior represents the
extension of village activity into this sphere.
The perspective of an origin culture is too often overlooked in the study
of population movement Consider the interpretation articulated by the former
Secretary General of the South Pacific Commission, Palauni Tuiasosopo,
a Samoan:
Movement in the Pacific is not like elsewhere, and the
cultural context of population movement must always be kept in
mind. It is sometimes said that in the Pacific people move in order
to stay behind. This apparent paradox is resolved when it is recog
nised that migration is not a threat to our identity or our membership
in our home society. Too often, researchers have pointed to the
problems that migration appears to create rather than to the prob
lems that it solves. In my view, this is because they have not looked
at migration through the eyes of the participants. Like other popula
tion issues, population movement must be seen in the context of the
Pacific way and not from the view point of foreign experience.
(Tuiasosopo 1988, p27)
The effect of ritual circulation is expressed in the view of another Polyne
sian culture on the meaningful role of circulation for their migrants:
Maori places are people. The home people are tangata
whenua, people of the land. People who see their world in rather
different ways. A Tuhoe person living in Aukland, Rotorua or
Wellington responds to the call: 'Hofda ki nga maunga Ida purea koe
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e nga hau o Tawhirimatea.’ Return to your tribal home in Te Ure-
wera to recharge your batteries, to reinforce your ties with tribe and
region, to regain strength to carry on living in this world of conflict
ing demands, conflicting loyalties. (Stokes 1987)
Participants in these ritual circulation activities return to the immigrant community
with their cultural values recharged. The extensive nature of circulation activities
reinvigorates the ethnic identity of Samoans, encourages resistance to assimilation,
and through the agency of the circulator introduces foreign elements into Samoan
society.
6. Conclusion:
It is clear that for Samoans circulation is a much more complex social
process than current explanations for international circulation would have us
believe. The various components of Samoan circulation express an enhanced
social field that knits together overseas settlements with each other and with their
island home. Rather than portraying the victimization of yet another third world
culture, 1 argue that Samoan circulation represents an expansion of Samoan culture.
Instead of the erosion of traditional cultural values, the geography of
modem Samoans represents the expression of traditional Samoan values and
institutions across international boundaries and substantial spatial barriers. Rather
than being overwhelmed by forces of modernization, Samoa is adapting on its own
terms. Samoan migration represents a dramatic expansion of the Samoan cultural
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sphere, and Samoan circulation behavior is but an extension of customary village
activity into this sphere.
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Chapter Three.
METHODOLOGY: UNRAVELLING TRAVELLING
The objectives I set for this dissertation posed substantial challenges for
research. In contrast to the urban structure in which it is nested the target popula
tion is quite small. Much of the data about Samoans in Los Angeles are absent,
vague, contradictory and/or unreliable. In as much as the thrust of this research has
been to understand the cultural basis of Samoan circulation, the circulation partici
pants had to be engaged directly. This engagement has been shaped by the struc
ture of the local community, the nature of Samoan urban culture and my access to
the community. Any effective methodology must be responsive to the research
objectives, but mine also had to be responsive to the community I was studying.
"The emphasis on methodology produces its own form of dishonesty and untruth
that I would like to try to avoid (Farella 1993, pl4)." Consequently, my approach
to this project has had to be flexible, creative and sensitive. This chapter elaborates
on the construction of this methodology.
This chapter begins by explaining my rationale for a qualitative rather than
a narrow quantitative approach to this research. Then, I describe the manner in
which the research plan employed for this dissertation evolved I include a brief
description of an earlier more ambitious plan on which the dissertation proposal
was based as well as the refinements which shaped the final product I finish this
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chapter by discussing my access to the Samoan community and the nature of my
long term relationship with this community. I also comment on certain conducive
and resistive elements of Samoan culture which also influenced my research
approach.
1. Qualitative versus Quantitative Approaches:
The methodological foundation for this dissertation rests upon primary
sources in the form of participant observation, semi-structured and informal
interviews, and family records. Secondary sources included archival research of
accounts published in the media and analysis of published and other research
efforts involving Samoan immigrants.
The focus of my research efforts have been to unravel the circulation
activities that appear to be such an important characteristic of Southern Californian
Samoan communities. Obtaining reliable data on mobility patterns is problematic
to say the least. The census, of course, is quite inadequate to the task. In Southern
California the census of Samoans is particularly unreliable owing to a severe
"undercount." Designed to provide a "snapshot" of a population, the census is a
very poor instrument with which to gage the flow of people in motion. In fact,
there is no common data base which yields such data. Furthermore, empirical data
by itself are insufficient to explain socio-spatial behavior. Even were it possible to
obtain detailed itineraries of Samoan movements, this would not tell us why they
were travelling, explain the timing of their travels or the reason for some destina
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50
tions and not others. The data must be generated for each case studied. Circulation
studies have generally relied upon field observations and either of two basic social
science instruments for accumulating this data: research surveys and life histories.
My interest is in examining the culture of circulation, so I have pursued an ethno
graphic approach employing participant observation techniques supported by semi-
structured interviews. This project has been facilitated by the many years I and my
family have been involved with the Samoan community through our work with
Samoan youth and educators. It is through this service rather than my research that
I have access to the community.
2. Constructing a Research Strategy:
The research objectives, the nature of Samoan mobility and the social
organization of fa 1 aSamoa, compel a research strategy that will be effective in
illuminating the culture of circulation rather than national and international
circulation behaviors and patterns. Simply assembling data on the movement of
large numbers of people across far flung destinations will not reveal the details of
the social processes involved in circulation. Circulation is a dynamic cultural
activity, and this behavior is best observed in a specific group. The fundamental
social units in Samoan culture, and the basic units of study for this project, are the
Samoan household and the aiga, the extended family, in which the household
nests. I began with an enquiry of the circulatory movements of households at one
locale. The research focuses on the Samoan community in Carson and Wilmington
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in the southern part of Los Angeles County and traces the web of spatial linkages
that ties this community with Samoa and with other urban Samoan settlements.
These spatial linkages are revealed in the circulatory behavior of members of
certain households.
Initially, I devised an elegant strategy to illuminate this spatial web. I
proposed to "surf" this socio-spatial web. I developed a research plan organized
into four spatial phases. The first phase would have involved a survey of circulator
households in the Samoan community of Los Angeles. From this survey additional
circulators and specific sending and receiving households in other Samoan migrant
communities and in Samoa would be identified. Next, I would have travelled to
other Samoan communities on the West Coast and Hawai’ i to interview sending
and receiving household identified by the Los Angeles respondents. Here, too,
specific destination households in the other Samoan migrant communities and in
Samoa would have been identified. Phase three would have taken place in Samoa
where destination households there would have been interviewed. Finally, I would
have returned to Los Angeles for follow-up interviews with phase one households
and analysis of the information gathered.
Regrettably, I was unable to obtain the funding necessary for such an
ambitious multilocal research effort. I had to limit the scope of my inquiries to
circulation activities among the selected households in the Los Angeles commun
ity. So this dissertation research then becomes one more circulation study of a
specific locale. The inclusion of interstate and transnational dimensions of Samoan
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mobility would yield a much more complete analysis, and I still have hopes that
one day I shall have the resources to investigate this broader network.
This initial plan of research was not a detour. It was important in shaping
my thinking on and my approach to Samoan mobility. The global perspective
compelled me to think about the local community as part of a spatially enhanced
fa aSamoa. So my starting point was not how Samoans fit into the Los Angeles
ethnic mosaic, but how Samoans in Los Angeles fit into fa aSamoa, and what this
meant to the modernization of Samoan culture. I needed to understand how an
island culture could become both a global and an urban culture. What were the
particular aspects of Samoan tradition and specifically the Samoan traditions of
spatiality and mobility that made this possible?
Research Dimensions:
Clifford argues, ”... ethnography has privileged relations of dwelling over
relations of travel (1997 p22)." My research turns this convention upside-down by
employing ethnographic methods to unravel the travel relations of an ethnic group
in my home community. Study of a social network requires a group of households
that share in social and cultural activities. These were drawn from a community
organization and church membership employing a "snowball sampling" method
ology. It might have been ideal if these households represented a single 'aiga.
However, only a few aiga would be represented in any group selected from the
Samoan community. The number of households was determined to some extent by
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the composition of the social group from which they are drawn. The purpose here
was to obtain a number of circulators sufficient to capture the breadth of mobility
activity. These circulators defined the set of households from which destination
households in other Samoan communities were identified.
My research methodology employed a modified and abbreviated form of
ethnosurvey (Massey 1987). The ethnosurvey is an effective method for gathering
data on international migration, particularly circular movements, designed to
provide high quality multifaceted information. It involves the simultaneous
application of ethnographic and survey methods within a single study of multiple
sites. The ethnosurvey seemed particularly appropriate as I began this research
anticipating data collection at multiple sites. The basic data collection technique is
an ethnographic interview shaped by an "interview guide." This interview guide
sets out general areas of interest, a few key questions, and probes for further
evaluation. The interview agenda is based upon ethnographic fieldwork which
focuses the research objectives on specific cultural traits. The interview itself is
conducted in conversational fashion with the specific content determined by the
dynamics of the discussion.
Although I was asking questions regarding life history, particularly recent
circulation activities, this interview was not intended to be invasive, lengthy or
exhaustive. The ethnosurvey (see Appendix) begins by obtaining basic information
about household members such as age, sex, social rank, length of residence, and so
forth. Then, I determined routine travel activities outside of the community. Next
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I inquired how often they visit other migrant communities, how often, if ever,
household members return to Samoa, and the length and purpose of each visit.
Have they received visitors from Samoa or from any of the other Samoan urban
settlements? How are travel decisions made, and how is it decided who should go?
To increase the accuracy of their recall, inquiries concentrated on recent circulation
events within the past five calendar years. Information about the circumstances
involved in circulation stimulation events is the basis for an understanding of the
culture of Samoan circulation. An important component of the interview asks for
the identity of specific sending and receiving households outside of the Los
Angeles area.
All Samoans are familiar with English, but most Samoans (64 percent of
those five years and older) speak Samoan at home, and 33 percent do not speak
English very well (U.S. Census 1993). For some interviews I required assistance
with the language. I was able to obtain assistance from friends in local Samoan
community organizations.
A necessary foundation for this study was to obtain the cooperation and
support of the local community, particularly the local managers of the social
network such as community leaders, the matai, and the fa ife ’ au (religious leaders).
I was already acquainted with several key individuals. For many years my fam ily
and I have been involved with the Samoan community through our work with
Samoan youth and educators. Prior to commencing my Ph.D. studies at the
University of Southern California I worked on the staff of California State Univer-
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sity, Dominguez Hills. I have also taught geography at local community colleges
for several years. These institutions have a significant number of Samoan students.
At CSU Dominguez Hills I served as faculty advisor to the campus Polynesian
club. Of particular importance to this research was my affiliation with the Associa
tion of Pacific Islander Educators (APIE). As a result of these years of involve
ment I have many friends and acquaintances in the Carson and Wilmington
community.
Beyond personal friends and acquaintances, my principal access to the
Samoan community has been through my involvement with the Association of
Pacific Island Educators (APIE). APIE was founded in Carson in the fall of 1987
by a group of teachers and parents of Pacific Islander students and the Office of
Samoan Affairs. They were responding to a growing crisis in the education of
Pacific Islanders. The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) serves the
largest population of Pacific Islander students outside of Hawai'i. The dropout rate
for Pacific Islanders in LAUSD high schools was alarming and there were less than
ten Pacific Islander educators in this, the second largest school district in the
nation. Programs and assistance directed towards the Asian/Pacific population
invariably served much larger Asian populations whose needs and situations were
quite different from those of Pacific Islander groups. The principal activities of the
organization have centered around providing afternoon and weekend tutorial
workshops and fundraising for college scholarships. In its first decade APIE
provided scholarship support for over 200 college bound Pacific Islanders. APIE is
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distinctive in bringing together educators and parents. Membership is open to all
who want to help including non-Pacific Islanders. Based as it is in Carson it is
dominated by Samoans, but it has been steadfast in its mission to promote the
education of all Pacific Islanders.
The Research Plan:
The overall purpose of my research is to illuminate the cultural basis of
modem Samoan circulation. Fulfilling this purpose has been challenged by the
absence of empirical data on Samoan mobility and the socio-spatial organization of
fa ’ aSamoa in the urban community. To meet this challenge I had to triangulate on
this cultural basis by employing several different methodologies. Primary sources
included participant observation in community activities, organizations and family
functions, semi-structured and informal interviews, and family records. Secondary
sources included archival research of accounts published in the media and analysis
of published and other research efforts involving Samoan immigrants. To achieve
my dissertation objectives, I needed to ascertain the overall patterns of circulation,
specifically those involved with Samoan ceremony. I also wanted to examine the
function of this culture based mobility in individual life experiences, and I wanted
to observe the circulation stimulated by specific cultural events.
The operational strategy for this dissertation research has been organized
into four phases. Each operational phase builds upon the knowledge developed in
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the preceding phases, however the various phases are not sequentially dependent
and there is considerable overlap.
Phase 1: Review of relevant research;
This foundation phase entailed collection of population data on overseas
Samoans and analysis of published research on the Samoan migration and
Samoan immigrants for the purpose uncovering incidental accounts and
data relating to modem mobility patterns. This effort also involved archival
research of accounts published in the local media and particularly commu
nity based pacific islander publications. The ethnosurvey (Appendix A)
was developed and "field-tested" in several preliminary interviews, stimu
lating important refinements in the interview agenda.
Phase 2: Participant observation and identification of circulators;
The principal task is to be able to identify key players in this dynamic
process and understand their role in the migrant community. This phase
involves active participation in a community organization within the
Samoan community in Los Angeles. An initial task was to establish the
dimensions of local circulation patterns and define the spatial network
linking this immigrant community with other Samoan communities and
with Samoa. Households were selected from these cooperating community
organizations and local churches. A representative from each selected
household was interviewed. Among the outcomes of these interviews was
to identify typical circulation stimulation events, common circulation
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destinations and recent sending and receiving households at these destina
tions. The volume, frequency, and characteristics of these households'
circulation was assessed. A typology of circulation activities for this group
was constructed, and characteristics of the circulators analyzed. "Ritual
circulation" activities were specifically identified.
Phase 3: Collection of life/travel histories;
This phase involved compiling life/travel histories of key circulators
identified in Phase two. This material was collected using semi-structured
and informal interviews as well as observations. The purpose was to obtain
details on mobility, motivation, the roles these people play and the role their
travels play in the functioning of the community.
Phase 4: Observation of circulation stimulation events.
This phase entailed observation and analysis of specific circulation stimula
tion events. Such events include weddings, funerals, baptisms, sports
events, community festivals and cultural celebrations. For some events
documentation in the form of family record such as photographs, guest
registers or lists of attendees was possible. Where feasible I travelled to
events outside of Los Angeles that I knew Samoans from the Los Angeles
community were likely to attend.
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Refinements to the Research Plan:
Semi-structured interviews were not working out as I had hoped. Having a
tape-recorder and a notepad out changed the contextof who I was and my relation
ship with the community. I found myself very uncomfortable with the process,
and the people I was interviewing were also uncomfortable. Oftentimes, when
interviewing it takes awhile before the interview becomes conversational and the
discomfort dissipates. Although I could perceive the discomfort ebbing as each
interview progressed, it was still there. I questioned how legitimate my research
could be if it involved the emotional discomfort of those involved (Rowles 1978).
In a subtle but definite way the interview changed the relationship I had had with
these people beforehand. I came to realize that I had misunderstood the implica
tions of my research approach. I was assuring people that I was not going to be
invasive, that I was just trying to get a history of their travels not of their life. Yet,
being invasive was exactly what I was doing. Samoans are not nomads but
frequent travel is part of their modem culture. Much of their travelling occurs at
those times that people most rely upon their cultural traditions and family support,
and that is during life stage transitions. So in collecting travel histories, I was
indeed collecting life histories and family histories. Despite my best intentions, I
was being very invasive. After eighteen of these interviews I decided to pursue a
different course. Although I could have pressed on and collected enough data for
the purposes of this dissertation, at the end of the day I would still be here. I would
still be working with these people, and it seemed to make less and less sense to be
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visiting discomfort on people whom I cared about. After all, my purpose in
pursuing a qualitative study was to achieve an understanding of the culture of
circulation. Anthropologists, who refined the techniques of qualitative analyses,
routinely accomplished exhaustive studies of a whole culture based upon the life
history of a single individual. The numbers of persons exhaustively interviewed
should not be important as long a my findings accomplish a better representation of
what is taking place in the Samoan community. Furthermore, I would need their
active support and good will in order to bring the research to a conclusion.
If the notepad and tape recorder were going to be an obstacle, I would leave
them at home. I focused on a less formal but more intensive mode of research. I
became more involved with APIE and their community projects. This provided me
more opportunities to be with people and share their time. The ethnosurvey
instrument was not discarded, but was used to organize field notes on individuals I
talked with and observed. I would make a point of recording travel stories as soon
as I could and tying them to particular people and aiga.
One data source proved to be particularly useful, but not in the way I had
originally thought. Over the years I had noticed the use of guest registers at
weddings and funerals I attended in the community. A single guest register
contained hundreds of names. It occurred to me that if I could identify the home
towns of these people then I would have a map of the movement responding to a
specific socio-cultural event. Guest registers are not part of traditional Samoan
culture, they are a western custom that has been picked up by urban Samoans.
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There was no cultural barrier to my using the register, but there were other prob
lems. Guest registers are used only on occasions of celebration or grief. For
various reasons including an understandable reluctance, I could access only a few
registers. These turned out to be rather poor documentation. They contained the
signatures of those in attendance, and also highly personal messages, but no
addresses. In order to make sense of the contents I would need the active participa
tion of the family in locating the hometowns of the signatures. This required an
additional commitment of self-reflection and time on their part. However, this
proved to be an invaluable ethnographic technique. The process of identifying
each entry prompted additional biographic information, and anecdotes about family
history, relations and travels. Chapter seven details the process of interpretation,
analysis and the findings secured from one such register.
3. Positionality and Access:
This study is essentially a qualitative analysis based upon ethnographic
fieldwork. There are quantitative aspects which I discuss later, but first I must
elaborate on the nature of this ethnographic research and my authority to conduct
research on this community. The basic instrument of modem ethnographic
fieldwork is participant observation. There has been considerable discussion
among social scientists about what exactly constitutes fieldwork and participant
observation. Personally, I favor Renato Rosaldo's (Clifford 1997) characterization
of participant observation as "deep hanging out". Essentially it involves whatever
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rational that the researcher can employ that will place him or her in sufficient
contact with the target research group to ask the questions and collect the observa
tions on which to base his/her analysis. This strategy of observation collection
largely establishes the validity of the final project
At a recent Association of American Geographers (AAG) meeting I listened
to a number of presenters introduce their papers as the result of a specific period of
fieldwork. In several instances I found this characterization of fieldwork both odd
and incomplete because these were indigenous scholars. For example, a Russian
Jew studying the Russian Jewish community of Brighton Beach (Zaretsky 1998); a
Ghanaian woman conducting a transnational study of Ghanaians in Toronto and
Ghana (Wong 1998), or a Chinese woman conducting research among Chinese
immigrant women in New York (Zhou 1998). On one hand this research period
establishes that membership alone is insufficient to speak authoritatively on social
issues involved with an ethnic group. Clearly, a research strategy and formal
period of research is required. However, it seems disingenuous to portray this
research period as only of a short duration. If a non-member of that group had
conducted a similar research effort within the same time frame, it is unlikely that
they would accomplish as much or arrive at similar findings. For any ethnographic
field work, access to the group is very much a part of the problematic. For these
indigenous scholars, membership within the group targeted for study gives them
special access. It also gives them special insight. They already are part of the
culture and presumably are more readily accepted by the group under study. They
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know what questions to ask and what can be asked. It may also pose special
difficulties because their intimacy with the culture might lead them to overlook
aspects that might be considered significant by another observer. How do these
modem "native informants" avoid the scholarly stigma attached to those who have
identified too much with the group being investigated? The traditional scholarly
admonitions against "going native" still holds (Clifford 1997).
The norm in scholarship once was that researchers were not required to bare
their souls only their procedures (Lofland & Lofland 1984). Now, however, a brief
mention of ones' background is no longer sufficient Indigenous scholars have
begun to address these issues of representation by embracing the feminist concept
of "positionality." The social location of the researcher— in terms of race, class and
gender— shapes the representation of those researched and consequently the
research (Chattel]ee 1998; Robinson 1994). Positionality involves more than mere
disclosure. It obliges us to reveal our own cultural capital (Lawson 1999). This
requires analysis of the social identities of the researcher with respect to his/her
own cultural background as well as his/her standing with respect to the group under
study. There is a very robust discourse about the nuances of positionality and
representation. It is not my intent to resolve these thorny issues of methodology.
Geographers have been much more flexible in making use of whatever approach
could accomplish the research task regardless of the disciplinary origin. My
purpose here is to describe my access to the Samoan community and also elaborate
on my authority to research and write about these people.
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It is proper that I should establish the context of my research strategy. I am
not an indigenous scholar; I am not Samoan. Nevertheless, the validity of my
research among these people and my findings compel some discussion of my
positionality. What special qualifications have I to be conducting research among
immigrant Samoans? A postulate of qualitative research in social science is that
one should "start where you are" (Lofland & Lofland 1984). I know this commun
ity. Although I am not Samoan, I have been involved with the Samoan community
in Los Angeles for some time. To be frank, I am not completely sure when or how
this association began. I suppose it really began in Hawai’ i where I was a graduate
student at the end of the 1970’ s. I lived in a valley next to a low income housing
project that was predominantly Samoan. My interaction with the residents was
casual and neighborly. Years later some friends in Los Angeles recalled that they
lived in those projects and remembered me as the palagi with the long hair in the
laundromat. Living in Hawai’ i was also about living in an island culture. To be
sure, it was the cosmopolitan multicultural island and Asian cacophony of modem
Hawai’ i. Yet, I learned to understand and speak the local pidgin, and I learned
about island life. I tried my best to fit in and avoid being taken for just another
dumb haole. Upon my return to the mainland I began working as a counselor in
the Career office of California State University, Dominguez Hills. Aside from
being a predominantly minority institution, Dominguez Hills also claims the largest
number of Samoan students in college outside of Hawai'i. As it turned out, these
students found me. Perhaps, it was my penchant for wearing Hawaiian shirts that
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caught their attention, but I was the one they would come to about job search
questions and career advice. It was not long before I was invited to their club
meetings and other functions. Homesick for Hawai’ i and the island lifestyle I
readily embraced them as much as they embraced me. Before long I realized that I
was one of the few staff of the college that they would talk to.
There were only several dozen Samoan students at the university. Through
my association with them I became aware of some distinct difficulties they were
having straddling their home and institutional cultures. For instance, when they
asked my help in filling out financial aid forms, they really wanted me to help their
family fill out these forms. Actually, they needed my help to explain to their
family that the financial assistance was to be used for tuition and books and not for
family functions. Through these students I was introduced to their families, to the
Samoan community in Los Angeles and to fa ’ aSamoa.
I still remember the day I got my first phone call from Samoa. It was one
of my students. Her family had been summoned home for a funeral and they would
be staying for over a month. She asked me to explain to her teachers. Not clearly
understanding all the whys and wherefores, I helped her withdraw officially from
her classes. The students had often talked about family members going back to
Samoa, so I had known about their frequent travelling. Now I found myself
involved in negotiating their transnational responsibilities. There would be other
phone calls.
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I also became aware that my rapport with Samoan students gave me a kind
of special status in the college that I would not have had as one more white staff
member in a predominantly minority institution. I would be the one called upon
when there was a "Samoan problem." However, these "problems" were usually not
so much student difficulties as they were contradictions between institutional
culture and island culture and misunderstandings with the local Samoan commun
ity. On one occasion I was summoned to the Vice President's office where a
Samoan chief accompanied by four rather large sons was demanding to know if his
daughter was still in school. The Vice President wanted to me to explain the
restrictions of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act to the frustrated chief
while she called campus security. I knew the family, the young woman was a
favorite daughter and a taupou, a ceremonial virgin. She was a graduate student
who moved into the college dormitory to get some relief from her family responsi
bilities while she completed her studies. If I had encountered her father in a social
setting off-campus and he had asked in conversation about his daughter, I would
have had no problem in responding. However, in this setting I had to find the
daughter to obtain her permission to tell her father that she was still in school,
living on campus and doing well.
Working with the Samoan students at the college brought me into their lives
and they became part of ours. My wife also worked at Dominguez Hills, and she,
too, was drawn into this group. Samoan students performed traditional dances at
our wedding, and our honeymoon in the Pacific obligated a stop in Samoa. We had
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to steal a day for ourselves at the hotel in Pago Pago before we contacted anyone.
Then we had to carefully consider who we would call first As soon as we made
the call, our friends came by the hotel, packed us up, insisting we stay with them.
During preparations for the annual Samoan flag day celebrations at the
university, our apartment became an off-campus headquarters. Students stayed the
night cooking, making leis, and practicing their dances. If the singing and noise
were not enough for the neighbors, overnight all the Hibiscus plants in my neigh
borhood were mysteriously deflowered and several stately palms denuded of their
fronds.
In the mid eighties we were invited to join some Samoan teachers, parents
and college students who were trying to find ways to work with and encourage
island children to stay in school. The organization that resulted became the
Association of Pacific Island Educators. APIE gave me access to the even greater
community. Some of my former students are now teachers and are parents them
selves.
In practice, participant observation is supposed to be more about observa
tion than participation. At that time, however, I was not a researcher. My position
in the state university meant I had to interrogate aspects of islander culture more
intensely and systematically than if I had just been "deep hanging out". I was
involved with understanding a culture on the basis of how it fit in when thrown up
against another. My relationship to Samoans was unique because I had to function
as a translator of western institutional culture to Samoans and to explain Samoan
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culture to non-Samoan college officials at the same time that I was trying under
stand what was going on myself. Clifford (1997) observes that translations are
built from "imperfect equivalences", but my situation was no academic exercise in
ethnography. At the time the potential consequences were quite real.
I have attempted in this abbreviated life history to establish my authority to
conduct ethnographic research in the Los Angeles Samoan community. Under
standing the cultural basis for Samoan circulation involves issues of Samoan
culture I have been thinking about and trying to resolve for quite some time. My
approach to this research has been shaped by my access to the community. I have
access to the community because I have been actively involved with this commu
nity for some time. The research period is only a recent phase of an ongoing rela
tionship. My academic training or scholarly research has nothing to do with my
access. In fact, I would have encountered some difficulty if that were the only
basis for my interest in this community. There is more than a little resentment
among Samoans about the academic exploitation of their culture. Academic
scholars have too often abused their welcome. They behave as if their research
grants give them a license to come into these peoples’ lives, poke around and ask a
bunch of intrusive and foolish questions. Then they leave to publish their "expert"
findings and more often than not are not heard from again. Samoans were particu
larly embarrassed by the heated post-mortem debate on the validity of Margaret
Mead's original research on Samoa with its focus on islander proclivities for
sexuality and violence. A recent speaker at a Pacific Islander festival in Los
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Angeles threatened to shoot the next anthropologist who showed up at his door
with a clip board and a tape recorder... and this was a cultural festival not a political
rally.
4. Notes on this research:
A crucial consideration not usually pursued in qualitative research is how
the observer is perceived. During the course of active research the scholar is part
of the culture he/she is observing. But in his analysis he only shares his perception
of that culture and not the part he, the scholar plays in that culture. I am not a "fly
on the wall" and in fact I am dependent on the assistance of Samoans in my
research effort. Another way of understanding my access to the Samoan commu
nity is through the Samoan concept of service. My continuing access to the
community during this research arises from my tautna. Tautua is a Samoan term
that describes unselfish service to family and to community. Most Americans
understand service as a business or as a profession, something for which one gets
paid. For Islanders, tautua is an expression of love, respect, and commitment. It is
an important part of fa ’ aSdmoa and what binds Samoans together as a community
though far from their island homes. As a cultural trait that is highly valued, tautua
is both respected and expected. Within the 'aiga, tautua is considered an essential
character trait for someone to be considered for a chiefly title. I was certainly not
in the running for a chiefs title, but my involvement in APIE and its activities is
viewed as a kind of tautua. This places a social obligation for reciprocity on those
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with whom I worked. Helping me with my research was a way of discharging this
obligation.
Then there is the issue of my geographic positionality. I am not living in a
village on an island in the South Pacific. My field site is the part of Los Angeles
where I live, where I teach, where my wife works and where my children attend
school. So I am part of what I am observing. I often see people I am studying two
or three times a week, or sometimes once a month. We are not distant, except in
the ways that large cities make people distant from one another. They know where
I live and occasionally drop by. Some of the interviews were conducted at my
kitchen table. Often communication is by telephone. It has not been unusual for
my "informers" page me; responding, I call them back on my cellular phone while
driving home on the freeway.
There are other dimensions to my personal capital that shape my perspec
tive. Certainly, one of these dimensions is my personal experience with migration.
Frequent moves were very much a theme of my early life. My father was an Army
officer, and I was raised in a military family. Whenever my father would get new
orders we would have to pack up the household and move to his new posting. This
would occur about every two years. Most of these moves were to military installa
tions within the United States, but there were also foreign postings. I started grade
school while my father was working at the American embassy in London.
Although there was a certain excitement about seeing new places, I never
thought the frequent moves as being in any way unusual. For me home wasn't a
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place; it was family. My family was military, and moving was just one more thing
that distinguished military life from civilian life. Indeed, this distinction was the
more significant socio-cultural divide.
My father retired from military service while I was still in high school, and
took a job in Southern California. We packed up everything and made one last
move across country. Appropriately, we followed Route 66, tracing the path west
taken by so many other domestic migrants. I remember this move more vividly
than the others. It was not the mechanics of moving nor the scenery, but the
apprehension of transit from military life to civilian life. I wasn’ t sure I knew how
to be a civilian.
Now I have lived in Los Angeles longer than all the other places I have
lived combined. I still hesitate to call this place home. In the back of my mind I
have always expected to be making another move. I am still the nomad, and I
know this attitude shapes my approach to migration studies. Nevertheless, my
scholarly interests are informed by my early experiences not driven by it. Others
may view human movements as an exceptional condition, I know otherwise.
5. Conclusion:
The thrust of this research is to reveal the socio-cultural processes involved
in Samoan circulation. I want to be able to identify key players in this dynamic
process and to understand their role in the migrant community. I want to find out
how decisions to travel are made in different circumstances, and who decides who
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is to travel. How is ritual or other socio-cultural travel to another urban Samoan
community different from travel to Samoa? The aim is to obtain a fairly complete
understanding of how the Samoan circulation network functions. More important
ly, I want to understand why it functions. What is the social and cultural value of
travel?
Finding answers to these questions require some knowledge of the Samoan
experience in modem times. The next chapter describes the history of recent
Samoan migration and their pattern of overseas settlement. Specific characteristics
of the settlement in Los Angeles are detailed, and I examine the accommodations
of key institutions of Samoan culture to the urban experience.
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Chapter Four.
SAMOAN MIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT
1. Samoan Migrations:
One would be hard put to find a people more distant geographically,
socially, and economically from urban America. The Samoa Archipelago lies
almost 4800 miles southeast of Los Angeles midway between Hawai’ i and New
Zealand and just south (13° 48'S) of the Equator. The islands encompass 1,181
square miles distributed among four major islands. The entire land mass would fit
inside Rhode Island. Although the islands share a common culture, politically the
Samoas are divided between the United States’ possession of American Samoa and
the independent republic of Samoa (formerly Western Samoa).
Samoa lies at the heart of the Polynesian cultural region, and is one of the
most ancient of the Polynesian places. Fragments of artifacts date habitation to at
least 1000 B.C. Samoan culture is so ancient that they are one of the few Polyne
sian peoples whose origin myth lacks a migration component. Tradition tells them
they did not come from anywhere else. Yet, Samoa was one of the embarkation
points for the Polynesian migrations that populated the Pacific (Bellwood 1989).
These migrations were remarkable not only because of the long voyages
over open ocean required to colonize the remote islands of the Pacific, but because
these dispersed settlements continued to maintain contact with each other for many
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74
centuries. Scholars have debated about whether these long voyages ended with
European contact or hundreds of years earlier. Yet, early European explorers of the
Pacific reported encountering large Polynesian voyaging canoes while still far out
to sea. A British traveller in the late seventeenth century observed a large Samoan
voyaging canoe in Sikiana (8° 25’ S, 162° 40*E), a distance of more than 1800 miles
from Samoa (Lewis 1994). Regardless, European intrusion into the Pacific had a
profoundly disruptive effect upon island culture. One of the casualties was this
ancient heritage of mobility. However, it also brought about an entree to new
modes of travel for Pacific Islanders, and, ultimately, access to global systems of
circulation.
The islands of Samoa remained independent until 1899 when a treaty was
negotiated between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. The
United States claimed the eastern islands, including Pago Pago, one of finest
natural harbors in the Pacific. Germany was ceded the larger and more populous
western islands. At the start of World War I New Zealand seized Western Samoa
from Germany and thereafter retained authority over it.
During most of this period of Western rule few Samoans left the islands. In
1950-51, on the eve of its twentieth century migrations, the population of the
islands totaled less than 100,000. The small population of Samoans overseas,
about 2500, were settled primarily in New Zealand and in Hawai'i. Despite the
different administrative status of their islands, there continued to be fairly open
intercourse between America Samoa and Western Samoa.
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World War II transformed the economy of American Samoa. Pago Pago
became an important U.S. Naval facility, and construction and stevedoring replaced
subsistence agriculture. For a while U.S. Marines outnumbered the Samoan
population (Lewthwaite, 1972). Paid labor and military pay injected substantial
amounts of cash into the local economy stimulating a demand for off-island goods.
The end of the war brought an end to the boom but Samoans were not prepared to
go back to subsistence conditions.
The catalytic event for Samoan migration occurred some years after World
War II. Samoans call this their "Great Migration". In 1951 the administration of
American Samoa was transferred from the Department of Navy to the Department
of the Interior. The closing of most Naval facilities in Pago Pago also meant an
end to the civilian jobs attached to those facilities. The Fitafita Guard, the Navy’s
native auxiliary personnel, were given the opportunity to join the regular service.
They all volunteered. The Fitafita Guard was established by the Navy in 1900 to
provide security for naval installations in Samoa and to function as the local police
force. The Fitafita were best known for their band which became a signature of
official functions in American Samoa. With the transfer to the regular Navy 117
Samoan naval personnel with 257 dependents were relocated to Honolulu. In July
of 1952 the USS President Jackson was made available to transport the remaining
dependents. For those not affiliated with the military passage to Honolulu could be
purchased for 30 dollars. The USS President Jackson embarked for Honolulu with
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Figure 4.1: The U.S.S. President Jackson at Pago Pago Harbor, July 1952 (Reprinted, by permission,
from D. Pouesi 1994. An Illustrated History o f Samoans in California, p8).
O n
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958 Samoans, of which 369 were military dependents (Bom 1992). The military
personnel were stationed at Barber’ s Point. Initially, most of the non-military were
housed in Laie, a community of several hundred Samoans near the Mormon
Temple outside of Honolulu. Within a year 119 had moved on to the Mainland.
These folk provided an initial seed population for settlements in Hawai'i and
certain locations on the United States west coast close to U.S. Naval bases. By the
end of 1952 another 500 Samoans had been recruited to work on farms in Califor
nia (Pouesi 1994).
By the end of the decade some 8000 Samoans had left the islands. Migra
tion accelerated after commercial air service to Hawai’ i was established in 1959.
More than one hundred Samoans were flying north each month (Lewthwaite 1972).
Their primary destination was Honolulu, but by 1960 the California settlements
were substantial enough to support their own churches and community organiza
tions.
The international boundary between the Samoas has fashioned a different
migration experience for each population. There was no similar precipitating event
in Western Samoa. Yet, their migration commenced in the mid 1950's and mirrored
that of American Samoa. For Western Samoans the primary destination was New
Zealand where they had access because of their colonial relationship. New Zealand
continued granting Western Samoans preferential status for immigration until the
late 1970's when regulations were implemented to slow this flow (Shankman
1993). Migration from Western Samoa was thus deflected east.
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Figure 4.2: SAMOAN MIGRATION STREAMS
Christchurch
S an
Diego
S eattle
W e ste rn
S a m o a
Salt Lake
City
S an
F ran cisco
A m erican
S a m o a
Los
A ngeles
Auckland
Honolulu
W ellington
S y d n ey
oo
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American Samoa is the nearest possible destination for Western Samoans.
With its economy substantially subsidized by the U.S. government, American
Samoa functions as an economic magnet for Polynesian migrants. The interna
tional boundary hardly hindered the lively social intercourse between the two
Samoas. Nor did the porous border much restrain the migration eastward. How
ever, changes in the regulatory environment facilitated Western Samoan emigration
to the United States. The Immigration Act of 1965 provided additional opportuni
ties for Western Samoans. The Act abolished the national origins quota system so
that Western Samoans could now apply for immigration openly and directly.
Provisions of the law gave preferences for uniting families and siblings. This
enabled Samoans already in the U.S. to bring over other members of their extended
families. The Samoan practice of liberal adoption allowed others entree by joining
a family network with ties in American Samoa and the United States. In 1960
there were 1,704 Western Samoans resident in American Samoa. Now, there are
more than 14,700 Western Samoans in American Samoa, more than thirty percent
of the territory's population. American Samoa provides a gateway to the United
States. The 1990 Census revealed 12,638 persons whose place of birth was
Western Samoa. Currently, three to five thousand Samoans, Western and Ameri
can, emigrate each year for all destinations.
The global diffusion of Samoans has been accomplished through chain
migration. However, the Samoan migration has not been the net result of individ
ual choices. Emigrants are usually selected, supported and sent to stay with family
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80
members already abroad. Who migrates and where are decisions made in the
context of the Samoan extended family, the ’ aiga. Kallen (1982) calls this the
Kinship Bridge. Emigrants are selected on the basis of tautua, their record of
service to the aiga, and the expectation of their future service. Migration is
viewed in the context of service to the 'aiga, so even the initial destination is
usually a decision of the family chief. The continued connections between
emigrants, family leadership and home village facilitates continued migration. The
remittances they send back are used to finance the migration of other members as
well as support family projects. Kallen (1982) reports that travel expenses for
seventy percent of emigrants from Western Samoa were provided by family
members.
The migration has also enjoyed the support of the Samoan government. In
Western Samoa the expressed government policy has been to reduce immigration
and encourage emigration. Immigration is permitted only on a temporary basis for
workers and their families. In its Fourth National Development Plan the govern
ment declared its intention to rely on emigration as the primary vehicle to control
population growth (United Nations 1990). To be sure, the National Development
Plan articulates support for an already well established trend. No specific regula
tory strategy to encourage emigration was proposed or needed.
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2. Overseas Settlement Patterns:
The modem geography of Samoans is better understood in terms of both the
spatial dimensions and the demographic implications of their twentieth century
migration. The migration has produced a global pattern of Samoan settlements in
major urban areas of the Pacific Rim and beyond. At the same time the growth of
the Samoan population has been redirected abroad and the overseas settlements
now constitute the new centers of population growth. This expansion has been
accomplished while preserving core Samoan values in the islands and encouraging
emigrant Samoans to maintain fa ’ aSamoa and their commitment to their island
home.
Interestingly, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormon
Church) was instrumental in the early migration of Pacific Islanders to the United
States (Small 1997). The first Mormon missionaries arrived in Samoa in 1888,
rather late in the missionary game. The islands had already been thoroughly
christianized by the London Missionary Society and by Catholic missionaries. The
Mormons "...found a mission field that was far from fertile" (Holmes and Holmes
1992). Perhaps, this is why the Mormons were the only religious group to system
atically encourage emigration to the United States. The church funded the migra
tion of hundreds of Samoans to Mormon centers in Hawai’ i, Salt Lake City, and
Independence, Missouri. These were the only Samoan settlements in the U.S. at
the time of the "Great Migration" and none of these numbered more than a few
hundred Samoans. Samoan Mormons began moving to Hawai’ i in the 1920's after
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Figure 4.3:
Samoan Communities
in the United States
S eattle
1990 Census Data by County
San /
F r a n c i s c o
Lake
Independance
L o s \
[Angel
■ i More than 10,000
■ 800 -10,000
■ 100-800
600 Miles 300
83
the temple at Laie was completed (Bom 1968). By 1925 there were 125 Samoans
living there. Most of these Samoans worked for the church or for the church
owned Laie Plantation. When the USS President Jackson arrived in July 1952, this
was the only substantial Samoan community in Hawai’ i and the nonmilitary
passengers that were housed here nearly doubled the Samoan population.
Four decades of migration have resulted in the formation of substantial
overseas communities of Samoans. The immigrant destinations in the urban areas
of New Zealand, Hawai'i and the American west coast now sustain important
Samoan settlements. In the continental United States substantial communities can
be found in and near the metropolitan areas of San Diego, Los Angeles, San
Francisco and Seattle. Farther inland, the early Mormon settlements in Salt Lake
City, Utah, in Independence, Missouri, and also in Laie, Hawai'i persist as smaller
but still important destinations for Samoan Mormons. Newer settlements of a few
hundred Samoans each can be found emerging in Texas, North Carolina, Alaska,
and Guam. These newer communities also seem to be associated with proximity to
military bases.
By the early 1990’s some 52,000 Samoans resided in the continental United
States. Most were to be found in California. Another 17,000 lived in Hawai'i
(Koletty 1994). These numbers seem quite modest, and indeed they are. In all
locations on the United States mainland the population of Samoans constitute less
than one percent of the local population. Nevertheless, the overseas communities
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are very important for the Samoan people. Today, nearly half of the world
population of Samoans of 365,000 lives outside of the archipelago.
Table 4.1: World Population of Samoans
Location 1950-51 1990-91
American
Samoa
18^37‘ 47,0004
Western
Samoa
80,1531 160,0005
Hawai'i 0 0
0 0
17,000*
U.S. Mainland 2942 52,0006
California 28,328
Washington 3,589
Utah 1,760
Texas 692
Alaska 569
New Zealand 1,336s 86,0007
Australia
-----
3,0008
TOTAL 101,602 365,000
1. Harbinson, 1986 5. Western Samoa Census 1991
2. Hayes. 1984 6. U.S. Census 1990 + 20%
3. Va’ a, 1992 7. New Zealand Census 1991
4. U.S. Census 1991 8. Connell and McCall, 1989
The data assembled in Table 4.1 reveal other dimensions of the Samoan
migration. In the forty years between 1950-51 and 1990-91 the world population
of Samoans increased by 260 percent. The population of Western Samoa only
doubled over this same period. While the average annual growth for Samoans
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worldwide was 3.25 percent, the average annual growth rate in Samoa remained
1.8 percent Clearly emigration has been the safety valve relieving the stress of
what otherwise would have been a crippling rate of population increase for an
economy largely based upon subsistence agriculture.
Unrestrained population growth can pose severe problems for any region,
but particularly for a developing region dependent upon subsistence agriculture.
Island regions present more severe challenges for a growing population because of
the absolute limitations of land and resources. Emigration not only relieves the
pressure of a growing population, but for Samoans it has also been the demo
graphic response which has had the minimum immediate impact upon their culture.
The Samoan migration has accomplished a level of control of population growth
without compromising certain widely held values within Samoan society. The
aiga is the base political and economic unit, so the larger the extended family, the
greater its political influence and power. As Christians Samoans tend to embrace
fundamentalist concepts which favor large families and discourage fertility control
measures particularly abortions. Family size preferences and sexual and marital
practices are not challenged by emigration. Further, migration lowers the popula
tions’ fertility because emigrant Samoans tend to be younger adults. It is also
socially and economically beneficial for ’ aiga. The status of aiga is enhanced
from foreign educated children. ’ Aiga actually profit from remittances sent back by
overseas aiga members. In Western Samoa these remittances are an especially
important source of income for village economies. These monies are funnelled to
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families through traditional Samoan practices, and thus preserve and strengthen
traditional Samoan institutions.
The effect of the Samoan migration has produced a diaspora without
estrangement. Connections to family, village and culture have remained largely
intact despite immense spatial barriers. Nonetheless, this new geography of
Samoans confronts Samoan culture with the challenges of distance and the modem
urban settings of the overseas settlements.
3. The Samoan Community in Los Angeles:
Nearly lost within the sprawling suburban reaches of the greater Los
Angeles metropolitan area resides the largest community of Samoans in the United
States. The heart of this community lies in the southern portion of Los Angeles
County in the cities of Carson and Compton, the Wilmington district of Los
Angeles, and the western segment of Long Beach. This area is characterized by
single family residences and small apartment buildings of moderate and less than
moderate income. It is very much a working class community. To the south lie the
twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, one of the largest harbor complexes in
the world. Adjacent to the harbor are several major oil refineries, and the Alameda
Transportation Corridor cleaves the eastern portion of this area. The United States
headquarters for several major Japanese firms are located in nearby Gardena and
Torrance just to the west. There are clusters of warehouse facilities and light
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S
l &
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industry throughout this area. To the north lies the chronically impoverished South
central district of Los Angeles. The 1990 Census revealed communities in this area
to be among the most ethnically diverse in the nation (Allen and Turner 1996).
The city of Carson, for example, displays a remarkably balanced ethnic distribu
tion; 22.06% white, 25.93% African-American, 27.41% Hispanic and 24.02%
Asian or Pacific Islander (1990 Census). Local officials claim that more Samoans
live here than in American Samoa. However, the 1990 Census was hampered by a
severe undercount of this population and only enumerated 11,934 Samoans for all
of Los Angeles County and 2314 Samoans in Carson1 . As with other islander
communities on the west coast, the catalyst for settlement in the area were Samoan
servicemen and their families based at the U.S. Naval Base in Long Beach. More
importantly, in the fifties and sixties the proximity of lucrative job opportunities in
the defense industry, aerospace, oil refineries and the Los Angeles/Long Beach
Harbors provided the economic sustenance for the community to grow.
A few Samoans such as Junior Seau of the San Diego Chargers, and Jesse
Sapolu of the San Francisco Forty Niners, have achieved recognition for their
prowess in professional sports. Most Samoan workers are concentrated in manu
facturing, trades, and service industries (Franco 1993). Nationally, about one in
three Samoan workers are in technical, sales and administrative support occupa
tions. Twenty percent are in service occupations. Another 21.7% are employed as
operators, fabricators and laborers (U.S. Bureau of Census 1993). In Southern
California most Samoan workers are concentrated in the trucking (7.5%), construc
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89
tion (7.1%) and food service (7.0%) industries (Allen and Turner 1997). An
unusual number of Samoans work in private protective services (about 11% of the
industry), typically as security guards (Allen and Turner 1997). One out in five
Samoan women in southern California work in hospitals (12.9%) or restaurants
(7.1%). Only half as many Samoans (13.5%) are employed in managerial and
professional occupations as the national population (26.4%) (U.S. Bureau of
Census 1993).
Samoans are among the most impoverished ethnic groups in the United
States (Bousseau 1993). The 1990 Census furnishes ample evidence of this
socioeconomic disadvantage. About one in four Samoan families were found
living below the poverty level. This compares to the total U.S. poverty rate then of
ten percent. The median family income for Samoans was only 77.3% of the
median income for all U.S. families. The per capita income for Samoans, $7,690,
was about half that of the national per capita income figure ($14,143).
Although Los Angeles houses the most important Samoan settlement in the
continental United States, it is almost invisible amid the large urban agglomeration
that is Los Angeles. For example, Carson High School's football team is widely
respected (feared actually) for its starting lineup of Samoan players, yet, Samoans
constitute only six percent of the student population. The substance of this
community is revealed in the clustering of Samoan churches, small markets, and
specialized community service centers as well as the social and cultural activities
centered here. The visible characteristics of the Los Angeles community are
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typical of those found in other urban Samoan settlements in California and the
West coast.
A Samoan Ethnoscape:
The Samoan community in Los Angeles is not an ethnic enclave in way that
scholars have customarily described ethnic communities. I believe, though, that it
may be very much like the way other small and scarcely noticed immigrant
communities experience modem urban areas. The ethnic landscapes of turban areas
pose distinct challenges for interpretation. There is something there already. The
city itself presents a landscape incorporating the values of the society that built it.
Immigrant groups must fashion their own space within the pre-existing urban
structure. Often, the most recent immigrants find homes in spaces that have housed
a sequence of different immigrant groups. Each has left some imprint of their
passing on the urban scene. Nor is it possible to transplant their culture intact.
Immigrants must accommodate to cultural values of their new home, where
everyday they are confronted with the disparity between the cultural values of who
they are and those of what they must become. Further, they express much more
than the culture of their homeland. Immigrants also embody the aspirations which
brought them to the city, and those aspirations are not likely to emerge from their
parent culture. So the imprints of urban ethnic groups involves not only expres
sions of culture, but also of aspirations. Appadurai (1991) calls these settings,
ethnoscapes. These new landscapes of group identity can be found inscribed
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91
within the interstices of that dominant cultural expression which is the modem city,
and as the most recent and topmost layer on the stack of imprints left by earlier
transients.
The Samoan communities sprinkled in and near major urban centers of the
United States west coast are small, isolated and virtually invisible to the larger
society. The largest of these communities number only a few thousand persons.
There is no "Samoa town". The communities lack propinquity, although there is
a tendency for Samoan households to be clustered in certain urban neighborhoods.
Samoans do not dominate any area, and they tend to reside in areas that are
ethnically mixed and predominantly minority. Their numbers have been insuffi
cient to form any well-defined ethnic enclave. Nor is their density sufficient to
really distinguish a dominantly Samoan neighborhood. In the heart of the commu
nity there are not more than a half dozen Samoan households per city block. Only
certain public housing projects, such as the Park Village complex in Compton,
support higher concentrations of Samoan residents.
Ethnoscapes are about people, but Samoans do not stand out from the caco
phony of different peoples and cultures that make up Los Angeles. The presence of
this community becomes apparent as Samoans come together for cultural celebra
tions, sports events and church services. Still, the urban communities of some
ethnic groups can be identified by certain visible signatures such as ethnic restau
rants, shoe shine parlors or laundries. The Samoan community is almost invisible.
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The most noticeable elements of the Samoan community are Samoan Churches and
certain small markets that stock island foods.
Polynesian dance studios are a distinctive feature of Pacific Islander
communities. During the fifties and sixties some immigrant Samoans found
employment in that part of the entertainment industry represented by South Pacific
themed night clubs and restaurants. Polynesian dance troupes and dance studios
established by Samoan performers provided continuing employment. However,
these facilities are not numerous and their usual location in homes and small office
buildings conceals their presence.
The traditional Samoan home in the islands is an open shelter without walls.
Even the modem "western Style" houses in Samoa usually feature a large open
room where family gatherings take place. In California, Samoans will often use
their garages for this purpose. Garages of Samoan homes are frequently left open
revealing a clean, uncluttered interior with mats on the floor and chairs around the
sides. Garages are sometimes used as additional living space to accommodate
visitors from other communities and from the islands.
In residential areas Samoan households do not really stand out from the rest
of the neighborhood. The most distinguishing feature of a Samoan home is likely
to be the assemblage of exotic plants found around the home exterior. Here we
can see a culture transplanted literally. These gardens are used for food supple
ment, but also for personal adornment or decorative purposes. Food crops include
taro (Colocasia esculenta), a basic food staple of most Pacific Islanders, banana
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Figure 4.5: A Samoan market in Carson.
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Figure 4.6: Exotic plants outside a Sam oan home.
95
(Musa), and sugarcane. Plants grown for adornment and decoration include the
fragrant plumeria (Plumaria rubra or " Frangipani” ), hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-
sinensis), and ti (Cordyline terminalis). This unpretentious outward appearance
belies a very different social landscape within the community.
Another type of exterior modification marks, or some would say mars, the
Pacific Islander community— graffiti. The signatures of turban Samoan gangs reveal
nothing particularly stylistic. Unless you knew the neighborhood, you would not
know that they were Pacific Islanders. There is no reason that there should be
anything distinctively Islander about these signatures. They are not expressions of
Samoan culture, but appropriations of urban American territorial markings. It is a
signpost warning those encroaching on their "turf. This is a message they would
not want misunderstood by cultural ignorance. This "keep out" sign would not be
rendered more effective if written in Samoan. One might see this as a visible
measure, or perhaps a harbinger, of their acculturation to Los Angeles.
4. The Urbanization offa ’ aSamoa’ .
The modem American city presents a very different reality than the
tranquility of island Pacific. There is little of island culture that could prepare
Samoans for this urban adventure. Island culture is geared to communal life within
a subsistence economy. Many aspects of urban life pose direct challenges to
Samoan culture. Yet, elements of Samoan culture provide the social support the
new immigrant needs to integrate into city life. Traditional institutions have
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96
accompanied the migration and have not been abandoned. It is the contradictions
between island life and city life that are problematic. Not only must Samoans
adapt to their new life, but so must Samoan culture. The real challenge is how
much fa ’ aSamoa can adapt to modem urban conditions and still remain fa aSamoa.
Samoan immigrant settlements and modem Samoan circulation are best
understood in the context of a spatial tradition altered by migration and a culture
modified and reconstructed by settlement in urban America. The accommodations
of fa ’ aSamoa to the modem urban environment reveals a dynamic engagement.
Samoan culture is not being overwhelmed, but is engaging the challenges of its
new setting, maintaining many of the old values, modifying traditions to new
circumstances, and adapting western ways into the culture. These changes may not
seem entirely beneficial, but in them can be discerned the emergence of a distinc
tive urban Samoan culture. To illustrate this below I examine the challenges for
three key Samoan institutions: the extended family, the system of family chiefs,
and the Samoan church.
The Reconstructed Spatiality of the ’ Aiga:
The fundamental social and economic unit of Samoan society is the aiga,
or extended family. An aiga can range in size from thirty or forty to hundreds of
members (Bousseau 1993), and there are hundreds of aiga. Members of an aiga
claim descent from common ancestors and include brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles,
cousins and so forth (Filoiali'i 1983). The aiga also includes those related by
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marriage or adoption. The aiga is headed by a matai or clan chief. Land and
property in Samoa belong to the aiga and are passed down within the family.
Decisions about the allocation of family resources are made by the matai.
Even Samoan college students sign over their financial aid checks to their family.
The communal sharing emphasized within the extended family system contrasts
starkly with the American emphasis on independent achievement Samoan
concepts of sharing and tautua, or service, are not enforced by the social infra
structure of the modem city. However, such customs have been valuable in
facilitating adjustment to modem conditions while still maintaining social and
emotional linkages to the parent culture.
Every Samoan can claim potential membership in several aiga. They
operationalize their membership by participating in family events and providing
family service, tautua, to demonstrate their membership. Family obligations are
such that it is just not possible to activate membership in more than one aiga for
very long. While the weight of family obligations can be onerous, the family also
provides the basis for sharing resources. For newly arrived immigrants, family
members provide food, shelter, assistance in finding jobs, child care, etc.
Decisions about who should travel, when to travel and where to travel are
made in the context of this extended family. As noted earlier the Samoan migra
tion has been more of a social enterprise rather than the net result of individual
economic choices. Emigrants are usually chosen by their family and sent to stay
with family members already abroad. In contrast to the image of the emigrant as
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socially independent, a risk-taker and a non-conformist, Samoan emigrants are very
socialized individuals who have demonstrated a high degree of family and commu
nity involvement (Hanna 1990). They are selected on the basis of tautua, their
record of service to the aiga, and the expectation of their future service. Even the
initial destination is usually a decision of the aiga. The remittances emigrants
send back are used to support family projects and to finance the migration of other
members. Continued connections with family leadership and home village not
only facilitates continued migration but enhances the spatiality of family activities
and concerns. It is not surprising that the cohesiveness of the aiga strongly
persists in mainland cities (Ablon 1971). With the migrations "... the Samoan aiga
has become geographically expanded with only modest modifications of the
traditional tautua, or service, expected of its members (Baker 1986)."
Traditionally, specific aiga are geographically associated with several
villages in which reside the chiefly titles which the aiga possess as well as
proximity to the lands under the authority of those titles. In colonial times some
aiga members could also be found residing away from ancestral villages and near
the seat of colonial authority. This provided aiga access to a new source of status,
the economic opportunities accompanying colonial bureaucracy and commerce.
Still, for those living and working in town there remained but a relatively short
journey back to the 'aiga hearth.
In the modem era, the 'aiga have become global as family members have
become widely dispersed. However, inasmuch as this migration has been largely
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accomplished via chain migration, the overseas components of specific 'aiga have
tended to cluster in certain immigrant communities. For Samoans this agglomera
tion cannot replicate the social ecology of the village which supports the 'aiga.
One result of their chain migration is that households in Samoan settlements
consist of more complex family arrangements than just the nuclear family. Primary
residents may be of one immediate family, but urban Samoan households are
commonly augmented by other 'aiga members and visitors from the islands.
Despite proximity, households for any given aiga can be found scattered amid
several different neighborhoods and in several different communities. Family
affairs are thus spatially interrupted and must now take place within the interstices
of the modem urban setting. So family functions that compel participation assume
greater importance than such functions would in Samoa.
Life course activities such as weddings and funerals are celebrated in a
highly formal manner with an elaborate display of Samoan custom. Such
occasions reaffirm the cohesiveness of the aiga and reinforce Samoan culture. In
some ways fa 'aSamoa is more demanding in urban overseas communities than in
Samoa. Los Angeles residents often complain, "Fa 'aSamoa is much worse here."
Samoan protocols are given greater emphasis. Some events are accorded ceremony
and fa 'alavelave which would not warrant such recognition in Samoa.
Ceremony validates the importance of such occasions. A central expression
of Samoan culture is the ritual exchange called a fa 'alavelave. Fa 'alavelave
consists of a ceremonial presentation and sharing of gifts which takes place at
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funerals and weddings and other important events. Every significant journey to
another Samoan community involves a fa 'alavelave at the destination. Fa ’ alave
lave heightens the importance of the occasion by investing the honor and status of
the participants not only in their attendance but in the expenses and preparations for
the event. However, beyond these events where family authority is intense, and
church functions which are often family functions, the social environment of the
village is absent except to the extent that it is recreated within each household. So
in its modem setting the milieu of the 'aiga has been distorted, fragmented and
isolated. The modem mobility of Samoans which has shaped this new spatiality
also maintains it. The circulation of Samoans weaves these scraps of social fabric
together and continues to reinforce its integrity.
Diminished Role of Family Chiefs:
The aiga in American cities is not socially supported as in Samoa. In
particular, the family chiefs, matai, in the overseas communities have difficulty
fitting in the modem urban setting. The source of their status and authority lies in
the villages and lands attached to their title and in an extended family scattered in
communities often thousands of miles from each other. In this enhanced spatiality,
the chiefs can no longer exercise the personal leadership and supervision over
family matters and intra family relationships that they did in their villages. Outside
of Samoa, chiefly titles are only recognized by Samoans and neither understood nor
acknowledged by the host society. The authority of the matai prevails within the
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family, but their status is not supported by the social structure of the larger society.
Hence, their ability to effectively represent family interests is handicapped.
In Samoa, transgressions by an individual actually incurs a debt on their
aiga. Family leaders are regularly called to account for the misbehavior of family
members. Even minor infractions involve the prestige and status of the family.
For instance, if some children were too noisy during the village prayer hour their
family might be called before the village council. This is very embarrassing for the
family. In urban America the family would not be notified of a traffic violation by
one of their children. In Samoa the whole village would know.
Some communities have organized local councils of chiefs modeled on the
village councils in Samoa. However, the effectiveness of these councils has been
limited because the larger society generally ignores their authority. The chiefs are
separated from the land in which their titles and authority are invested, and the
councils tend to become arenas in which to act out inter-family squabbles.
Councils have been more successful in Honolulu because the size of the Samoan
community is proportionally larger and more visible than elsewhere. Even in
Honolulu several such councils exist because of the antagonism between various
aiga. Nevertheless, there have been instances in which their leadership has been
essential. For instance, in 1992 within weeks of the Los Angeles riots another jury
in nearby Compton acquitted another police officer of the shooting death of two
Samoan brothers. The local council of chiefs organized a demonstration and
protest march and then they opened a dialogue with city leaders and meetings with
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the police and the media. By exerting their traditional authority the chiefs were
able to keep the response of an enraged community non-violent
Only among the households of Samoans are the matai titles respected and
their status and leadership acknowledged. For the Samoan chiefs abroad, their
functions have been reduced to largely ceremonial responsibilities and to deciding
the involvement of their families in larger functions of the community. In this
constrained socio-political environment the few circumstances in which they can
exercise traditional prerogative assume greater social significance. So Samoan
chiefs in settlements necessarily become guardians of fa 'aSamoa. It is the social
arena in which their status is uncompromised.
An important aspect of modem Samoan chiefdom is its transnational
character (Van der Ryn 1991, 1992). Samoan chiefs abroad are often summoned
back to their home village in Samoa to fulfill their responsibilities of office and to
arbitrate disputes. Further, there are ceremonial functions that require their
participation throughout the extended aiga. The family must provide the financial
support for these travels. It is the chiefs responsibility to prioritize the commit
ment of family resources.
Travel is a time honored means of manifesting leadership and authority.
The 'royal progress', as it has been called, has been and continues in its modem
forms to be a compelling ceremonial convention whereby rulers take symbolic
possession of their realm. Geertz (1983) likens it to a wolf spreading its scent to
mark his territory. He argues that, "The mobility of the king was thus a central
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103
element in his power...(pl38)," and an important means by which royalty trans
forms the trappings of authority into the substance of rule (pi24). In some ways
the mobility activity of contemporary Samoan chiefs demonstrates these effects,
but there is also a pragmatic function to the chiefs' travels. In a real sense, the
chiefs manage the modem spatiality of their aiga. They make sure that the
disparate elements of their 'aiga remain socially interwoven, and that no household
or group of households are unduly burdened with family responsibility.
Wives must often fulfill the breadwinner role for urban matai who are so
frequently called upon to attend to distant family responsibilities that they find it
difficult to maintain a full time job. This has changed the status of women in
Samoan households because they are now also an important and sometimes
primary source of income. This also means that Samoan chiefs are likely to be
unemployed or hold menial jobs which further diminishes their standing in the
larger society. "A lot of people who hold chief titles eventually move back to
Samoa. They really can’ t be a chief of the family and support themselves here."
The collapse of spatial barriers in the years following World War II have
provided Samoan chiefs with the ability to expand their domain to include family
members in settlements thousands of miles distant But this expansion has exposed
Samoan social space to the stress of distance and foreign influences. The social
domain has expanded but social control has weakened. Only the personal inter
vention of the matai can maintain the character of the aiga and the active involve
ment of family members. The modem matai must reinforce the social field by
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104
personal visits and ceremony. In order to maintain the family discipline and
respect for Samoan tradition, the modem chief must travel extensively. Internation
al circulation has become an essential feature of fa ’ aSamoa.
The New Status of Samoan Churches:
In any village in Samoa, the most prominent structure is its church. The
islands were swiftly and completely Christianized early in the 19th century.
Samoans have a reputation for their religious devotion. Holmes and Holmes
(1992) report that 77 percent of the population of American Samoa belong to the
Congregational Christian Church of Samoa, the church established by native
teachers of the London Missionary Society. Here in Los Angeles, their devotion is
not as limited to this particular stream of Christianity. Methodist, Roman Catholic,
Latter Day Saints, Adventist, Pentecostal and Nazarene are also well represented in
the Samoan community. Religious practice is thoroughly incorporated into
Samoan daily life. The bells of village churches ring out several times each day to
announce prayer time. The populace of Samoan villages belong to the few aiga
that own titles vested in that village. Consequently, parishes are composed of these
same few 'aiga. Religious leaders come from the same aiga as the village, and
some religious leaders even hold chiefly titles.
Among the immigrant settlements the Samoan church has emerged as the
most important social institution. Samoan churches were important in forging
early linkages between Samoan settlements. The first Samoan church in the
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105
continental United States was founded in San Diego in 1956. Many Samoans in
Los Angeles would travel to San Diego on weekends for services, returning home
Sunday night (Taase 1994). The first Samoan church in Los Angeles, Lokou ole
Ola, opened in 1957 under the Rev. Tuiofu Foisia, a Fitafita.
Here, as in Samoa, churches are the most prominent built structure of the
community. They are not only the most visible symbol of the community but its
social anchor as well. The churches facilitate the enhanced sociospatial structure of
the immigrant islanders, a people dispersed from their village life into isolated
households in a foreign city. Janes (1990, pl65) professes that, "The church has
become the urban Samoan village." Certainly, the Samoan church is the paramount
social institution for urban Samoans, but it does not claim the same place in their
heart as their nu u, their home village. The church functions as a kind of village
green. It is the facility large enough to host ceremonials, and so serves as a node
for the immediate social life of several ’ aiga, and it also functions as a node for the
larger spatiality of local ’ aiga. In Samoa, villages are built around the malae or
village green. Where the malae is open space defined by village housing, the
church hall is protected space enclosed by walls rather than family.
The map in figure 4.6 shows the distribution of Samoan places of worship
in the Los Angeles area. These include ethnic churches such as the Samoan
Congregational Christian Church and also other congregations with substantial
Samoan membership including Methodist churches, Roman Catholic parishes and
Mormon temples with Samoan wards. I constructed this map because I wanted a
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106
00
£ o\
2£ ©\
(VB
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« Miles
107
way to verify centers of Samoan settlement. I reasoned that the presence of
Samoan churches should reveal the locus of urban Samoan community life. The
data base for this map was drawn from several sources. I began by compiling a list
of churches attended by the Samoans I knew. Then I applied Zelinsky's (1980)
technique of perusing regional telephone directories for key words. I also con
sulted "yellow page" services on the internet I obtained a list of the member
institutions of the Fono a Faifeau Samoa, the Council of Samoan Ministers. For
non-participating denominations, I went directly to the source. For instance, in the
case of the Roman Catholics I contacted the Los Angeles Archdiocese Office to
find out which of their churches served Samoan congregations. Finally, I field
checked the data by visiting each site in the Los Angeles area. No one source
yielded a complete list, but I am confident that the data represented on this map is
the most complete catalog of Samoan places of worship in the Los Angeles area.
Although the leadership of Samoans chiefs is ignored by the dominant
society, the social importance of churches is recognized and encouraged. Ministers
are often called upon to act as intermediaries between their parishioners and
schools, social welfare agencies, and the courts. This recognition has elevated the
status of religious leaders within the Samoan community while the authority of the
matai diminishes. Acknowledging the important role of the church in the lives of
urban islanders, Samoan religious leaders in the Los Angeles area joined together
to form Fono a Faifeau Samoa i Kalefonia i Saute, a Council of Samoan Ministers.
This represents the first such organization anywhere in the Samoan diaspora.
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108
According to Dr. Elia Taase, the Council's first president, creating the Council
empowers ministers to "..take the leadership role that the matai are supposed to."
In Samoa people identify themselves by their village and by their matai.
Samoans in the United States identify their urban locale by church affiliation and
pastor. In a place where Samoans lack a village structure many intra-village
aspects of fa ’ aSamoa are assumed by the church (Kotchek 1978). Church services
are conducted in Samoan, and are better attended than in Samoa. The churches
unite the immigrant community by bringing 'aiga together. Here, too, most
Samoan churches are affiliated with specific aiga, but there are more aiga
represented than would be the case in Samoa. Church membership provides
another basis for sharing resources in time of need. Thus mutual church affiliation
allows aiga access to the human and economic resources of each family’ s spatial
domain.
Close association with family ties has certain drawbacks. There tends to be
a volatility in the membership of some Samoan churches as family squabbles
become entangled with church affiliations. Church membership can change quite
suddenly as family disagreement results in parishioners changing church alle
giances, and sometimes forming new churches. Despite the aiga discord which
stimulates this congregational mitosis, the formation of new churches establishes
new sociocultural centers where services are available to the Samoan community
New chinches also provide additional nodes for the activity circuits which define
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109
the community. These services and activities, as well as the greater visual identity
created by new churches, makes the locale of the community a more Samoan place.
5. Conclusion:
The migrations of Samoans during the second half of the twentieth century
have created an archipelago of small communities in the major urban areas of New
Zealand, Hawai'i and the U.S. West Coast. The largest of these urban Samoan
settlements is found in Los Angeles. More than just a demographic relocation, the
migrations have facilitated a spatial expansion of the Samoan cultural domain. Not
only are there many more places in the world where Samoans are, but now there
are more Samoan places in the world. Immigrant Samoans adhere to their island
culture in the face of substantial challenges. The key institutions which served
them well in their island home: the 1 aiga, the matai system, the church, have been
adapted to their new urban setting, modified in form but still keeping to core values
of the culture. The accommodations of these institutions in Los Angeles are
similar to those in other urban Samoan communities. Though families and
communities are separated by substantial spatial barriers, an extensive social
circulation field binds them together.
Like other Polynesian peoples, ancient Samoans travelled extensively
throughout island Pacific. During colonial times their travelling was confined to
their archipelago. Now in modem times the ancient traditions of circulation and
spatiality have been resuscitated in response to the new Samoan transnational realm
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110
that spans the Pacific. The function of this circulation serves to expand the
resource base of the aiga, replenish and reinvigorate Samoan culture abroad, and
maintain the expanded Samoan cultural sphere. At the same time this circulation
facilitates the incorporation of urban cultural accommodations and western
commodities into Samoan culture. The next chapter explores this heritage of
mobility and the specific components of modem global circulation that sustains the
Los Angeles community.
NOTES:
1. Population data from Samoa am probably the most mliable. In New Zealand and
Australia them is some difficulty accounting for "overstayers", and the 1990 United States
Census has been challenged for its undemnumeration of ethnic minorities. There is a
substantial disparity between the U.S. Census enumeration of Samoans and the assess
ment o f population size by Samoans themselves as well as those public agencies and
services that work in the Samoan communities. Hayes and Levin (1984) estimated that the
actual number of Samoans in the United States was 10 percent to 17 percent greater than
the enumeration of the 1980 Census. Knowledgeable public officials and Samoan commu
nity leaders in Hawaii and California suggest that 20 percent would be a conservative
minimum estimate of the undercount for the 1990 Census.
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I ll
Chapter Five.
SAMOAN CIRCULATION
1. Introduction:
Where once international migration patterns commanded our attention,
there is increasing awareness of the significance of transnational and other interna
tional movements. This is especially true for many Pacific island nations where
international migration has been substantial, but international circulation has been
even more spectacular (Skeldon 1990). Attempts at explanation for circulation
have tended to mimic international migration theory. Structural interpretations are
currently favored in which population movements are viewed as dislocations
associated with incorporation of third world economies into the global market.
Notwithstanding the considerable insight into the ramifications of global capitalism
they provide, these models disregard important features of modem circulation.
Three are particularly relevant for this dissertation. First, the current discussions
presume that mobility patterns that characterize transnational and diasporic
communities are a condition of modernity. The emphasis on world capitalism and
modem technologies as the basis for transnationalism ignores traditional motiva
tions for movement and, in the case of Pacific Islanders, an ancient heritage of
mobility. Secondly, the emphasis on transnational ties between immigrant settle
ments and their society of origin overlooks the robust intercourse among immi
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112
grants in the various places of settlement. Third, the focus on global structures,
modem technologies and macrolinks to explain modem spatialities neglects the
vital role of cultural, social and even familial ties in knitting the socio-spatial fabric
of a transnational society together. Pacific Islander circulation argues that indige
nous social and cultural motivations may be more important. An examination of
the mobility behavior of urban Samoans brings into high relief aspects of circula
tion which can only be explained within the context of Samoan culture.
This chapter examines the nature of circulation activities which enfold a
small community of Pacific Islander immigrants in Los Angeles. Samoan circula
tion behavior appears distinctive because much of their travel involves participa
tion in Samoan ritual and essentially ’ village' type activities. Focusing specifically
on Samoan circulation patterns, the chapter begins by considering the ancient roots
of Samoan mobility and the implications of prehistoric Oceanic interaction spheres
mapped by archeologists. Then I explore the dimensions of mobility for modem
Samoans. I describe the various types and purposes of their travel that I have
observed in my research. I identify the principle travellers, and describe the
various circuits that converge on and through the Los Angeles community. I also
consider the movement of Samoan ritual goods whose symbolic significance
defines the spatial domain of fa ’ aSamoa. These activities defy economic and
structural explanations for human mobility and are best understood in the context
of the immigrant culture in which they occur.
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113
2. An Ancient Tradition of Mobility
The origins of Samoans' modem mobility behavior can be found in an
ancient tradition of mobility. Chapman and Prothero argue that "...circulation, far
from being transitional or ephemeral, is a time honoured and enduring mode of
behavior... found at all stages of socioeconomic change" (1985, p6). Regular
visits between villages and between islands within the archipelago have always
been part of the Samoan island experience. These movements were sufficiently
important to construct a protocol for travel, the malaga. The persistence of malaga
into modem times argues that travel in the past must have been for the same
reasons people travel now. These were events involving the life of the village and
the family: weddings, funerals, meetings of chiefs, the selection of a new chief, as
well as trade and religious celebrations. Most travel took place in social groups
formed for that purpose that constituted a delegation of an aiga or as representa
tives of the village.
Samoans were also known to travel well beyond their archipelago. Their
own oral traditions speak to a regular intercourse with nearby island groups of Fiji
and Tonga. Analyzing similarities in artifacts, anthropologists have been able to
identify several ancient and more widely drawn interarchipelago "interaction
spheres" shown in figure 5.1 (Weisler 1998). The larger interaction sphere for
Samoa extends from Rarotonga in the Cook Islands (21° 14'S, 159° 47’ W) to
Polynesian outliers in the Santa Cruz group (11° N, 167° E). For long voyages
Samoans employed a large double canoe called a va 'a tele. These were large
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T --------------------
I Andesite Line
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Mariana Is.
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Figure 5.1: Ancient Oceanic Interaction Spheres. Two interaction spheres involve Samoa. Ethnohistoric sources
define sphere A. Archeological evidence supports sphere B. (reprinted from M. Weisler. "Hard evidence for
prehistoric interaction in Polynesia" Current Anthropology. October 1998. Fig. 1)
115
enough to carry two 25 foot canoes which were used for fishing (Lewis 1994). It
was a va ’ a tele that the British traveller in the late seventeenth century mentioned
in chapter four observed in Sikiana (8° 25'S, 162° 401:), more than 300 miles
farther west of the Santa Cruz group near the Solomon Islands. This means that the
functional diameter of the ancient Samoan interaction sphere was more than 2500
miles across. A round trip to its most distant landfall would entail a journey of
over 3500 miles across mostly open ocean at a time when European navigators
were still loath to leave sight of their coastline. What were they doing in these
larger travels?
The archeological evidence shows that this interaction system was well in
place at least a 1000 years ago. It was truly a remarkable accomplishment, not only
for the great distances involved, nor for the lack of modem technology present, but
for the fact that this appears to be a spatial relationship maintained over some
considerable time. So what was the purpose of this extensive ancient circulation?
The view of the archaeologists is limited to the direct evidence. Their findings are
based upon artifactual analysis such as a comparison of fishhook styles and the
chemical analysis of stone adzes from different islands. The presumption then is
that this circulation must have been about trade. However, the only artifacts that
survive from that period are what Samoans would call 'oloa, goods that have a high
utilitarian value. For islanders real wealth resides in toga goods. These are objects
command a high social and ceremonial value. These would consist primarily of
barkcloth (siapo) and finely woven mats ( le toga). Such artifacts are fragile and
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116
unlikely to survived centuries of tropical humidity. For this ancient commerce to
have endured over such a long period these toga goods must also have been
involved. This then would not be commerce as westerners conceive it. In Samoan
custom, exchange is a very social and highly formalized affair.
I am inclined to think that Samoans then were travelling for much the same
reasons that Samoans travel now. Their ancient "interaction sphere" was more than
an economic spatial relationship. It was a socio-cultural spatial relationship. Many
of the islands comprising this "interaction sphere" were settled by Samoan speak
ing people (Bellwood 1989). These ancient Samoan travellers were not going to
visit customers, they were going to visit family. In these ancient circulation
patterns we can find the template for the socio-spatial web that now links the post
modern archipelago of Samoan immigrant communities with Samoa and with each
other.
3. Aspects of Modern Samoan Circulation:
Although circulation situations are commonly explained in economic
terms, Samoan circulation behavior does not make much economic sense. Travel
to Samoa or distant settlements is not inexpensive. Circulation activities represent
considerable financial burden on the working class migrant community. Much of
this travel involves temporary return to their home villages or other settlements to
participate in certain rituals and celebrations. While there are economic aspects to
this ritual circulation, it is clearly a spatial expression of Samoan culture. The
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117
lOLULU
MELBOU
WELLINGTON
CHRISTCHURCH
Figure 5.2: A Modern Oceanic Interaction Sphere Revealed in
the Route Map for Polynesian Airlines, the National Airline of Samoa
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118
former Secretary General of the South Pacific Commission, Palauni Tuiasosopo
(1988), a Samoan, affirms"... migration is not a threat to our identity or our
membership in our home society." Where migration disperses Samoans, this
circulation disperses fa aSamoa, the Samoan way of life.
For Samoans circulation is part of a larger dialectic and a different concep
tuality of place. Spatial barriers between communities are not viewed in the same
way as westerners might view these distances. A Samoan college student shared
that travelling to other Samoan communities was "...just like going to another
island."
Samoans travel for many reasons: work, education, recreation. My research
focuses on the travelling that involves expressions of cultural identity and group
affiliation. An examination of the circulation patterns of the Samoan community in
Los Angeles reveals the complexity of socio-spatial linkages that tie Samoans
together. These circuits involve visits of short duration, usually a few days but
sometimes weeks. They are made for the purpose of participating in a specific
social or cultural event. Other activities will certainly take place at the destination.
Some activities may even be scheduled so as to take advantage of the visit, but
there is usually a principle event that provides the justification for the journey. The
nature of these events differentiates the circuits that connect the west coast settle
ments with Samoa from those that connect them with each other.
Table 5.1 presents the variety of socio-cultural activities that stimulate
travel. These include ceremonial functions, family and church obligations, life
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Table 5.1: A Typology of Urban Samoan Circulation Activities
P urpose Island Bound California Bound Intersettlem ent
'Aiga potopoto
Saofa'i
Fono
Church conference
Malaga
Tatau
Funeral
Tatalaga Ole Faleula
Wedding
Family Illness
Samoan Flag Day
High School graduation
College graduation
Cultural festivals
Birth/baptism
Sports events
Major movement
Minor movement
V O
120
course events, cultural festivals and sports events. The data are not available to
tally the actual numbers of travellers involved in each activity. Nonetheless, major
movements can be distinguished between the island bound, the California bound or
the intersettlement circuits. The different trajectories of movement underscore
significant differences in the character and function of social relations that link
Samoa with the California settlements from those that link the west coast urban
settlements. Much of the island bound travel is characterized by certain obligations
and ceremonial activities that can only take place in Samoa. The intersettlement
circuits involve more commonplace activities that manifest the vitality of family
and community linkages.
This analysis of the modem circulation activities of Samoans reveals a
transnational socio-spatial network. Significant differences in the purpose and
character of social relations distinguish travel between Samoa and the overseas
settlements from that of travel between overseas settlements. Distinctions can also
be discerned according to the destination of the traveller. Travellers from Samoa
have a different purpose than travellers to Samoa. In travel between the overseas
settlements spatial distance appears to enjoy a social premium. There is greater
social value and prestige accorded to travel from more distant communities than
travel from nearby communities. Finally there is a social distinction that Samoans
make between formal travel groups and those travelling less formally.
Such distinctions are misleading in that they portray dichotomies of
activities where in fact exist only variations. It is essential to understand the social
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121
and spatial contexts in which this mobility takes place. Even the daily activities
(work, school, church) of urban Samoans involve travel distances that contrast
sharply with the propinquity of island village life. Decisions about travel beyond
the community— who should travel, when to travel and where to travel— are essen
tially family decisions.
A Typology of Urban Samoan Circulation:
Island bound circuits
The link between Samoans and their island home has never been severed.
There is considerable circulation back and forth between Samoan migrant commu
nities and Samoa. Even during the early years of the migration "planeloads" of
California Samoans were constantly returning home to visit (Lewthwaite 1972).
By 1985, returning Samoans accounted for more than half of the 85,634 arrivals in
Western Samoa (Western Samoa 1987), an amount equal to one fourth of this
island nation's population. Three fourths of the immigrant Samoans that Janes'
(1990) interviewed for his research on urban Samoan health in San Francisco had
returned to the islands at least once. I can report similar findings for the Los
Angeles area Samoans I know.
Certain traditions compel Samoans to return to the islands from time to
time. Chiefly titles are not inherited, they are conferred through consensus. ’ Aiga
potopoto is the assembly of the family for selection of a new matai or clan chief.
All members of a lineage who have the right to be present are expected to be there,
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and Samoans abroad are expected to return and participate. The saofa 7 , the
ceremonial installation of the new matai, must take place in the village to which the
title belongs. Van der Ryn (1991) argues that the structure of family chiefs, the
matai system with its attendant transactions has been the major force shaping
Samoan international migration trends, in incorporating foreign influences into
Samoan society, and for the maintenance of fa 'aSamoa abroad.
A fono is a ceremonial meeting of chiefs in Samoa. These are also business
meetings. Samoan matai living abroad are expected to return (Van der Ryn 1992).
As titleholders it is their duty to participate and represent the family interest.
Some churches, particularly ethnic Samoan churches such as the Samoan
Congregational Christian Church, hold their annual meetings in Samoa. Ministers
from the California congregations are obliged to attend. These meeting are impor
tant to maintain cohesion among the scattered churches. Because of the national
boundary between the two Samoas, Samoans in non-Samoan churches may find
themselves in different conferences. Samoan ministers in these denominations will
often attend meetings that take place in Samoa even if it is not their conference. It
gives them a reason to go to the islands, and an opportunity to confer with other
Samoan clergy.
Other activities that stimulate travel to the islands include weddings and
funerals. Who travels depends on the status of the family involved and the rela
tionship of the traveller. The higher the status of the family involved the greater
the number of those travelling. Funerals stimulate more island bound travel than
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123
weddings do. Chapter seven analyzes the circulation stimulated by a funeral in the
urban community It reveals a distance decay effect in that most mourners will be
from areas near the memorial service. However, in the case of a funeral in the
islands, an important feature requires further participation of California Samoans.
The Samoan funeral actually activates two circuits. The funeral service is not
complete until the Tatalaga ole Faleula occurs at the end of the year to mark a
formal end to the period of mourning. At this time the tombstone or monument is
formally installed. In recent years it has become the responsibility of family living
abroad to provide this tombstone.
Participation in these activities is an important part of Samoan culture and
establishes status within the aiga. Emigrant Samoans gain status by returning for a
ceremony (and also for the gifts they bring). An 'aiga will also achieve a certain
amount of prestige by having family members from abroad return for a ceremony.
Not to return diminishes one's standing in the aiga.
Another ritual that compels circulation is tattooing ( 'tatau). The traditional
Samoan tattoo is quite spectacular. It consists of an elaborate and intricate design
that covers most of the body surface between the knees and the waist. The proce
dure is fairly involved and painful. It takes several weeks of daily applications by a
skilled tafuga td tatau, tattooist, and there is a lengthy recovery period. Tattoos
were once part of the male coming of age ceremony and particularly important for
those aspiring to a chiefly title. Although discouraged by Christian missionaries,
the practice has never been abandoned. Recently, traditional tattoos have been
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124
growing in popularity among urban Samoan youth (Koletty 1993). Initially an
affectation of young men, now young women are also getting tattooed in traditional
female decor. Once young men and women would have to return to Samoa for
their tatau. Now there is sufficient demand that tafuga occasionally make a circuit
of the overseas communities (Van der Ryn 1997).
California bound circuits
The Samoan term for journey or travel is malaga. Actually, a malaga
denotes a ceremonial visitation paid according to Samoan protocol. A malaga is
usually composed of important members of an aiga or of a local organization such
as a village council of chiefs, an unmarried girls' organization, or an untitled young
mens' organization. Recently, church organizations and sports clubs have orga
nized malaga. Traditionally a malaga involves a kind of delegation. It is a way for
Samoans to travel together as a recognized group for the purpose of participating in
ceremonial activities (Franco 1992). Nowadays they are usually made for fund
raising purposes, but also for goodwill exchange and sometimes just for visiting.
The host community is obligated to provide for the proper ceremonial welcome,
reception ceremonies, fa alavelave exchange, as well as food and lodging for each
member. In practice the malaga system ought to be reciprocal over time. Yet, now
it acts as a conduit for the exchange of traditional Samoan goods from the islands
for money from the overseas communities. More fund raising malaga are made to
the overseas settlements, while most malaga travel to Samoa involves participation
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in traditional ceremonials, and sometimes sending youth groups to introduce them
to traditional island life. Still, the modem malaga, which brings migrants home or
Samoans abroad for visits, continually reinforces the pattern of Samoan values,
social organizations, and behavior (Baker 1986, p i73).
Of course, migration from Samoa continues to expand the immigrant
community. Occasional visits from family and, from time to time, island dignitar
ies require traditional hospitality practices. Their reception in the immigrant
community acknowledges their shared identity and this personal contact encour
ages continued communications with family and friends, with remittances, and
with return visits to their island "home".
Travel within California
The events that stimulate travel between immigrant communities on the
surface appear less exotic and almost pedestrian. Principally they involve wed
dings, funerals, graduations, cultural festivals and sports events. Such occasions
reaffirm the cohesiveness of the aiga and reinforce Samoan culture. In many
ways fa aSamoa is more demanding in the overseas communities than in Samoa.
Los Angeles residents complain, "fa ’ aSdmoa is much worse here." A t-shirt
aphorism popular among urban Samoan youth reads: "I love my 'aiga but I hate
fa'alavelave!" Samoan protocols are given greater emphasis. Some events are
accorded ceremony and fa alavelave which would not warrant such recognition in
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126
Samoa. Life course activities, in particular, are celebrated in a highly formal
manner with an elaborate display of Samoan custom (Ablon 1971).
California Samoans often travel in groups. Sometimes these groups are
large enough to require several vans and occasionally even a chartered bus.
Interestingly, California Samoans are careful not to formalize these arrangements
as malaga. I have only heard the term used in reference to formal visitations from
the islands and formal visits to the islands.
Most Samoan weddings take place in spring and summer. Usually the
couple marries in the church of the bride's family (Ablon 1971). The outward
appearance of the wedding activities proclaims acculturation to dominant American
values. The elaborate bridal gown, the numerous attendants formally attired in
long dresses and tuxedos seem quite distant from Pacific Islander ritual. Yet the
prestige of both families is heavily invested in the proper display of traditional
island wealth and custom. So Samoan weddings involve considerable planning and
family involvement and exchange of money, food and property. Often two
wedding feasts are required, and there is an elaborate and precise exchange and
redistribution of gifts between families. And both families donate money to pay
for the wedding expenses. Dignitaries in attendance and family from distant
communities are openly acknowledged and recognized in the fa alavelave.
A funeral in the urban Samoan community culminates a variety of activities
that involves not only relatives, friends and fellow parishioners, but also members
of most of the Samoan churches in the area (Ablon 1970). Memorial services take
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several days and require two evening religious services, one just for the aiga, and
another more public service that includes performances and presentations by choirs
of various local churches. Services are often delayed so that distant relatives can
be notified and make arrangements to attend. Certain local funeral homes cater to
the Samoan community by accommodating the additional ceremonials and allow
ing for the delay in burial (Ablon 1970). The actual funeral service and burial is
followed by an elaborate feast which includes a ritual exchange of finemats and
gifts of money between the 'aiga and the rest of the Samoan community.
Family illness is another motivation for Samoan travel. It may involve a
brief visit or a longer stay to provide care. Of course, relationship to the infirmed
is the principle stimulus, but there are other considerations such as proximity and
status. A matai who is ill will receive more visitors, family and otherwise, than
someone who is not titled. Sometimes illness will spur temporary return migration
as adolescent or adult children return to the islands to care for a sick parent.
Occasionally, a sick parent or other family member is brought to Los Angeles in
order to access better medical care.
Graduation from high school and especially college is a source of great
pride within the Samoan community. It should be. Seventy percent of Samoans
finish high school compared to seventy five percent of the general population, but
only eight percent of Samoans complete a college education, less than half the
twenty percent completion rate for the general population (U.S. Census 1993). The
family of the graduate celebrate with a large feast and an exchange of gifts. Family
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from communities up and down the state will come. Graduation from college is
sufficiently unique that family also come from Hawai'i, Samoa and even New
Zealand.
Several times during the year Pacific Islanders from communities up and
down the California coast come together in different cultural celebrations. The
sites for these celebrations are usually in Los Angeles and San Diego because of
the number of different Pacific Islander communities in these urban areas. Such
events include Samoa Flag Days (one for each of the two Samoas), Ho’ olaule'a, the
Annual Pacific Islander Culture Festival, and various music and dance concerts.
These events involve the various communities of Hawaiians, Tongans, Guamanians
and other Pacific Islanders as well as those of the Samoans in the area and well
beyond the immediate locale. The precise amount of intersettlement travel in
volved with these cultural events may be impossible to ascertain. Nevertheless it is
substantial. At every local event I have attended Samoan friends have introduced
me to relatives from other communities. At the Pacific Islander Festival in San
Diego last summer I met four Samoan families that I knew from Los Angeles. My
wife, a counselor at a local high school, encountered seven Samoan students from
Carson there. These cultural festivals and other community and church events
provide an arena for vivid individual expressions of culture. These include wearing
the distinctive tie lavalava, the brightly colored cloth wrap-around worn by males,
and puletasi, a two-piece dress with a hip length blouse over a straight ankle length
wrap-around skirt (Siufanua and Bousseau 1993). Celebrations are also an occa-
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129
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Figure 5.3: Celebrants a t th e Pacific Islander Festival, Harbor C ity 1999
130
sion to display traditional tatoos. These events are a public way of celebrating their
islander heritage. However, in various communities coming together this way they
also proclaim the growing Pan-Pacific Islander identity.
The effect of these cultural celebrations is to create for a few days an
is la n d e r ethnoscape in the park. Ethnoscapes are expressions of culture in the
urban environment, and encompass more than artifacts and symbols. Here the
most important visual elements are the islanders themselves. As with other
circulation activities, participants in these cultural events return to their community
with their cultural values recharged. However, in this case the experience also
invigorates a shared identity as Pacific Islanders.
Samoan travel also takes place around certain sports events. In the spring
and summer public parks near the community host kirikiti (Samoan cricket)
matches between local teams and also visiting teams from other Samoan communi
ties. These visits might only last an afternoon or over a weekend. There is a
distance decay effect. Teams from nearby communities compete more frequently
than those farther away. Occasionally, teams from Hawai’ i or American Samoa
will make a circuit of the California settlements. Golf and rugby are the other
sports likely to prompt competition and travel between Samoan communities.
The Circulators:
Who exactly is doing all this travelling? The answer depends upon the
primary purpose of the journey, other business that will be attended to either
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131
enroute or at the destination, and the distance to be travelled. In the latter instance,
there is a distance decay effect but it is related to the expense involved. More
people participate in shorter trips because they can. For longer journeys that
involve greater expense, decisions have to be made about who is available and
whose participation or presence would be more important. Recall that the funda
mental social and economic unit of Samoan society is the aiga, or extended family.
Most decisions about who should travel, when to travel and where to travel are
made in the context of this extended family and usually by the family chief or
matai.
Those who tend to travel most extensively are the traditional leadership of
the community, the chiefs and the religious leaders. As chiefly titles are based in
Samoan villages, chiefs are frequently summoned to participate in village cere
mony and to resolve family issues and land disputes. Samoan chiefs residing in the
overseas settlements probably travel more frequently than chiefs still in Samoa.
Since they must travel back to their home village at least once a year, they are more
accustomed to travelling. Further since fa 'aSamoa is observed more rigorously in
the overseas communities, the urban chiefs must do more travel among the various
communities than chiefs still in Samoa.
The collapse of spatial barriers in modem times have provided Samoan
chiefs with the potential and the challenge to expand their domain to include family
members in settlements thousands of miles distant However, this expansion has
also exposed Samoan social space to the stress of distance and foreign influences.
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132
The social domain has expanded but social control has weakened. The personal
intervention of the matai is required to maintain the character of the aiga and the
active involvement of family members. The modem matai must reinforce the
social field by personal visits and ceremony. To maintain family discipline and
respect for Samoan tradition, the modem chief must travel extensively. Intersettle
ment and even international circulation has become an essential feature of
fa ’ aSdmoa.
The faife 'au, or religious leaders, are also frequent travellers. Ministers of
immigrant churches travel more extensively than those in the islands. As a result
of the diminished role of family chiefs in the urban settlements, the ministers here
carry more social authority than their counterparts in Samoa. They do not return to
Samoa as frequently as chiefs do, but they travel more extensively in the United
States because of their interactions with other religious organizations and local
public agencies. Further, their congregations in California are more geographically
dispersed than their village counterparts in Samoa. Families will drive many miles
to attend their family's church. In one instance, a teacher at Carson High School
commutes every weekend to participate in his family's church in San Diego. The
chaplain for the Samoan catholic community in the Los Angeles Diocese, illus
trates the effect this dispersion can have on the social space of faife ’ au. There is
only one Samoan priest in the Los Angeles area that can conduct mass and admin
ister the sacraments in Samoan. Father To via Lui regularly makes the circuit of
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133
parishes with a significant Samoan complement to their congregation. This circuit
includes churches in Long Beach, Carson, Torrance, Santa Ana and even Oxnard.
Samoans commonly travel in groups. When travelling, traditional leaders
are often accompanied by an entourage. In Samoan tradition these travel parties are
formalized as malaga, particularly when there is a ceremonial function at the
destination. The size of the group will vary depending on the purpose of the
journey. They comprise something like a delegation of the important members of a
village, a village organization or an ’ aiga. This entourage are not attendants but
participants in the forthcoming ceremony. Mead observed that young Samoan
women would often make their social debut by joining a malaga (1961). So
malaga circulations include individuals other than just the leadership. Church
groups and sport clubs travelling as malaga have broader representation of the
village or community.
California Samoans also travel in groups, particularly to local
Samoan ceremonies and community functions. These are more loosely organized.
Some groups travelling to the islands will organize as malaga, but, as indicated
earlier, California Samoans are careful not to formalize the travel within state as
malaga. In part this may be because Samoans residing in California urban areas
are more dispersed, accustomed to individual travel, and travel arrangements
involve a more varied mix of individuals from different aiga and social status.
Some informants acknowledge that they want to avoid the social impositions that a
malaga would compel of the participants as well as those at the destination.
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Interestingly, although decisions about who travels are not gender neutral,
as many women travel as men. There are specific functions assigned to men and
women in Samoan ceremony and fa 'alavelave exchanges. So it is as important for
women to travel for these functions as it is for men. Furthermore, there are specific
roles which women fill in the structure of Samoan society that compel their travel.
Firstly, there are women who hold matai titles and travel because of their chiefly
responsibilities . However, the wives of chiefs travel frequently as well. They
accompany their husbands and preside over the duties of the women of their aiga.
They may also travel in place of their husband, not to represent their husband but to
represent the presence of their ’ aiga. The chiefs oldest sister has a special role in
Samoan society as feagaiga or sacred sister. In many ways this position embodies
the fullest expression of social status for women in Samoan tradition. For it is the
ancestral mana, spiritual power, of the 'aiga carried by the sister which infuse the
chiefs title. The brother is essentially the trustee of a title which is made 'alive' by
his sister (Tcherkezoff 1993). Although not a political office, feagaiga weld
considerable social authority. A sacred sister may travel in place of her brother,
but she represents the mana, the spiritual power, of the aiga rather than the secular
authority of her brother. The wives of ministers occasionally accompany their
husbands on their travel. They too have a special role in the Samoan community.
They preside over the activities of the women in their congregation, and represent
the church women when they travel. Sometimes, a minister's wife may travel in
place of her husband as the representative of their church. For Samoan women in
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135
urban Southern California, travel nowadays involves considerations other than
tradition. While who should go depends upon status, who can go depends upon
availability. There is not much distinction anymore between men and women
travelling for fa "alavelave and other ceremonies.
In theory it should be the family chiefs decision as to who will travel to a
particular ceremony, but in practice the decision is more collaborative than unilat
eral. Samoan custom dictates who should be the most appropriate person or
persons to participate in or attend a given ceremony. Who goes depends upon
status, who is closely related to those getting married, the chief being named or the
one who just passed away, and also who else might be involved with fa ’ alavelave.
For urban Samoans family finances and work obligations are important consider
ations. Households are often headed by working couples. Whoever can take the
time off will go. Often it will come down to whoever’ s absence from work would
cause the fewest problems. "Here in America it is not like Samoa. In Samoa, if
you miss a whole week of work everyone understands, but here you can't just take
off for a month to go back home to Samoa." For one elementary teacher the school
year had just begun when her uncle in Western Samoa died. She could not take the
time off so her husband went in her place. Sometimes older children are sent with
money and gifts.
When possible there is an effort to schedule events for times convenient for
those who are expected to participate. This holds true for weddings or chief-
naming ceremonies. In one instance a chief naming was scheduled in August so
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136
that it would coincide with vacation opportunities of Samoan family in California.
But, when it comes to an illness in the family or a funeral ".it happens when it
happens and you have to go."
The Junction in Southern California:
The Samoan community in Los Angeles County lies at the nexus of
domestic and international travel circuits that tie Samoan settlements on the United
States west coast with each other as well as with Samoan settlements elsewhere and
with their island home. As the largest Samoan community on the west coast, Los
Angeles hosts more activities than other settlements. Cultural and family events
held here tend to be larger than in other communities. Members of an aiga in any
of the other west coast communities are likely to also have relatives in the Los
Angeles area. Family passing through the city will stop and visit relatives or join
Los Angeles relatives who are bound for the same event. The event itself provides
for interactions with other relatives that stimulate future visits.
The International Airport in Los Angeles (LAX) is the fifth leading airport
in the world. More than fifty four million passengers pass through LAX each year.
While nearly all travel from Pacific islands to destinations in the United States
mainland pass through Honolulu; Los Angeles is the most important mainland
destination for domestic flights out of Honolulu. More flights from the Pacific and
Hawai’ i arrive in LAX than other west coast airports. For most Samoan travellers
bound for mainland communities, Los Angeles is the gateway. Samoan travellers
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Figure 5.4: THE JUNCTION IN
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Salt L ake
City
Los
A ngeles
Honolulu
S a n J o s e
W e s te rn
S a m o a
Auckland
O c e a n sid e
O xnard
A m erican
S a m o a
S a n ta Ana
138
that have family elsewhere in California usually have family in the Los Angeles
area as well. They commonly arrange their itinerary so as to include a visit. In the
case of travellers from Samoa or New Zealand, there is a social premium for
distance they have travelled, and a visit with family in the area is obligatory. It is
also true that Los Angeles is the primary mainland destination for emigration from
American Samoa. Of course, the immigrants will stay with family until they are
settled.
4. Fa’alavelave and the Modern Spatiality of Samoan Ritual Exchange Goods:
There is yet another dimension to the considerable travel between Samoan
communities and Samoa. Modem Samoan circulation patterns involve more than
the movement of people. Much of their mobility responds to a summons to
participate in certain Samoan traditional ceremonies. In Samoan culture, most
traditional ceremonies accompany a complex redistribution ritual called a fa ’ alave
lave. Fa ’ alavelave is a central expression of Samoan culture. The term literally
means "difficulty" or "trouble", but in practice it involves sharing of resources and
ceremonial wealth between participating families. Fa ’ alavelave consists of a
ceremonial presentation and distribution of gifts which takes place at funerals and
weddings and other important events. Every significant journey to another Samoan
community involves a fa ’ alavelave at the destination. The goods that are ex
changed in this ceremony involve the status and prestige of the giver, the receiver
and their respective kinship.
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During the fa \alavelave ceremony gifts collected from several extended
families are formally presented to the chief of the recipient family. Where family
chiefs are involved there is usually a lengthy oratory delineating the genealogical
connections between giver and receiver. Then gifts are brought forth and placed
before the recipient family's chief. These exchange goods are quite diverse.
Usually they include cooked taro, large tubs of corned beef, canned fish, bolts of
brightly colored tropical print cloth, and cash, but the most important gifts are the
finely woven pandanus mats Samoans call 7e toga. Finemats of lesser value are
brought forward in bundles and stacked before the recipient chief. In an ostenta
tious display, the most precious le toga are carried forward by the women of the
family with great flourish to show the fineness of their weaving and workmanship.
Later in the ceremony the chief of the receiving family with all the appropriate
eloquence redistributes the gifts. How much is redistributed and to whom depends
largely upon the nature of the event which has stimulated the ceremony. In circum
stances such as funerals where the resources are needed to cover the expenses most
of the food and cash is kept by the recipient In other circumstances most of the
exchange goods may be redistributed among the participant families. The key
transaction is the redistribution of the le toga.
The circulation of ritual exchange goods requires a different understanding
of the mobility and spatiality of things. It is not simply about the geography of
things, but the geography in things. I begin this section by introducing some
different ways of thinking about material objects. Then I examine the nature of
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certain objects and their symbolism in Samoan ritual exchange. Broad patterns of
the circulation of exchange goods between Samoa and overseas communities are
described. This enhanced mobility defines a transnational Samoan socio-cultural
space and reveals a power of material objects to compel social activity by virtue of
their inherent geography.
Things May Not Be What They Seem:
Generally, movement of goods is described in terms of commodities,
cargo, freight and capital. However, the symbolic value of Samoan ritual objects
transcends their market value, and their movements defy economic models of
transport. In fact, their circulation displays something like a social mobility.
An elaboration on the spatiality of things requires some different ways of
thinking about material objects. We live in a society that draws a strict distinction
between persons and things (Mauss 1990, p47). This distinction is foreign to the
culture of many non-western societies such as those of Pacific Islanders. In these
societies objects are never completely separated from the people who possess them.
One useful way to comprehend this seeming paradox is to differentiate objects
according to the manner in which their ownership changes. In our society, when an
object is purchased the involvement of the original owner of the item is finished—
replaced by that of the new owner. Setting aside legal considerations of liability,
the original owner no longer has any interest in the item sold. However, an item
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141
given as a gift creates a social obligation for reciprocity. A gift begets a debt that
must be repaid (Gregory 1982, p. 19).
The system of purchase and sale is a form of commodity exchange. It
establishes a relationship between objects exchanged (ie. the item and currency
used to purchase it). A gift exchange establishes a relationship between those
making the exchange. A gift not only creates a debt between the new owner and
the previous owner, but the proprieties of giving and receiving establish a relation
ship between the giver and the receiver. Reciprocity may eliminate the debt but the
social contact reinforces the relationship. As a result, objects are never entirely
separated from those who exchange them (Mauss 1990, p33).
In western economies where concepts of private property dominate, a
person can own something so completely that he can relinquish ownership. In a
clan based society, there may be no individual ownership or private property.
Objects are possessed by groups of people. Since there is no absolute ownership
by any one person, people do not have alienable rights to their possessions.
This creates an interesting situation. Since no individual can claim exclu
sive title, objects are very much a part of the group that possess it. Gregory (1982,
p41) argues that"... people and things assume the social form of objects in a
commodity economy, while they assume the social form of persons in a gift
economy." So things can possess a soul (Mauss 1990), an individuality, a family
and a home. Indeed, "Artifacts can appear to have greater substance and personali
ty than do live human beings." (Tuan 1971, p465)
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Even with things possessing an individuality, there is a differentiation in
their value. Although common objects in daily service may become invisible
(Tuan 1971), other objects are infused with the spiritual power and prestige of their
owners— and the powers that protect their owners. In clan societies these are
repositories of family authority. The mana or spiritual power present in certain
possessions authenticates differential ranking of chiefs and their families (Weiner
1992, p64).
Of course, this discussion is an abbreviation of a much more substantial dis
course. Every human culture has been somehow touched by the commodity
economy while the social authority of the gift still lingers in the marketplace
economies of western society. Moreover, there are other ways of perceiving and
appraising material objects. Consider the disproportionate value attached to
heirlooms, artwork, historic artifacts and sacred relics. Then there is the baseball
with which Mark McGwire scored his seventieth home run that recently sold for
2.7 million dollars. Curiously, this inquiry has largely overlooked the geographic
attributes for which objects are valued.
Material objects may be valued for their associated geography in several
ways. They can be valued for the geography of their place of origin that they
encapsulate. They can also be valued for their itinerary; for the geography associ
ated with the places to which they have travelled. However, certain artifacts,
because of their social authority, have the power to create a geography. The ritual
goods used in Samoan traditional ceremonies manifest all these qualities.
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Samoan Ritual Exchange Goods:
Even though Samoans now have a cash economy, ritual exchange remains a
central expression of Samoan culture. Property in Samoa is categorized as to
whether it is toga or 'oloa. Toga possessions are those that are made by women.
These goods include mats, baskets, and bark cloth or siapo. In the overseas
communities it also includes bolts of cloth with a loud tropical motif. Toga goods
are generally accorded high symbolic value and low utilitarian value (Van der Ryn
1991). The most important of toga goods are finely woven pandanus mats called
finemats or le toga (see Figure 7.4). Easily the most valued and precious posses
sions in Samoan culture, le toga have been called "Samoan currency". In fact,
when Western Samoa first came under New Zealand administration early in this
century there was an effort to register and establish the value of le toga so that they
might be more easily used as payment for goods and services (Pitt 1970). Howev
er, each finemat possesses an individuality and their market value is both relative
and circumstantial. Some le toga are named, some are older, some have a signifi
cant historical association.
Samoans ...exchange hundreds of finemats each time someone is
bom, at a marriage, a death, and the inauguration of a new title
holder. For each event, finemats are given and received in over
twenty named categories that define specific kin and affinal relation
ships. Before being given, each one is ranked in terms of age,
quality, name, and history;.... (Weiner 1992, p88)
Goods defined as 'oloa are those that are considered to be made by men.
These possessions carry a high utilitarian value, and include food, tools, weapons,
canoes and on occasion even land (Pitt 1970). Nowadays non-Samoan products are
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also considered ’ oloa. In fact, the Samoan word for store is fa le ’ oloa, house of
’ oloa.
Designations of toga and ’ oloa are particularly important in defining the
roles of goods in Samoan ritual exchanges. 'Oloa is given for service and help, but
le toga can only be exchanged for le toga. The choice of goods to be exchanged is
determined by the symbolic role of the participant. For instance, on the occasion of
a wedding the members of the groom’ s alga, his extended family, would present
’ oloa gifts. Members of the bride's aiga would present toga gifts. However,
designations of toga and oloa are sometimes curious. The root of the Piper
methysticuni used to make a traditional beverage, 'ava, is considered oloa. Yet,
'ava is only used for a ritual in which it must be prepared by a ceremonial virgin.
On the other hand, cash, when used in ritual exchange is considered toga. Most
toga money is the local legal tender, but ceremonial exchanges often involve other
currencies. New Zealand dollars, American dollars and Western Samoan talas are
often exchanged but their value in these rituals has nothing to do with the interna
tional exchange rate. In fact, David Pitt (1970) reports that some exchanges
involve obsolete and legally inconvertible currencies from other islands and even
South America, some dating back to the last century. It is not that the monetary
value is unimportant; it has simply been eclipsed by the ritual value. Mauss (1967)
observes that the value of toga property is more closely bound up with the land, the
clan, and the family than 'oloa property. It is toga property that establishes a
family as rich, powerful and influential (Mauss 1967, p7-8)
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145
Circulation of Ritual Goods
It would be too simple to say that the circulation of Samoan ritual goods
coincides with the movement of the ritual participants. Nor is this circulation
similar to that of currency; it is much less fluid. Further, ritual goods change
possession, trajectory and value with each exchange. Toga goods (except for cash)
originate in Samoa. They accompany Samoan migrants as personal possessions.
They are also brought as gifts for specific celebrations in the Samoan overseas
communities. Toga goods then circulate among immigrant households as part of
the fa ’ aSamoa activities of the community. Toga goods also circulate between
migrant communities. Eventually, these exchange goods may be returned to
Samoa and join the circulation of toga goods within the islands.
At times le toga travel more extensively than family. When the appropriate
family representative is unable to attend a ceremony, it is not uncommon for older
children to be sent with gifts and bundles of finemats. The presence of the le toga
rather than the children validates the family's participation.
Weiner (1992) elaborates on the nuances of the fa ’ alavelave exchange. The
most valued le toga are cherished heirlooms kept within the family for decades and
even generations. These are only presented at the most important ceremonies.
There is great status involved in acquiring and possessing one. However, great
status accrues to those families who can present one of these for exchange. The
protocol obligates that the gift be reciprocated with one of equivalent value.
Occasionally, a finemat is offered that is so highly valued that the recipient is
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146
unable or unwilling to reciprocate with one of equivalent value and the finemat is
returned to its family.
In a different fashion ’ oloa goods also circulate, but for a limited time. Al
though ’ oloa goods include non-Samoan objects, there is a preference in immigrant
communities for certain ’ oloa goods of Samoan origin. These include five gallon
tubs of New Zealand corned beef, large tins of island fish, and taro (sometimes
cooked for the occasion). These goods are exported from the islands to local
markets in the immigrant community where they are purchased for fa ’ aSamoa
exchange. These goods may circulate locally through several ritual exchanges
before they are consumed. Non-Samoan ’ oloa goods such as refrigerators, chain-
saws and televisions are brought back to Samoa by ritual participants, but these are
not likely to circulate. In fact, ritual exchange has been an important mechanism
for introducing non-Samoan wares into Samoan life. Western goods are made
'more Samoan' by their ritual induction, whereas western goods from the store
remain western (Pitt 1970, p243).
The Geography in Samoan Possessions:
The routes defining the circulation of Samoan ritual goods represent much
more than lines on a map. These routes demarcate a transnational Samoan social
space. In Samoan society certain objects, particularly le toga and other toga items,
take on the social form of persons. Thus, this social space is produced by the
movements of objects that have social status and identity. In fact, it is often the
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147
case that the functional role of family members bringing toga to a ceremony is that
of an escort. I know of several instances where older children were sent in place of
their parents for the express purpose of delivering the family's contribution of cash
and le toga to a wedding or a funeral. The le toga creates a spatiality where an
'oloa item or even a Samoan following this same path would not. Because le toga
are part of the aiga, the extended family, their circulation defines the social-spatial
domain of that family. The organization of space is not only a social product, but
simultaneously shapes social relations. Soja (1989) calls this the socio-spatial
dialectic. However, in this situation the social agent is an object.
The exchange of toga goods reinforces the enhanced and often transnational
social space of the aiga. It also involves the ’ aiga in establishing or reasserting a
linkage of the spatial domains of the participants and their families. A gift ex
change is not simply a transaction. It is an expression of a relationship. Samoan
ritual exchange is as much a declaration of the spatiality of the Samoan culture as it
is an expression of culture. In fact, it is very much a part of the construction of this
spatiality.
A further effect of circulation on Samoan ritual exchange is that the value
of ritual goods, particularly toga property, is enhanced by the distance it has
travelled. The value of toga property is not objective but derives from its individ
ual history, the rank of previous owners whose mamalu, whose honor and prestige,
infuses it, and the extent of usage in important ceremonials (Pitt 1970). When
presented with two le toga with all other characteristics substantially equivalent,
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one brought from a distant location would be more valued. Its itinerary has
become part of its individuality, that which sets it apart. The value imparted is not
just a measure of the distance travelled. It reflects the labor and effort exerted by
distant relatives to bring it to the ritual, and also the mana or spiritual power of the
places it has been.
Most importantly, toga property derives it authority from the place it
originated. It is truly native in the sense that it is animated by the hau of its forest
and its native soil (Mauss 1990, pl2). Hau is a Maori term for the spiritual power
of the soil of its birthplace. In reality, it is this hau that yearns to return to its
birthplace, to the sanctuary of the forest and the aiga. Marcel Mauss (1990)
argues that deference for this homeward compulsion is the catalyst for the obligato
ry circulation of wealth in Samoa. Thus it is the original geography of this object
that imbues it with an authority to compel social activity and mobility.
5. Conclusion:
The modem spatiality of Samoan ritual exchange demonstrates that our
concepts of circulation must consider more than the movement of people. Ritual
goods continue to be part of the raison d ’ etre for modem Samoan circulation.
More importantly, ritual exchange goods are repositories of Samoan status and
prestige. Their circulation binds the far flung communities of Samoans to each
other, to Samoa and to fa ’ aSamoa, the Samoan way of life.
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Samoan ritual exchange should hold special interest for geographers. It
demonstrates that the geography of things is not limited to where things are
located. Some objects are so infused with social significance that they have the
power to define a geography. Such objects and their movement can function as a
social agent in the production of social space. It is also true that there are certain
artifacts whose social significance is derived from the geography inherent in that
object. A sense of place has been encapsulated in the object and transported.
Scholars now recognize that immigrant communities retain strong socio
cultural ties with their homeland. This study demonstrates the strong socio-cultural
ties that develop between different places of settlement. The Samoan experience
shows that these ties are much more important and much more robust than trans
nationalist thinking would lead us to believe. Proximity is certainly a factor. It is
easier for more people to travel to an event nearby than to one requiring a trans
pacific flight. But distance decay does not explain why Samoans would travel to
some events and not others in some places and not others. The reason is, of course,
because there is family there. And that is why the ties between California settle
ments are so strong, because they involve family ties as well as socio-cultural ties.
In Samoa travel between villages and between islands has been a time-
honored feature of island life. Even in ancient times this circulation encompassed
an extensive network of loci beyond the home archipelago. However, this circula
tion still occurred within the historic sociospatial domain of Samoan culture.
Today, with nearly half the population of Samoans living in major urban centers of
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the Pacific Rim, travel continues to be an important islander activity, necessary to
fulfill the social and economic obligations required to maintain status within the
extended family and within Samoan culture. Because of the greater distances
involved, circulation has taken on a new vitality and a new significance. It still
serves the same primary function. Linking the archipelago of Samoan immigrant
communities with each other and with Samoa, circulation serves to invigorate
fa 'aSamoa.
Palauni Tuiasosopo (1988), claims, "... migration is not a threat to our
identity or our membership in our home society." Still, migration and the urban
experience has challenged Samoan culture, perforating the tradition of sociospatial
cohesiveness which nurtured Samoan cultural values. Fa 'aSamoa has had to
accommodate to these new conditions in the face of direct assaults on crucial
Samoan concepts of family, community and sharing. The previous chapter shows
that key institutions are adapting, but not without modification. Cultural responses
are similar, though families and communities are separated by substantial spatial
barriers. Contrary to structuralist and transnationalist thinking, the more traditional
elements of Samoan culture stimulate the construction of this modem spatiality.
These elements are essentially village level activities, the same type of activities
which since ancient times have linked extended families in different villages and
villages on different islands. Now they serve the more modem function of knitting
a transnational social network and fashioning an urban Samoan identity.
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Chapter Six.
LIFE/TRAVEL HISTORIES
1. Introduction
I have set out to explore the culture of mobility that connects new Samoan
spaces and places. The role of this circulation for individual households may be
best understood by examining how mobility has shaped the lives of particular
individuals. In this chapter, I examine the life and travel histories of several
Samoan circulators from the Los Angeles community. These histories were not
randomly selected, they were chosen because they are exemplary of the range of
migration and circulation experiences which enfold the lives of California’ s urban
Samoans. The names of respondents have been changed and certain particulars of
their life stories have been altered to maintain their confidentiality. However,
while their identity has been obscured, the principal movements and the motivation
for them have been preserved. These life/travel histories recount major movements
that have brought the narrator to this community. They also share their more recent
travels and their purpose; they recall their recent visitors and share the current
geography of their family. These are followed by an analysis of the features
common to these narrators and suggestive of those common to Samoan travellers in
urban California and elsewhere.
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2. PuIuMomoli:
This first life/travel history is the shortest, but it may well be the most
significant Pulu Momoli Salanoa was a beloved and respected elder in the
Samoan community in Los Angeles. The story of Pulu Momoli Salanoa and his
family is very much the story of Samoan migration and settlement in urban
California. Pulu was not just another immigrant; he played a key role in the Great
Migration and was instrumental in the settlement of Samoans in Los Angeles.
I knew Pulu, but I did not know him well, and, regrettably, did not have the
opportunity to interview him before his death. What I have learned of his life has
been from personal recollections shared by family and friends after his funeral. It
is customary among social scientists to hold confidential the identity of their
informants. However, in this case the family insisted that his name be used. They
believed he would have been pleased to participate if he were alive, and using his
name would continue to honor him.
Pulu was bom in Lauli'i, American Samoa, in 1923. During World War II,
he served in the Pacific with the U.S. Marines. After the war he joined the Fitafita
Guard, the Samoan "native guard" auxiliary of the U.S. Navy. In 1951, when the
administration of American Samoa was transferred to the Department of the
Interior, all of the Fitafita Guard volunteered to complete their service in the
regular Navy. They were assigned duty in Honolulu. The following July, in what
Samoans call their "Great Migration", the dependents and relatives of Samoan
servicemen along with nearly 600 other Samoans were transported en masse to
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Honolulu aboard the U.S.S. President Jackson. Pulu was one of the seamen
assigned to the transport; his wife and children were among the Fitafita dependents
on board. He remained in the Navy at Barber's Point, Hawai'i. Then, in 1964 he
was transferred to San Diego, California. Retiring from the Navy in 1965, he
joined McDonnell Douglas Aircraft in Torrance, California. Pulu moved his
family to Wilmington in the Los Angeles Harbor area and then to nearby Carson.
As with many of the Fitafita veterans, Pulu became a prominent and influential
figure in the growing Samoan community in Los Angeles. He and his wife,
Inailau, were founding members of the Samoan Catholic congregation in St.
Philomena Catholic Church.
Pulu's leadership of the Catholic congregation gave him an unusual status in
the community, near that of a faifeau. Until recently there was no Samoan Catholic
priest serving in Southern California. Pulu was the paramount Catholic. His
presence at a family gathering or community event represented the participation of
the Samoan Catholics in Carson. Pulu remained active in both the church and in
the Samoan community until his death in April 1998.
Personal tragedies also marked his life. He lost a son in 1983. In 1991 his
son-in-law, a titled chief and a popular community leader, died. Within the year
his wife died as well.
Pulu had a reputation as a "good man", and many in the community
affectionately called him "Papa." He was not a matai, but he was often consulted.
He was highly regarded as a mediator, someone whose soft-spoken wisdom could
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find the common basis to resolve disputes so that everyone involved felt whole.
"His door was always open." There was always food on the table for all who
stopped by. Many did. Pulu was well known for his cooking, particularly Samoan
favorites.
His travel patterns have been difficult to document in as much as I have had
to rely on the recollections of others. Recent travels outside of Los Angeles were
largely confined to Southern California. In 1995 Pulu travelled to Hawai’ i for a
funeral and to Oceanside for a wedding. In 1996 he attended funerals in San Diego
and also in Oxnard. Pulu returned to Samoa only twice. In 1988 he went back for
the dedication of a Catholic chinch in American Samoa. In 1994 he returned to his
home village of Lauli'i at Christmas for what he anticipated would be his final visit.
Pulu Momoli passed away in April 1998. His death activated socio-cultural
relations in and beyond the local community, engaging family in Samoan settle
ments up and down the California coast and across the Pacific. The following
chapter (seven) examines the cultural and spatial elements revealed in his funeral
and their ramifications.
3. Tasi:
Tasi is a tall, striking woman. She is an imposing figure with an air about
her that commands attention. She has a penchant for wearing brightly colored
tropical prints and a smile just as bright A slight accent gives her voice a musical
lilt, and she chooses her words carefully. Tasi teaches science at a local high
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school. She lives with her husband, Fa, and daughter in San Pedro. Tasi and her
family are part of Rev. Taase's Church in Carson, which is affiliated with the
Congregational Christian Church of American Samoa. Her family’ s village is
Leone, American Samoa, and her husband's family village is Malaloa, American
Samoa. She has been living in Southern California since August 1995, but this is
not her first stay here.
Tasi was bom in Leone, American Samoa, in 1952, but she was raised in
Western Samoa by her maternal grandparents. In 1969, when she was sixteen, her
grandparents moved to Santa Ana, California, where Tasi's aunt, another daughter,
lived. Here Tasi completed high school. After graduation she moved to Baltimore
to stay with her uncle. There is actually a small Samoan community in Baltimore
because of the congressional delegate from American Samoa. There are enough
Samoans in Baltimore, Tasi reports, to fill up the small Samoan church there.
Tasi's cousin was married in this Samoan church.
For one semester, she attended the University of Maryland. This was a
period when many universities were experiencing political turmoil during the anti-
Vietnam demonstrations. Her dormitory was near enough to the demonstrations to
feel the effects of the tear gas. On one occasion a tear gas bomb went off in her
bedroom. Tasi was just a girl from the islands. "Ah Malo! What am I supposed to
do with this thing that is smoking?" Her roommate was so traumatized that
afterward every night she sleepwalked, and Tasi would have to go fetch her. There
was snow outside and it wasn't a very pleasant experience. She pleaded with her
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uncle to let her go someplace that was closer to his home. She transferred to
Goucher College, the women's counterpart to Johns Hopkins. Here Tasi earned her
BA. in Biology.
In the summer of 1975 Tasi returned to Samoa where she taught science at
Samoana High School in American Samoa for the next year. In August 1976 Tasi
travelled to Honolulu to begin studies in the Medical School at the University of
Hawai'i. When her father was taken ill, she had to drop out of Medical School and
return to Samoa. Afterward, she applied for the Masters Program in Public Health
and returned to Honolulu the next Fall. Upon completing her course work she
returned to American Samoa to conduct field research. Then back to Honolulu to
write her thesis. She received her Master's of Public Health degree (MPH) in 1980,
and returned again to Samoa. Then Tasi had another opportunity to attend the
Medical Program at University of Hawai’ i. Her father had since passed away and
she really wanted to try it again. Once more, Tasi returned to school in Hawai’ i in
summer of 1981.
That fall her mother travelled to the United States' mainland to visit Tasi's
uncle in Baltimore, and then to Anaheim, California to see her sister, Tasi's aunt.
While in Anaheim Tasi’s mother suffered a heart attack. Once more Tasi had to
quit medical school and come to California in early 1982 to take care of her
mother. It was necessary for her mother to stay in southern California so she could
have access to proper medical care. Tasi and her mother lived in Gardena with her
father’ s sister. Here, Tasi was able to obtain a position teaching science at Carson
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High School. As one of the very few Samoan educators in the Los Angeles area,
she was quickly acknowledged by the community as a leader. Tasi was a founding
member of APIA and elected as one of the organizations early presidents. She was
instrumental in shaping APIA'S mission toward encouraging Pacific Islander
students toward higher education.
In 1989 Tasi and her mother returned to American Samoa. In Samoa Tasi
worked for the American Samoa Power Authority where she met her husband. Al
though his work involved engineering, Fa did not have an engineering degree. In
1995, the Power Authority offered him an opportunity to come to the United States
to complete his education in engineering. Tasi also took a leave so that the family
could be together. In the summer of 1995 the three of them returned to California.
Fa began taking classes at Harbor College, a community college near the Los
Angeles Harbor in Wilmington, while Tasi returned to teaching science at Carson
High School. She was swiftly welcomed back into community activism, and
within the year elected once more as APIA president. In 1998 Fa transferred to the
B.A. program at California State University, Long Beach. After finishing his B.A.,
they plan to return home to American Samoa.
Recent Travel:
Focusing on recent short tom travel, Tasi recalled that while they were still
in American Samoa they lived in Malaloa next to Pago Pago Harbor. They
travelled to Leone in 1994 for her mother's funeral. Leone is only thirteen miles
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away, but lies halfway across the island. Their contribution for the funeral includ
ed many finemats and 5000 dollars. A year later in 1995, they had to return for the
Tatalaga ole faleula (a formal closure to the year of mourning following her
mother's funeral). In July 1995, they returned once more to Leone for her brother’ s
wedding. Again they carried 5000 dollars in cash as the family contribution.
When they first arrived in Los Angeles in August 1995, they heard from an
aunt in Carson that their cousin was getting married in Anaheim. They had to drive
more than thirty miles, but the driving time was actually less than it took them to
travel the much shorter distance between Malaloa and Leone in American Samoa.
They were just getting settled and they couldn't afford much so they only gave
S100.
Over the 1995 Christmas break Fa had to return to Malaloa. Her father-in-
law had been chosen for the family’ s paramount matai title, and her husband had to
return to American Samoa to help make the arrangements for his father's chief
naming ceremony. Since her husband was involved with making the arrangements,
he was able to schedule the ceremony for the following July so that it would
accommodate his and Tasi's school year. He still had to go back to the islands at
Christmas to get everything ready. While there Fa learned that his uncle had
passed away. He flew over to Western Samoa. He had arrived too late to partici
pate in his uncle's funeral ceremony, but he took $500 cash and 100 finemats. In
July 1996 the family travelled to Leone to take part in Tasi's father-in-law’s saofa 7 ,
the ceremonial installation of the new matai.
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Since their arrival in California they have had a number of visitors. Her
husband's father stayed with them for a short while in September 1995. He was
attending a funeral in San Francisco, which, as the matai, he was expected to
attend. He was accompanied by his sister. She too was here for the San Francisco
funeral.
In November 1995 Tasi's sister and sister-in-law from Leone visited. They
were travelling as part of a malaga to a prayer meeting in San Diego. Tasi helped
her church organize a youth malaga to American Samoa in July 1996. The church
sent the youth group to Samoa so that they could see what island life is really like
and so that the young people could experience their traditional culture.
In summer of 1997 her brother, Peti, came up from Leone, American
Samoa to attend computer school. He stayed with Tasi for a few weeks until he
found a place closer to his school.
In addition to her family in American Samoa, Baltimore and Anaheim,
Tasi has family in the Kalihi of Hawai’i area where her uncle has a church. Two of
her uncles, her father’ s brothers, live in New Zealand. She also has family in Texas
near a military base. Elsewhere in California she has family living in Huntington
Park, San Diego, Long Beach and Oceanside.
Family obligations might require her and her family to travel to any of these
destinations. How are decisions made as to who should go? Primarily it depends
on finances. As the breadwinner, Tasi has to work so it is her husband who usually
must travel. It also depends on who's available. When her cousin in Anaheim was
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married all three went, but the funeral in Samoa was for a whole week. She had to
work, but Fa had not yet started school, so he went. Traditions dictate that whom
ever is closely related to the person(s) being honored in the ceremony should
attend. Status in the family is also an important consideration. Nowadays, for
urban Samoans, it also depends upon their situation. Who travels is no longer
being decided as much by tradition. Other things are considered, such as where
and when the fa alavelave is being held. Whenever possible families try to arrange
events such as weddings or chief-naming ceremonies so as to coincide with the
participants' availability. This is what they were able to work out for Tasi's father-
in-law’ s chief-naming ceremony. It also helped that the July date fit in with the
schedule of other participants.
4. Valu:
Valu is quiet, reserved, and pensive. He has a fair complexion, and his
average stature makes him seem small for a Samoan. He is soft spoken, very
respectful and courteous. He also is careful with his language. He is self-effacing
and seems to strive to understate his position or role in any activity. He is quick to
give credit to others. As the son of an important chief, his family name is power
ful, and he is accustomed to letting his family connection introduce him. He
speech introduces him as well. His Samoan has been described to me as the chiefs
talk. This is the very proper dialect used in oratory, the Samoan equivalent of what
we might call the "King's English." Valu is a contracts administrator for the
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Department of Defense. He lives in Torrance with his wife, Iva, and their two
children. Valu is Catholic. His family’s village is Pago Pago. His father is
Samoan and his mother Hawaiian. He was raised in American Samoa by his aunt.
He has been living in the Los Angeles area since 1975.
Valu was bom in Washington D.C. in 1952 where his father was attending
law school at Georgetown University. An aunt who held an important family title,
his father’s sister, came up from Samoa to Washington in 1952. She couldn't bear
children, and she wanted a boy. In accordance with Samoan custom, she asked for
Valu. Valu was the seventh son for his parents. His father decided that this would
it would be better for the child, and make things easier for him to finish his studies.
So Valu would go back to American Samoa with his aunt. His aunt offered up his
middle name which is a title that comes from Western Samoa, from the Maliatoa
family. This is a very important title. If anything happened to his father, Valu
would be a candidate to accede to the family title. His aunt wanted to show the
lineage by giving him this name. This name gives him a special entree to the
community in Western Samoa. His aunt left Washington with him in 1952; Valu
was only six weeks old. They stopped briefly in Honolulu. From there they had to
take a ship to Samoa, one of the first to carry passengers regularly to Samoa. In
American Samoa, Valu was raised in the village and did not speak a word of
English. In 1966 when he was 13, he went to join his father in the Marshall Islands
where he was working as the district administrator Here Valu encountered other
Samoans in the Marshall Islands who were also related to the Maliatoa fam ily and
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had escaped Samoa after the Mau uprising. He attended a Catholic school in the
Marshall islands. After twelve months he begged his father to let him go back to
American Samoa and to his aunt. He said that he didn't have anything to do there.
In Samoa he had responsibilities because of his aunt's title. In 1967 when he was
14, he went back to American Samoa.
Valu was looking forward to going to high school in Samoa, but his aunt
decided he should go to school in the mainland. When he asked his aunt why he
had to leave the islands, she said she wanted him to go to the mainland so that he
would learn to speak proper English. "And so that you will understand the people
that make up all these laws that we have to follow— so that you will understand and
come back." So over his objections, in the summer of 1967 he left American
Samoa and came to Bellflower, California where he attended St. John Bosco High
School, a Catholic boarding school.
While in California another aunt, his father's sister, who lived in Torrance
would be his custodian. He spent his weekends with her family of ten girls. He
didn't speak much English and by Christmas of 1967 he was really homesick. He
pleaded with his aunt to let him come home. His father had moved on to a new
assignment in Saipan in the Mariannas Islands. He had three weeks, so he spent
Christmas in Saipan. He still couldn't speak English very well, but all they spoke
there was Japanese. It was even more different than Los Angeles. So after three
weeks he returned to Los Angles. The summer of 1968 he went back to Honolulu,
and then again the following Christmas. Each time his aunt would come up from
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Samoa to join him. In the summer of 1969 Valu returned to Honolulu, and he saw
his aunt for the last time. She passed away a couple of months after that summer.
Valu graduated from St. John Bosco High School in 1970. In 1970 the draft
was still going and they had just started the lottery. Valu had a low number so he
enlisted early in 1971. However, the real reason he enlisted was that he was not
ready to go back to Samoa just yet. They were still in mourning for his aunt. After
all these years away, without his aunt, there was no one there that close to him.
This was a void he wasn't sure he wanted to face. For Valu the military seemed an
honorable way to stay in the mainland and to keep on learning. He trained at Fort
Ord near Monterey. Three times he volunteered for Vietnam and each time he was
rejected. He really wanted to go. Brought up in a warrior society; he wanted to be
a warrior. Later he learned that a Samoan army officer saw his middle name,
recognized the lineage and made sure he was not assigned to a combat unit. He
kept on trying. He signed up for paratroop training. He signed up for ranger
training. He even applied for the special forces. He wanted to be a warrior. He
went to Fort Benning, Georgia for paratroop training and ranger training.
While stationed in Georgia, Valu received his first introduction to Southern
racism. Until then he didn't know, and it wasn't relevant to him. On a weekend
pass Valu along with some other Samoan trainees, went down to Alabama. They
didn’ t know about the water fountains, and were thirsty. There were two fountains
and one was discolored and Valu went to drink out of the cleaner one. He found
himself confronted by a very angry person with a shotgun who told him he couldn't
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drink from the fountain. When his friends wanted to confront the situation, Valu
was afraid it might escalate out of hand and argued against it. "No! this is not our
turf
He finished out the remaining two weeks in Georgia, but when the rest of
his troop was shipped to Vietnam, Valu was sent to Fort Campbell in Kentucky.
When he arrived there he was assigned to an infantry unit. A Samoan staff
sergeant recognized his name, "I know your father. Because of your family, I will
give you a chance to get out of that ’ grunt’ work and come to work for me in supply
and you can go to college." Valu filled out the paperwork.
With that assignment he was able to stay on in Kentucky and attend
university. He started taking introductory courses, psychology and such. When an
opening occurred in the office of the military legal corps, the Samoan sergeant
arranged to have Valu assigned to work as a legal clerk. He got to see all the
correspondence from Washington. For several days he was the assigned driver for
Vice President Spiro Agnew. The colonel said that he had assigned Valu this job
because he heard about his background and his family from the supply sergeant
He felt Valu knew something about etiquette and protocol and would be able to
handle the job properly. This was just before the Vice President had to resign his
office, and he was under a lot of scrutiny at the time.
In 1974 he flew back to Hawai'i where he was officially released from the
service. He remained in Honolulu through December 1974, working as a postal
carrier. In 1975 he moved to California and stayed with his aunt and her family in
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Torrance. In Fall 1975, he enrolled at El Camino College. He tried out for and
made the football team. He was only third string but that helped him get the
classes he needed. After he earned his A A . degree in summer 1977 Valu went
back to Honolulu. While there he went back to American Samoa. He needed to
come to terms at last with his aunt's passing. It was the first time he had been back
since her funeral. He had only planned to go for a week but stayed three months.
In December 1978 Valu came back to the mainland, and enrolled at CSU Domin
guez Hills. Meanwhile, he worked at the Holiday Inn in Torrance as a shuttle
driver. He earned his BA. in 1982, and then started in the Master program in
Public Administration at Dominguez Hills.
Dominguez Hills was an important experience for Valu in ways other than
academic. He became an active participant in the campus Polynesian club, and was
elected its president. It was through the Polynesian club that he met Iva, his future
wife. Valu also found his job with the Defense Department through the Career
Office at Dominguez. Iva and Valu were married in 1 991.
Travel:
In summer of 1987 and again in 1990 he travelled to Hawai'i for a family
reunion on the Big Island. In 1989 he was back in American Samoa for the gover
nor's inauguration. In 1991 he and Iva flew to Cancun, Mexico for their honey
moon and then to Kauai, Hawai'i to meet his relatives. They have returned to
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Kauai almost every year in September. Valu’ s major travel for the four year period,
1993 through 1994, is summarized in Table 6.1.
Table 6.1: Valu’s major travel during four years (1993 through 1996)
Destination Date(s) Purpose(s) Companion
Travellers
Palm Springs, CA November 1996 vacation 3
Maui, Hawai'i July 1996 family reunion 3
Washington, D.C. June 1996 business
Anaheim, Ca February 1996 funeral 2
San Bernardino, CA January 1996 funeral 2
Laguna Beach, CA January 1996 vacation 2
Palm Springs, CA November 1995 vacation 2
San Francisco, CA October 1995 business/family visit 2
Kauai, Hawai'i September 1995 vacation 3
Oceanside, CA July 1995 funeral 2
San Jose, Ca January 1995 business
Palm Springs, CA December 1994 vacation 3
Kauai, Hawai'i September 1994 vacation 2
Seattle WA 1994 business
Palm Springs, CA November 1993 vacation 2
Washington, D.C. 1993 business
Valu's job with the Defense Department also requires travelling from tims
to time. Typically, he might have to go to San Francisco, San Jose or Seattle.
Occasionally he has had to go back east to Virginia and Washington D.C. There
are military bases in each location. On average these trips last between three to
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seven days. This work related travel occurs in a cycle of eight to ten months. Each
time he travels, Valu takes along his own food. This usually includes some green
bananas, cooked taro, a couple of cans of corned beef, four cans of Wahoo (a
tropical fish), a couple of cans of vienna sausage and ajar of Joe Kim's kim chee,
some packets of noodles for saimin, and kamaboko (fishcake). Valu wasn't being
non social. He would go out for lunch or dinner with people he was working with.
Later though, in private, he would have something of his own. His colleagues
sometimes ask why he takes his own food on these trips. Valu's response to them
is "This is part of ancestry. Wherever I go, there may be an ancestor of mine in
spirit there. So by me eating the foods, I am that much closer to whoever. A lot of
Samoan military people travelled these areas and I was bom in D.C." Additionally,
he always brings along an aloha shirt and ie lavalava to wear in the hotel. "I
always made sure when I travelled that I had some aspect of the culture with me. I
would take the Samoan bible. I would take the food, or I would take articles
because I always wanted to continue that circle. Regardless of my work, education,
it was very very paramount to me that I continue the circle and tradition. If I wasn't
going to the islands, I brought the islands with me."
5. Lima:
Lima is prominent as an activist in the Samoan community. She is bright,
articulate and personable with a record of engagement with local officials over
gang violence, police harassment, health care and education and other issues of
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concern to the Samoan com m unity. City officials and local public agencies
regularly consult with her about issues that might involve the Samoan community.
Within the com m unity she is highly regarded for her knowledge of Samoan culture
and tradition,^ aSarnoa, as well as her leadership. Additionally, Lima is an
occasional m ainland correspondent for a Samoan newspaper and an announcer on a
local South Pacific radio show. However, Lima is also a businesswoman, the
director of the United States office of an international money transfer company.
This is actually a family run business based in New Zealand. Lima lives in Carson
with her husband, Sefulu. Currently her household also includes her four children,
a cousin and her daughter, another niece and her infant.
Her family belongs to the Samoan Congregational Christian Church. Her
life has been shaped by her family’ s involvement with the church. Her great
grandfather was a minister, and her grandfather was the minister in Mulinu'u in
Apia. This was an especially influential position because this is where the Fale
Fono, the Parliament House of Western Samoa, is located. Her father was an
important minister, too. In fact, he became the first minister of a Samoan Church
in New Zealand. Lima was bom in Vailima, Western Samoa in 1951 where her
father was then the minister for the village. Lima heard stories from relatives about
what happened. "He was never the traditional Samoan minister." Some of his
ideas were too much ahead of his time. The village thought he was disrespectful to
the church. He was young and proud, and the custom was that when the elders
spoke, they must be listened to and their wishes followed. But if her father didn’ t
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agree with them he would tell them so. Rather than do what they would say, he
resigned. Her grandfather was very upset at his resignation and disowned him.
Her father was the eldest son in his family, and was expected to follow in the
family tradition of religious service. Her grandmother’ s brother, a chief in Apia,
paid her father’ s passage to New Zealand. In 1952 he left Samoa. He wanted his
children to go to school in New Zealand. When he earned enough money, he sent
for his fam ily . Her brothers remember that they went by seaplane. He had several
jobs after he first arrived, but landed a job with the New Zealand Post Office. He
had been working for them for ten years when, in 1964, he was invited to become
the pastor of the first Samoan church.
The original church for islanders in Auckland was called the Pacific Island
Congregational Christian Church (PICC). The pastor was a palagi minister who
spoke all the island dialects— Samoan, Tongan, Nuiean, Cook Island, Tokelauan.
Her family would attend the one main service in English in the morning. Then the
islanders would attend a second service for their own group and in their own
language in the afternoon. This one palagi minister would do it all. The minister
had served as a missionary on the different islands, and he learned their languages.
The islanders in Auckland really revered him. He was like their godfather. His
wife would teach the Sunday school and his daughter would play the piano. "They
were like real missionaries in those days.”
Then a group of Samoans broke away. They just wanted to worship in their
own language and set up the Samoan Congregational Church. A Samoan family
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began having services for just family members in their own house. After a year
they wanted to formalize their status as a Samoan church. They approached the
theological college in Samoa to obtain approval from the elders of the Samoan
Congregational Church. They were instructed to seek out an ordained minister to
be the pastor of their church. Then the elders would come and perform the ordina
tion and consecrate the church. Travel between Samoa and New Zealand then was
usually by ship, and passenger service was sometimes irregular. Because of the
transportation problems they were advised that it would be much easier if they
could find someone already in New Zealand who was willing. There were several
candidates from the islands, but her father was the only ordained minister living in
New Zealand at the time. He was elected.
At the time her father was very active in the PICC church. He was an
assistant minister for the Samoan congregation and he was the secretary for the
Church. When he was approached by the Samoan families and asked to be their
minister, he did not hesitate. He had attended theological college in Samoa and
was ordained. So when he was asked, he felt the time had arrived to take up his
calling again. This meant resigning from his position with the New Zealand Post
Office.
Working for the Post Office was considered to be a very good job. Her
family was doing pretty good financially. Her father had bought a section of land
and they built a house. Lima remembers getting new clothes all the time and new
shoes. She remembers other island children looking at her with envy because she
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had clothes that were new and matching, with pretty ribbons for her hair. "I
remember going to school I would take my shoes off and take the ribbons out of
my hair because I wanted to be like the other kids. I didn't want to look different."
"I always had lunch." Their situation changed drastically after her father took the
ministry, they were not able to afford these things anymore. No new clothes
anymore; no lunch. Meals became very sparing. Their income was the collection
plate. Her father had to provide hospitality for the members, and he had to put
aside money for building the church. Her father purchased the house that they
converted into a church. Everyone pitched in to renovate the house. They had to
knock down walls, patch, paint, build furniture and whatever was needed to make a
place for worship. Lima recalled, "My mother built the church pulpit."
When Lima was growing up in New Zealand, there were not that many
Samoans there. For that matter there were not many other islanders. There were
palagi and there were Maori. Samoans were very much in the minority at that
time. The Maori were definitely the underclass. Lima remembers them as the kids
who came to school without shoes. The palagi kids were the ones who were
always up there, and then there were the little island kids and Maori kids. "I
remember growing up always thinking that there was something wrong because we
were always a notch below the palagi kids." Of course, she didn't understand.
Much later she realized the discrimination that was directed against islanders and
against the Maoris. "At the time I didn't know what it was. You don't realize when
you are in the middle of it." "I was always getting into trouble. I was always
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fighting with the palagi kids." In high school Lima kept on getting into trouble.
She attended three different all girls high schools.
Her father also helped many of his relatives to migrate to New Zealand. At
times it involved paying their fares or part of their fares or just sponsoring them.
Lima was told by many of her relatives: "Your dad was responsible for bringing us
over." Aunts, uncles, brother, etc. would come over, live with them for a while,
then move on. Interestingly, none of the siblings lived in Auckland. After they
made a little money they all settled in Wellington. Lima lived in Auckland until
1974 when she moved to Carson. Her father has since passed on, but her mother
still lives there; and her brother and sister are still there. "We are still there. You
could say that we are one of the first Samoan families in Auckland."
In 1971 a special church conference was held in Carson. Lima, her father
and mother travelled to Los Angeles for the church meeting. The conference was
for all the elder ministers representing different areas and her father was represent
ing New Zealand. There were representatives from Hawai'i and from American
Samoa, and the elders of the church from the theological college in Malua1 ,
Western Samoa.
This was the first and only time the conference was held outside of Samoa.
But they considered this an exceptional situation. At that time several Samoans
were ministering to the different churches in Los Angeles, but they had not been
ordained through the Samoan church and the theological college in Malua. They
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had their credentials as ministers through a theological college in Los Angeles.
Rev. Burt Williams, a local minister, wanted them to be ordained from Samoa so
they could be recognized as ministers of the Samoan church. He wrote to the
elders and asked if it was possible to recognize these ministers because they were
already pastoring these different churches. Traditionally these men would have
had to go back to Samoa to be ordained, but some of them were still serving in the
military, from the Fitafita. Others were retired and working, and it would have
been a hardship on their families for them to travel to Samoa. By holding the
conference here they could ordain these men all at once. So the conference decided
to meet in Los Angeles that year so that these ministers could be properly ordained.
The ceremony took place in Rev. Williams’ chinch. This was the only time when
the annual conference took place outside of Samoa. An aspiring minister can get
the training and the degrees here, but to be recognized in the Samoan church they
must be ordained in Samoa. "Like getting a chiefs title, you got to go back.”
Here Lima met her husband, Sefulu. Sefixlu was bom in Vailoa, American
Samoa His father, a Fitafita, was one of the local clergy ordained at the California
conference. They were married in New Zealand in 1973, and moved to Carson in
1974.
Lima settled down to life as a housewife and to raising a family. After four
children she took a job with the telephone company as an operator in their Comp
ton office. She became active with the local union and after a few years was
chosen as the union steward. This released her from much of her regular job duties
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174
as she became busy with union work. She mediated disputes with company
management and represented employee grievances. This experience equipped her
with the advocate skills she was able to bring to representing concerns in her
community. In 1991 she was asked to help petition the city council of Carson to
name a local park after a popular Samoan city worker who had died. The park was
not renamed, but this issue was an important organizing experience for the Samoan
community and brought attention to Lima’ s leadership. Other issues followed: the
two brothers shot by police described in chapter four; a raid by LA. County
Sheriffs on a Samoan wedding rehearsal: an outbreak of violence between Hispanic
and Samoan youth at a local high school. In each incident Lima was an effective
voice for the community. She became one of those regularly consulted by public
officials for the reaction of the Samoan community to police harassment, gang
violence, health care, elderly issues and other concerns.
In 1994 Lima resigned from the telephone company and joined PacExpress,
the family business her brother founded in New Zealand in 1988. This is an
international money transfer service that specifically caters to the particular needs
of overseas Pacific Islander settlements. PacExpress specializes in expeditiously
moving funds from the islander settlements back to the islands. This is especially
important to maintaining transpacific family connections by expediting remittances
and contribution for funerals, weddings, and chief inaugural ceremonies. Money
transfers through banks, Western Union or national post offices can take days, but
her company transfers the funds instantly. The overseas agents are the owners of
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shops and markets right in the major islander communities. Islanders can send
money back home at the same place that they shop for their islander foods and
other specialty products. Names of family receiving funds are announced over the
radio that afternoon in Samoa. Sometimes there are so many people receiving
funds through PacExpress that it can take two hours to read all the names. In 1998
PacExpress facilitated the transfer to Samoa of nearly five million dollars. Most
wire transfers are from the overseas communities to the islands. Occasionally,
funds are transferred between different communities in New Zealand, Fiji or
Australia. As director of the company's U.S. operation, Lima coordinates public
relations, set up the headquarters office in Carson, and recruits agents in the major
Pacific Islander communities on the west coast and in Hawai’ i.
Travel:
Sefulu works for the airlines, and that is an important reason why Lima can
travel so frequently and extensively. As the spouse of an employee she can travel
virtually free on any airline. She has returned to New Zealand every year since she
moved to Carson in 1974. Her trips back to New Zealand are not scheduled on an
annual calendar. However, there always seems to be something going on— say a
wedding or a big church function— that presents a good excuse to return. Of course,
there is something happening every year and much of it involves church activities.
"I have been back for most of the key things that have occurred in that church."
When they finished building the church hall, she returned for the dedication, and
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Table 6.2: Lima’s major travel during five years (1994 through 1998)
176
Destination Date(s) Purposefs) Companion
Travellers
New Zealand November 1998 Business 1
Daly City, CA October 1998 Uncle's funeral 15
New Zealand July 1998 Business
Las Vegas, NV 1998 Vacation 3
Honolulu, Hawai’ i 1998 Business 2
New Zealand April 1998 Business
New Zealand January 1998 Business
New Zealand October 1997 Business 1
New Zealand January 1997 Business
Daly City, CA 1997 wedding 1 0
Las Vegas, NV 1997 Church trip 25
Las Vegas, NV 1997 Church trip 25
New Zealand December 1996 Business 1
New Zealand October 1996 Business 1
Daly City. CA 1996 Aunt's funeral 10
Honolulu, HA February 1996 Samoan Sport's Banquet 8
New Zealand October 1995 Business
New Zealand May 1995 Business
Daly City, CA 1995 Cousin's funeral 20
Seattle, WA 1995 Business 1
Portland, OR 1994 Business 1
Salt Lake City, UT 1994 Business 1
New Zealand 1994 Business
San Francisco, CA 1994 Business 1
New Zealand 1994 Family visit 1
New Zealand 1994 Business 1
San Diego, CA 1994 Business 1
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when they remodeled it there was another celebration, she was there. Then again
when they completed a new house for the pastor, and, of course, various weddings
and funerals.
Lima’ s other principle destination has been Hawai'i. She visited in 1971,
1974 and again in 1977. Then her main purpose was to visit relatives. Last year in
1998 she again visited Hawai'i, but for business, and in 1996 to attend a Sport
Awards banquet sponsored by the Samoan International newspaper.
It is difficult to sort out Lima's reasons for travel because her business is a
family business and whenever and wherever she travels it also involves family.
Table 6 2 summarizes Lima's major travelling for the five year period between
1994 and 1998. Most of her recent travels have been business related, but business
is not the only reason nor even the principle reason for these trips. For example,
her travels to New Zealand always involve conferring with her brother about
company business, but the timing of her visits usually coincide with some family
function or chinch activity. Her access to air transport at low cost also makes these
visits very affordable for her company. The nature of her business takes her to the
different Samoan communities in the United States to establish "regions” for her
company. Lima has relatives in many of these communities. She has fam ily in
Auckland, Daly City, Portland, Or., Mililani, Hawai’ i, Anaheim, and even Bullhead
City, Arizona, across the river from Laughlin, Nevada. Although these business
trips usually include family visits, Lima prefers to stay in nearby hotels. "It’ s kind
of hard to do your business when you stay with family and they want to take you
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here and there." There have also been trips just for pleasure. In 1998 she and her
husband flew to Las Vegas. They also went twice in 1997. Both occasions were
part of a church sponsored trip. In all her extensive travelling, Lima has only
returned to Samoa once, in 1969 before she was married.
Every year Lima has hosted family and visitors from the islands and
elsewhere. "They call me the ambassador for New Zealand." Last year (1998) she
had family from Auckland visit for two weeks. There were ten of them, and they
stayed in an hotel. But for those two weeks she was their transportation. They
rented two vans and she drove one and her son, Terren, drove the other. "We took
them to all kinds of places. To San Diego, to the San Diego Zoo, to Tijuana, to Las
Vegas, to Magic Mountain, to Universal Studios, to Las Vegas again." In 1997, her
cousin and her mother visited from New Zealand. Her mother visits here every
year. Also in December 1997, her niece and nephew came for a wedding. Her
mother usually comes in May or June when its winter time in New Zealand and it
is getting really cold there.
6. Analysis:
These life/travel histories are personal and individual, but they are also
quite compelling. They provide enticing insights into the social processes of
migration and settlement in the late twentieth century. They also tell us much
about the role of travel in the lives of turban Samoans. Clearly, advances in trans
portation and communications technologies allow for a greater degree of mobility
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and provide migrants opportunities to maintain much closer contact with home
society and also widely dispersed family members. These histories also give us a
different view of the concepts of home and locality.
As stated earlier in this chapter, these histories were not randomly selected.
They have been chosen because these people are frequent travellers, because of
their association with APIE, because they are interesting stories and because they
represent a range of different travel experiences that would not be uncommon
among the frequent travellers in urbanized Samoan communities. Because of this
there are some commonalities among these travellers which should be discussed.
Two of our travellers are college educated, which is unusual for Samoans.
The point of contact, though, is APIE, an organization of parents and educators
devoted to encouraging Pacific Island youth to pursue college. It is not surprising
then to find a higher proportion of college educated actively involved in this
organization. However, this also reflects their social status, they come from
families that have a higher standing within Samoan society and valuing education
is one manifestation of that status. Still, education is not just a privilege of rank, it
is very much part of their obligation to be in a better position to serve their aiga.
Another feature common to these travellers is their involvement in the Los Angeles
community. All are active in various community activities and organizations, and
all have taken on leadership roles from time to time.
Pulu's status was something like that of a patriarch pioneer (resurrecting the
traditional meaning absent the contemporary feminist valuation). The other
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travellers are of the next generation. They and the others of their cohort are in a
real sense the children of the migration, bom in Samoa but raised abroad. They are
the bridge between island tradition and the modem Samoa beyond the archipelago.
Two of the narrators were raised by relatives, and I know of several other
travellers with a similar background. Samoans are accustomed to large families
and the emphasis on extended family blurs the boundaries of the nuclear family. It
is not unusual in Samoan society for children to be adopted and raised by close
relatives without being estranged from their immediate family. The fact that two of
our travellers share this past suggests a possible connection between social status,
frequent travelling and this early childhood distancing. This connection is beyond
the scope of this research project, but is a feature of Samoan experience that invites
further investigation.
These travel histories reveal the tension between personal aspirations and
responsibility to culture and family. Tasi's travels have been determined by
educational aspirations and family obligations. Valu's travelling has involved
military and business as well as family obligations. His military service was an
expression of resistance to family obligations, but while in the service he seems to
have never been far from the Samoan connection. Lima’ s travels have involved
family obligation and business, but in her case the business is also a family func
tion and family obligations are an opportunity to do business. Pulu's travels have
involved military and family. Clearly, travel decisions generally have not been
their own, and most travel trajectories have involved family and culture.
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181
Pulu’ s travel were determined by his military and family obligations. His
military postings took him to places where there were other Samoans and where he
took other Samoans with him. He was a pioneer, one of the first to leave Samoa.
He brought his people with him and helped produce a Samoan space in Southern
California.
All of our travellers are quite open in their hospitality for family and
visitors and in helping other Samoan immigrants to get settled.
Opportunities for travel beyond the spaces of the Samoan diaspora are
likely to occur with business and vacation travel. Valu and Lima are the ones who
have the most business related travel. However, for Lima the nature of her business
is very much tied to the Pacific Islander communities. Lima's business takes her to
different Samoan settlement in California, Hawai’ i and New Zealand. It is a family
business, so for Lima business obligations are also family obligations. Her hus
band's job with the airlines allows her to travel frequently without much transporta
tion cost. She is certainly the most widely travelled of this group of travellers, yet
her destinations are neither frivolous nor exotic. Valu's business travel takes him
farther away spatially and culturally from the community. Recall that it is impor
tant for Pacific Islanders to reinforce their culture and identity through demonstra
tion. So Valu makes sure to bring with him some tangible elements of culture, thus
creating Samoan space within his hotel room. Valu and Lima also talk about their
vacation travel, but their vacations do not conform to a western notion of "getting
away from it all." Closer scrutiny reveals that even here recreational travel
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involves movement through Samoan space. Lima’ s excursions to Las Vegas were
part of a tour sponsored through her Samoan church and in the company of two
dozen other Samoans. Valu's annual trips to Hawai'i involve family reunions or
include visits with relatives.
7. Conclusion:
What do these life/travel histories actually tell us about the function of
travel in Samoan culture? These personal narratives reveal the role of travel in
culture and provide some insight into the culture of travel. These people are
travelling a great deal. However, it is clear that their travel is a manifestation of
Samoan identity in modem times. These are not nomads nor seasonal migrants.
They are not a placeless people. Their travels respond to specific imperatives of
family and cultural obligations. Being Samoan requires participation in family
activities. The fact that these activities are separated by substantial distances does
not relieve the obligation. These destinations are not new places but clearly
established Samoan spaces. These destinations are where family is. They are other
Samoan places.
One indicator of the importance of travel for these narrators is that we can
not envision their lives without it. Their travel histories are indeed their life
histories. The principle life stage events of the narrators and their families are so
intertwined with travel that it cannot be unraveled from their lives as one could
separate a loose strand. It is very much part of who these people are.
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183
"...in the Pacific people move in order to stay behind." Tuiasosopo’ s (1988)
paradox taunts us, but also intimates an explanation of why these folk do so much
travelling about. Travel sustains them... who they are, their status within their aiga
and within the Los Angeles community. Not travelling would be to shirk their
tautua and thus diminish their status, their place in their family and in their
community. They would be less than who they are.
These life/travel histories shed light on a Samoan concept of home and
locality. Although they have lived most of their lives away from the islands, all
identify their nu u, their family village in the islands, as home. Their residence,
their "home", is in Los Angeles, but their principle abode holds a different meaning
for Samoans than it does for westerners. Residence in and of itself is insufficient to
fill the needs that "home" signifies. Where they live in Los Angeles is not their
nu 'u , but it has become a part of their nu u. In somewhat the same way that the
fundamental role of the 'aiga in Samoan society blurs the social boundaries of the
nuclear family; the global distribution of the aiga expands the geographic certainty
of "home" to include a multiplicity of locales. Home then is where family is.
Travel just ties the different pieces together.
NOTES:
I. Malua College was established in 1845 by the London Missionary Society to train
Samoan teachers and pastors (Holmes and Holmes 1992).
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Chapter Seven.
CIRCULATIONS WITHIN AN URBAN SAMOAN FUNERAL
I. Introduction:
Pulu Momoli passed away last April. Pulu was a beloved and respected
elder in the Samoan community in Los Angeles. His death activated socio-cultural
relations in and beyond the local community, engaging family in Samoan setde-
ments up and down the California coast and across the Pacific. This chapter
examines the socio-spatial dimensions involved with his funeral. With the cooper
ation of the family I was able to identify the home towns of the mourners and, in
particular, those bringing le toga and other traditional gifts. Mapping the origins
of the funeral participants describes a socio-spatial web that links the immigrant
community in Los Angeles with other communities in California, Hawai’ i and New
Zealand as well as with Samoa. The sources of traditional gifts illuminate the
spatiality of this family's social relations, their continuing ties to Samoan culture
and the home islands, and also the importance of relations to other California
settlements. However, the funeral arrangements also reveal a culture in change as
traditional protocols have been modified and modernized to accommodate the new
geography of Samoans in the late twentieth century.
This chapter begins by positioning this study within the current discourse
on transnationalism. Then, I explain the novel ethnographic approach used in this
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185
project. Next, I examine the circumstances of Pulu Momoli’s funeral, particularly
the modifications from traditional Samoan practice. I detail the origins of his
mourners, their relationship to Pulu, their traditional gifts and other contributions to
the family. My findings further demonstrate that the social fields linking different
places of immigrant settlement are an important dimension of the transnational
experience.
2. Transnational Misconceptions:
Where once we studied immigrant settlements, now our research analyzes
transnational communities. The social fields of modem immigrants cross substan
tial geographic, cultural and political boundaries (Basch et al 1994). The focus of
my research interest and this dissertation is the considerable amount of travelling
that must take place in order to maintain these expanded social fields.
A number of studies have examined the social fields of transnational
communities (Conway et al 1990; Grasmuck & Pessar 1991; Kearney & Nagengast
1989; Mountz & Wright 1996). However, their emphasis has focused on linkages
between immigrant settlements and home society. This emphasis conveys the
impression that immigrants are caught in a polarity between the social, political and
economic ties to their home society and those of their new home. An essential
element of transnationalism is the multiplicity of involvements that transmigrants
sustain in both home and host societies (Basch et al. 1994). Immigrant social ties
often take the form of expanded social networks connecting different places of
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186
settlement, but these social ties between settlements are either overlooked or
dismissed as inconsequential.
For example, Basch, Schiller and Blanc (1994) argue that "...the ’ spider
web' networks of transmigrants must be located within the hegemonic processes of
multiple nation states...." They assert that the global nature of capitalism necessi
tates the maintenance of family ties among persons spread across the globe, and
that relationships between nations shape the social ties between communities of
immigrants of common origin within those nations. In their view, the priority
social field connects immigrant settlements with their homeland. However, family
ties have an ancient heritage. Global capitalism can not really explain the existence
or persistence of family and other social networks or the importance of these
networks to the immigrant community.
I believe that scholars have ignored an important component of the modem
immigrant experience. These ’ spider-web’ networks are often robust because they
involve family ties as well as social and cultural ties. Samoan settlements are a
particularly good demonstration of this effect. In Samoan society the fundamental
social and economic unit is the aiga, or extended family. When I refer to 'family'
in this chapter, of course I mean the ’ aiga, or extended family. Decisions about the
allocation of family resources for life stage events such as Pulu's funeral include
the travel expenses to bring distant family members to the ceremony.
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187
3. Reconstructing Circulations front a Small Ritual:
In chapter five I established that much of the travelling by Samoans in the
Los Angeles community involved travel to home villages in Samoa and to other
Samoan settlements to participate in celebrations around life-course events such as
weddings and funerals. Over the years of my involvement with this community I
have attended several Samoan weddings and funerals. I was fascinated by tradi
tional Samoan ceremonial elements that had been transplanted in Los Angeles, but
I was also intrigued by the westernized practices that were being incorporated into
these ceremonies. Among these was a minor ritual, that I had scarcely noticed. It
occurred to me as I was signing the guest register for a funeral that this was a
database! There were hundreds of names here. If I could tie these names to places
I would have a map. Immediately I felt ashamed. I was attending the funeral of
someone I knew and here I was getting excited about a new data source. Later, I
learned that the registers are part of the package supplied by the funeral home.
Samoan culture has its own provisions for taking note of who participates and who
does not. There was no cultural barrier to using the register, but in this case the
grandmother had taken it with her back to Hawai'L
Then in April 1998, Pulu Momoli passed away. I knew the family well, and
after the funeral was able to obtain their permission to study the guest register. The
register contained the signatures of those in attendance at the different memorial
services for Pulu. It also contained highly personal messages and expressions of
grief directed to the deceased. I made a copy of each page and numbered each
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188
entry. When I returned the register, I informed the family that I was interested in
the connections that tied Samoan communities together. I would need their help
interpreting the guest register. For each entry I needed to know the hometown,
their relationship to Pulu, and the contribution they had made toward funeral
expenses. The process was tedious and took several visits, but Pulu's daughter and
her sister-in-law patiently went through each entry with me. This proved to be an
invaluable ethnographic technique. The process of identifying each entry prompted
additional biographic information, and anecdotes about family history, relations
and travels. They also shared the tabulation of donations received and the tradition
al gifts exchanged at the service. This record turned out to be particularly useful in
assessing the social significance of some family relations.
It is customary among social scientists to hold confidential the identity of
their informants. However, as I indicated in the previous chapter, the family
insisted that I use Pulu's actual name. They believed he would have been pleased
to participate if he were still alive, and that using his name would continue to honor
him.
4. The Spatialities of an Urban Samoan Funeral:
Death in the Samoan community sets in motion a variety of activities that
involves not only relatives, friends and fellow parishioners, but also members of
most of the Samoan churches in the area (Ablon 1970). Memorial services take
several days and require two evening religious services, one just for the “ aiga, and
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189
another more public service that includes performances and presentations by choirs
of various local churches. It was once Samoan custom that burial take place within
24 hours (Pitt 1970), but now services are usually delayed so that distant relatives
can be notified and make arrangements to attend. Local funeral homes cater to the
Samoan community by accommodating the additional ceremonials and allowing
for the delay in burial (Ablon 1970). The actual funeral service and burial is
followed by an elaborate feast, at which a ritual exchange of traditional gifts and
money takes place between the 'aiga, the local Samoan community and family
representatives from other communities.
Pulu Momoli's funeral service was distinctive in several respects. The
funeral was a Catholic service. The Los Angeles Samoan community is dominated
by Congregationalism Adventist and Latter Day Saints congregations. Catholics
represent a minor but important denomination within the community. Secondly,
the immediate family initially insisted on a westernized service without fa ’ aSamoa,
the traditional Samoan observances. This provoked considerable debate within the
extended family and also within the local community. Samoan immigrant settle
ments tend to emphasize Samoan tradition even in circumstances where it would
not be observed in the islands. Although not a titled chief, Pulu's status in the
community and their respect for his family would have warranted fa \ ’ aSamoa. His
immediate family did not want to endure all the ritual and obligations associated
with fa ’ aSamoa, but family in the islands and out of town wanted to express their
feelings and were very insistent about showing respect in the traditional manner. In
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190
the end the fam ily acquiesced to a modified ritual. By itself this represents a
significant departure from custom. In Samoa, there is no such thing as a modified
fa ’ aSamoa. There would either be a traditional observance or not. Finally, funeral
services took place eight days after his death, and this was not enough time for
some family in the islands to make travel arrangements.
The guest register recorded 252 mourners. The family estimated this
number as being about ten percent short of the true total, as there were some in
attendance who did not sign the register. However, the family confirmed that all
who travelled some distance were included.
The distribution of hometowns reveals a distance-decay effect in funeral
attendance (Table 7.1; Figure 7.1). We identified 32 hometowns, 22 of these towns
are in Southern California, and 1 1 eleven are clustered in the southern portion of
Los Angeles County. Three fourths (76%, 192) of the attendees came from these
eleven towns. Forty three percent (108) of the total resided in Carson, the heart of
the Samoan community in Los Angeles.
From outside of Los Angeles the Momoli funeral drew mourners from
American Samoa and important Samoan settlements in Hawai'i and New Zealand
as well as San Jose, Oxnard, San Diego and Orange County in California. As
might be expected, there are fewer people from these distant locations, but numbers
are not an indication of the social significance of their attendance. Fifty two
percent of the mourners were identified as friends and non-family. Most of those
identified as non-family came from the local area, particularly Carson and Long
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191
Table 7.1: Origins of Mourners and Gifts
j--------
{state County City total (family) donations mavaega
'ietoga
tofa lalaga
American Samoa Pago Pago 4 4 SI,100 3 2 220
Calif. Los Angeles Canon 108 54 $5,200 6 1 210
Cerritos 1
Compton 1
Cudahy 4 $100 20
Gardena 6 4
Harbor City 6 6
Inglewood 4 2
Lakewood 4 4
Long Beach 45 9 I
Norwalk 6 3
Rancho Palos Verdes 2
Redondo Beach 2 $100
San Pedro 2
Torrance 1 1 1 0
Wilmington 4 2
Los Angeles sub-total 206 94 $5,400 7 1 230
Calif. Monterey Monterey 2 2
Orange Garden Grove 2 1
Huntington Beach 3 2
Lake Forest 2
Santa Ana 3
Riverside 29 Palms 7 7
San Bernardino Chino 3 3
Rancho Cucamonga 1
San Diego San Diego 4 4
Santa Clara San Jose 5 5 $1,500 2 150
Ventura Oxnard 3 3 $1,000 2 30
Hawai'i Honolulu Mililani
2 I
Pearl City 1 1 $1,000 2 100
Waianae 1 I
Hew Zealand Aukiand 2 2
Washington Fort Lewis 1 1
totals 252 131 $10,000 16 3 730
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Figure 7.1: Origins of Mourners
Aukland
Pago Pago
Hawaii
Fort Lewis
San Jose
Monterey
San Diego
San Bernardino Cnty
29 Palms
Oxnard
Orange Cnty
Wilmington
Torrance
San Pedro
Redondo Beach
Palos Verdes
Norwalk
Long Beach
Lakewood
Inglewood
Harbor City
Gardena
Cudahy
Compton
Cerritos
Carson
20 40 60 80
Numbers o f Mourners
100 120
193
Beach. Their numbers are largely accounted for by two groups: the Samoan choirs
of St. Philomena Church in Carson and Holy Innocents Church in Long Beach.
Those travelling from distant locations were predominantly family (Table 7.1).
The funeral arrangements cost the local family around $10,000, not includ
ing the additional expenses incurred hosting those from out of town. The family
received more than $10,000 in contributions. Sources of these contributions further
illuminate the significance of the family connections in distant locations (Figure
12). $5200 came from family and friends in Carson. Most of the balance came
from four other locations: American Samoa, Hawai'i, San Jose and Oxnard. In
accordance with Samoan custom a good portion of the funds were returned to help
offset the expenses of travellers.
The fa ’ alavelave ritual exchange which takes place at funerals is among the
most important expressions of Samoan culture. The principle commodity in this
ritual are finely woven pandanus mats, le toga. Finemats or le toga are the most
valued and precious possessions in Samoan culture. As discussed in chapter five
each finemat possesses an individuality and their market value is incidental. Some
le toga are named, some are older, some have a significant historical association.
At Pulu's funeral the sources of finemat donations are similar to the sources of
monetary donations. Although most finemats came from distant locations, there
appears to be a more equitable distribution among the five source areas. It’ s not
unusual for more than a thousand finemats to be exchanged in a traditional funeral
service (Weiner 1992).
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194
Figure 7.2: Donations by Origin
$6
Carson
San Jose
Pago Pago
Honolulu
to Oxnard
Cudahy
Redondo Beach
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195
At Pulu Momoli’ s funeral about 750 le toga were exchanged (Figure 7.3).
These were catalogued as to whether they were mdvaega, tofa or lalaga. Mdvaega
are the most precious of le toga and represent family heirlooms. Lalaga are least
valuable individually, but impressive when offered in quantity. Lalaga are usually
packaged in lots of ten. Tofa constitute finemats of an intermediate grade but still
individually valued as something close to the family. The mdvaega most honored
in this funeral is the 'afuelo, the one selected by the family to cover Pulu's casket.
This was the mdvaega offered by family on Pulu's mother's side who reside in
Oxnard. This honor now becomes part of the heritage of this le toga. There were
not many le toga offered from Oxnard. Yet, the choice of this mdvaega as afuelo
underscored the importance of the family linkage between Carson and Oxnard.
Further, all le toga are produced by hand in Samoa, and all aiga are linked to
specific villages in Samoa. As repositories of family tradition, wealth and status
the te toga, particularly the mdvaega, are also linked to specific villages in Samoa.
Pulu’ s family could readily tell me which villages in Samoa most of the mdvaega
came from (Table 12).
I was able to obtain very detailed knowledge regarding the sources of
contributions and also the categories and origins of T e toga because of a modem
accommodation of Samoan culture. In Samoan tradition the ritual exchange is
presided over by a family chief, a matai. The matai’ s sister or another woman of
status in the family supervises the redistribution of gifts. Customarily, redistribu
tion decisions are done on site while taking into consideration multiple social,
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196
Figure 7.3: 'le Toga by Origin
250 Pago Pago
200
150
100
50
0
Long Beach
Carson
San Jose
Oxnard
Cudahy
§ •
’ Afuelo
Honolulu
lalaga
mavaega
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197
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Figure 7.4: l e to g a displayed a t a Sam oan funeral (Photograph courtesy o f th e Foisia family)
198
Table 7.2: Origins of Te toga and Donations
Mourner 'ie toga Mavaega
Origin donation (S) mavaega tofa lalaga Origin
Carson
subtotal
$500
$200
$1,000
$2,000
$200
$500
$100
$400
$200
$100
$5,200
1 50 Utulei
1 30 Utulei
1
1 1 20
20
1 20
1 70 Lauli'i
6 1 210
Long Beach
Redondo Beach
Cudahy
Oxnard
San Jose
Pearl City
Pago Pago
Pago Pago
$100
$100
$1,000
$1,500
$1,000
$100
$1,000
1 Leoni I
20
2 30 Lauli'i
2 150 Lauli'i
2 100 Lauli'i
1 20 Pago Pago
2 2 200 Pago Pago
subtotal $4,800 10 2 520
total $10,000 16 3 730
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199
political and economic variables. However, in this situation the family used a
spread sheet designed specifically to facilitate the accounting in Samoan ex
changes. This contrasts with the manner such exchanges would customarily be
conducted. I have not heard of such a form being used in the islands, but it's use in
the Los Angeles community is common enough that Pulu's family simply acquired
a copy of the form from another family that had used it in a recent ceremony. One
could imagine that the incorporation of this innovation into Samoan culture will
someday soon, perhaps even now, find a traditional island ceremonial exchange
presided over by the family matai while his sister dutifully makes entries onto a
similar spreadsheet on her laptop computer.
There is yet another Samoan circuit involved with this funeral that is hidden
in the guest register. The Catholic priest who presided at Pulu’s funeral, Father
Tovia Lui, is the chaplain for the Samoan community in the Los Angeles Diocese.
As the only Samoan priest, he conducts masses and administers the sacraments in
Samoan. He regularly makes the circuit of parishes with significant numbers of
Samoans in their congregation. These include Holy Innocents in Long Beach, St.
Philomena in Carson, St. Catherine Laboure in Torrance, Mary Star-of-the-Sea in
Oxnard, and St. Joseph in Santa Ana. Members of all these parishes were in
attendance at the funeral.
Pulu Momoli was laid to rest in Green Hills Memorial Park. This final act
is not so final. For this simple ritual also displays the intertwining threads of
change and tradition that bind this community to both its urban home in Los
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200
Angeles and a distant island home across the sea. In Samoa people are buried near
their home on family land. California law (Health and Safety Code 7003) specifi
cally prohibits burial on residential property. In Samoa, the gravesites of chiefs
and other important family members are marked with a substantial monument
sometimes located prominently at the front of the property. Untitled family
members are interred more discreetly with only a rock slab placed over the grave
(Holmes and Holmes 1992). Green Hills is the preferred resting place for Los
Angeles Samoans. Green Hills is one of those carefully manicured parklike
cemeteries whose policy allows only a modest bronze plaque placed flush with the
ground. Here the untitled are accorded the same distinction as family chiefs.
Holmes and Holmes (1992) observe that in Samoa graves are attended for a
year then forgotten. I would argue that in Samoa with the burial sites near the
home there is more daily interaction between living and dead. The dead hold a
continuing, but perhaps less formal, presence among their surviving family. In
Samoa it is not uncommon to see children playing around family gravesites. In Los
Angeles, Samoan families must interrupt their daily activities and travel to visit
their deceased relatives. An unusually large amount of "visitation" distinguishes
Samoan gravesites from others in urban cemeteries. On any weekend that part of
Green Hills where Samoans are buried comes to life as Samoan families visit the
graves of their deceased. A Samoan social space is created in the cemetery.
Instead of a brief visitation, Samoans come for the day. Whole families come and
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202
bring picnic lunches. Their children chase one another around grave markers while
families visit with other families that have come to visit their relatives. On
holidays the floral decorations get quite elaborate; fully decorated trees are set up
on the gravesites for Christmas.
Why Green Hills Memorial Park? It certainly is a magnificent setting at the
base of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. I believe it has to do with maintaining connec
tions. That part of the park preferred by Samoans and where Pulu is buried lies on
the southwest face of a hill overlooking the Los Angeles Harbor. Beyond the
harbor stretches the cobalt blue Pacific, and there, just over the horizon, about
another 4800 miles lies Samoa. Yet, this is not as far as it seems. Gazing out upon
this horizon on a clear spring day, standing by the old Fita's grave, someone is
playing Hawaiian music and surrounded by sounds of the islands you somehow
feel that if you were only a bit higher up the hill you would actually be able to see
those distant verdant isles.
5. Conclusion:
Various kinds of registers have been used from time to time by historians,
demographers and geographers to assemble a population data base. The use of a
funeral guest register as a data base is problematic because the raw information it
contains is individual, fragmented, and highly personal. Yet, it is just these
qualities that make for an effective ethnographic tool. Interpreting the register
requires the active cooperation of the family and engages them in a collaborative
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203
task with the researcher. Beyond the data extracted, the task involves sharing
insights about the deceased and the family and involves the researcher more closely
with the group under study. The register examined for this chapter shows the
potential of such a methodology.
This small study furnishes a unique window on significant space-time
dimensions of the modem Samoan world. In Pulu's life story we follow a key
participant in the migration that transformed the Samoan domain from the tranquil
ity of tropical Pacific to include the bustling cosmopolis of the world's premiere
urban area. Pulu was not only a pioneer but he was instrumental in facilitating the
acclimation of his community and continued to be a guiding influence until his
death. Even in the arrangements for his funeral Pulu continued to provide leader
ship for change. The protocols emerge out of the dialectic between traditional
Samoan practice and the exigencies of modem urban life, but they also evidence
the enhanced social circulation field of modem Samoans.
The social, cultural and spatial relations mapped in Pulu Momoli’ s funeral
reflect the connections shared by other Samoan families in the Los Angeles
community as well as those in other urban Samoan communities. The origins of
mourners and their gifts reveal the enhanced spatiality of modem Samoan social
life. For this family, it is indeed a 'spider-web' network that links family in Samoan
settlements up and down the west coast and across the Pacific. The social links
with Samoa are important, but not the priority that transnationalist thinking would
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204
lead us to expect. Clearly, ties to other Samoan settlements are as important, and
perhaps more so.
Pulu Momoli's funeral imparts some of the complexity of socio-cultural and
familial relationships that tie the California Samoan communities together. This
was but one funeral. Other travel stimuli operationalize similar networks. Each
network manifests its own spatial domain, some simpler, some more complex. The
Los Angeles Samoan community must command hundreds of such networks. As
do each of the other California communities. Collectively, the Samoan travellers
conveyed along these networks define a very dense social activity space enclosing
multiple localities within California.
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Chapter Eight.
CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS
In this final chapter, I summarize the principle findings of this dissertation.
Then I go on to consider the ramifications of the new geography of fa 'aSamoa and
its interface with modernity. Finally, I evaluate the implications of this research,
and indicate future research directions. These suggestions can hopefully guide
scholarship on urban ethnic settlements, ethnic mobility and the role of circulation
in ethnic identity.
1. Summary of Findings
My purpose in this dissertation has been to explore the function of travel in
the culture of a small community of Pacific Islanders in Los Angeles. This nexus
of mobility, ethnic identity and cultural change has led me down some intriguing
intellectual pathways. Much has been written about Samoans but not much
specifically about their travelling. I began by reviewing various explanations for
circulation. While informative, they failed to anticipate or to explain important
features of urban Samoan circulation. In particular, their emphasis on developmen
tal, economic and structural models did not match the actualities of Samoan
travelling. I found Chapman's characterization of circulation as a time honored
mode of behavior thrust onto an expanded territorial domain appealing because it
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206
privileged socio-cultural spatial activities that I observed among Los Angeles
Samoans. However, this didn't really explain the persistence of these activities into
modem urban settings. If frequent travel of urban Samoans was indeed traditional
behavior, then it must compose part of their contemporary cultural identity.
American ethnic theory aside from its ideological baggage focuses on group
relations within the United States. Their emphasis is how well these various
groups fit in American society and does not consider ethnic minorities in terms of
continued connections to their home societies. The modem conceptions of dias
pora and transnationalism consider ethnic groups as part of larger national and
cultural affinities. These models suggest specific implications for post-settlement
travel and ethnic identity. Still, "There is no politically innocent methodology for
intercultural interpretation." (Clifford 1997, p. 19) These models portray modem
dispersions of peoples as an effect of western capitalism. Group identity is shaped
by friction with its host society and estrangement from its home society.
But what if modem migration is simply an affirmative response of a people
to new opportunities? What then shapes their group identity in their new places of
settlement? By and large, advocates of diaspora and transnational perspectives
still carry a political agenda, and although they argue an origin perspective they
still view immigrant groups within a western construct of ethnicity. An evaluation
of Pacific Islander identity finds a different perspective on the differences between
peoples, one in which social behavior plays a more important role than ancestry.
In effect Pacific Islanders must continually demonstrate to themselves as well as
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207
others who they are, but in accordance with their cultural values not ours. If
circulation is a traditional mode of behavior then its persistence in the modem
setting must certainly be a manifestation of this Pacific Islander identity.
In chapter four I outlined the broad patterns of Samoan migration and
accommodation to urban life. In particular, I focused on the challenges to three
key institutions: the aiga, the matai system, and the Samoan church. The responses
of these institutions to their new urban setting show that fa 'aSamoa, Samoan
culture, is adapting but not abandoning its core values. If anything, Samoans are
becoming more Samoan, while at the same time subtly changing what it means to
be Samoan.
Examining specific elements of Samoan circulation must begin in the past.
If modem mobility patterns result from traditional mobility behaviors then the
source of this tradition must lie in colonial or precolonial times. Movement outside
the archipelago and even within the archipelago was severely restricted in the
colonial era. Indigenous voyages were discouraged and colonial transport was
expensive and irregular. In precolonial times, however, Samoans ventured quite
extensively aero ss vast oceanic distances. The origin of contemporary Samoan
travelling behavior must be then. If contemporary Samoan travelling is about
maintaining social relationships, certainly that is what it must have been about
then. Western models of capitalism were not present. The ancient artifacts from
which anthropologists deduced Oceanic interaction spheres were emblematic of a
social spatial relationship rather than just an economic relationship.
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208
A typology of the travels of urban Samoans in Los Angeles reveal extensive
and numerous short term visiting revolving around the socio-cultural based
activities of family and community. The different activities distinguish the major
flows of Samoan travelling, island bound, California bound or intra-California
circuits. Samoa bound circuits are tied more directly with traditional ceremonials,
while California bound circuits concern fund raising for island projects and
assistance. The most extensive travelling of urban Samoans involve intra-Califor
nia family and community activities. Those most likely to be travelling are
traditional leaders, chiefs and those who aspire to be chiefs, religious leaders and
also community leaders. As a group urban Samoans travel more frequently and
greater distances than their island kin. Samoan women travel as often as men, but
usually to fulfill different roles at the destination. The Los Angeles community is
situated at the junction of routes connecting the transpacific locations of Samoans
with urban Samoan communities in the United States mainland. Nor is this
circulation just about travelling Samoans. The important expression of Samoan
culture is the ritual exchange and the ritual goods which embody Samoan culture
also circulate. As in ancient times their circulation defines the spatial domain of
modem fa \'aSamoa.
Chapter six examined the role of travel in the life histories of selected
Samoan circulators. The various histories revealed a range of travel activities, but
also illuminated the socio-cultural basis for their journeys. Travel for them marked
important life stages. It was not travel that shaped who they are, but in fulfilling
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209
their commitments to family and to Samoan values, they had to travel. Their
travels were and are an aspect of their Samoaness.
In chapter seven the funeral of a revered elder of the Los Angeles Samoan
com m unity revealed the complex spatial web which comprises urban Samoan
society. The funeral showed a society in change accommodating Samoan tradition
to the realities of modem urban life, and compelling acceptance by those at the
cultural hearth.
2. Fa’ aSamoa as a Construction of Multiple Localities:
In its modem construction,^ 'aSamoa is no longer place-specific but multi
locale. The modem Samoan migration has been accomplished via chain migration
with the encouragement and support of family in both island villages and urban
settlements abroad. Urban Samoan communities are a socio-spatial extension of
the home village. I believe an important but overlooked feature of Samoan
migration and to our understanding of the role of circulation in general is that
Samoans did not leave until they could return. The ships and planes which carried
Samoans to their new places of settlement also brought them home in substantial
numbers; not to stay, but to continue their participation in Samoan society.
Perhaps, this also tells us something about the social processes involved in the
ancient migration that originally populated the Pacific islands. Samoans return to
the islands for specific occasions, but they travel even more frequently to other
Samoan communities. Nowadays, there are other expressions of interdependence
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210
such as telephone calls, letters, e-mail, remittances and parcel post, but none of
these forms carry the critical social significance of what Ho (1985) calls "face-to-
face interaction." It is through their frequent travelling that Samoans actuate the
'spider-web' network that ties the overseas communities to each other as well as to
their island home.
Travel for Samoans is more than a way to get from one place to another
place. Travel itself has some significance within Samoan culture. Achieving and
maintaining status within the aiga and within the community requires periodic
travel. With members of the extended family located in many places across the
Pacific and in the United States, visiting reinforces family linkages. Core Samoan
values of tautua (service), fa 'alavelave (sharing), and fesoasoani (help) support and
encourage circulation. Tautua is the path to family titles and leadership. But for
tautua to function in this modem geography requires extensive travelling. Fa a-
lavelave ceremonies accommodate and recognize travellers by giving them special
social distinction. The effort and expense entailed by travel is acknowledged, and
there is a social premium that accrues to those travelling from more distant loca
tions.
Fa aSamoa in the urban communities could not be maintained without these
ongoing connections made possible by frequent visiting. Concomitantly, fa a-
Samoa in Samoa could not be very well sustained without the overseas communi
ties and the continuing connections between them— the circulation of people, cash,
material goods and exchange goods. The expansion of fa ’ aSamoa beyond the
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211
home islands has meant change. Contact with western ways and urban life requires
both the accommodation and adjustment of fa 'aSamoa. At the same time it is clear
that Samoans adhere to core cultural values while bending modem systems to
fulfill traditional objectives: modem airlines carry people and finemats to major
urban areas, they carry urban Samoans to the islands with money, modem appli
ances, and tombstones; remittances are sent via international wire services;
computer spread sheets are used to calculate fa ’ alavelave exchanges, and so forth.
"Existing now in a transnational social space, tradition solves problems and
belongs to a world system that it never did before. And in the process, tradition
and identity are themselves transformed." (Small 1997, p200)
3. Fa’ aSamoa, Travelling Samoans and 21st Century Spatialities:
My purpose in pursuing this dissertation research was to find an explanation
for the frequent travels of my Samoan acquaintances. It appeared to be both
straightforward and intriguing, a simple mobility study with a dash of South Seas
mystique. Just pull together some numbers and fit them into some existing model.
It didn't turn out as I had expected it should. Modem Samoan mobility challenges
long held notions of migration and circulation. Prevailing models of mobility and
circulation are caste in developmental, economic or structural terms which largely
ignore the indigenous perspectives and traditions.
If Samoans were voyaging great distances a thousand years ago, how can
we now claim that their modem mobility is just an effect of global capitalism? All
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212
that has changed is the technology of transport and the distances. Furthermore, the
first effect of the intrusion of western capitalism into the Samoan cultural sphere
was to deny their tradition of mobility and put a stop to it.
".. jn the Pacific people move in order to stay behind." Tuiasasopo’ s
paradox (1988) imparts an islander perspective, but his simple statement holds
larger implications for our understanding of contemporary mobility. The motiva
tion for Samoan migration in modem times has not been about separation from
family, village or culture. The Samoans who now migrate and those who do the
most extensive travelling are those more closely tied to family, village and culture.
They are moving within the larger spatiality in which these social institutions now
function. This turns up-side-down the long held presumption that reasons for
circulation and migration could be simply tabulated as "push-pull” effects. The
"push" for leaving in this instance is the "pull" of family, village, culture. The
reasons for Samoans leaving are to "stay behind." What Small (1997) has revealed
about Tongan migration also holds true for Samoans. Going to America, the
ultimate act of westernization, was and is Samoan. It seems that to be the best
Samoan one can be, to serve family, village and culture well, one must leave
Samoa. For the same reasons, to serve family, village and culture well, Samoans
must travel.
Explanations of the persistence of ethnic identity are caste in terms of how
well these groups fit into American society. The advocates of diasporic and
transnational models advance a model of people being part of a society beyond
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213
their place of settlement Conzen (1999) applauds these approaches for viewing
people as a "collectivity." However their emphasis still prioritizes the connections
with the origin society. Rather than a collectivity this postures immigrant groups
as caught in a polarity between the political, economic and social ties to their home
society and those they must submit to in their host society. In the case of urban
Samoans and apparently in other cases (see Ho 1985; Small 1997), these explana
tions ignore more pervasive links among places of settlement. Immigrant groups
are part of a larger cultural domain of which their homeland is but one node.
Furthermore, the emphasis of diasporic and transnational explanations on economic
and structural explanations disregards the much more widespread contacts that are
social, cultural and familial based. The example of Los Angeles Samoans argues
that the persistent cultural identity of immigrant groups is as much about active
relations to kin in other settlements as it is about allegiance to their homeland.
Clifford exhorts us to "...rethink cultures as sites of dwelling and travel, to
take travel knowledges seriously (1997, p.31)." This study of the circulation
activities of urban Samoans compels us to reconsider existing models of migrant
culture and travel behavior. They must account for a more complex array of
sociocultural and family motivations residing within a much more complex
transnational spatiality.
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GLOSSARY
214
’ afuelo
'aiga
’ aiga-malaga
’ aiga potopoto
anga fakaTonga
ava
fa ’ aSamoa
fa ’ alavelave
fa ’ apalagi
fa ife ’ au
fale ’ oloa
feagaiga
fesoasoani
fono
Fonoa
Faifeau Samoa i
Kalefonia i Saute
The finemat laid over the casket during a funeral.
The extended family.
Term coined by Franco (1992) as a catch-all for less formal
travel movements.
The assembly of the family members who have the right to
participate in the selection of a new matai.
The Tongan way, Tongan culture.
Also kava, the traditional island beverage made from the root
of Piper methysticum; the important ceremonial drink of
Polynesia.
The Samoan way of life; Samoan custom.
Sharing; the term literally means "difficulty" or "trouble", but
in practice it involves sharing of resources and ceremonial
wealth between participating families; a ceremonial
presentation and distribution of gifts which takes place at
funerals and weddings and other important events.
The European or western way of life.
A pastor or religious leader.
Store.
The chiefs eldest sister or "sacred sister". Literally, "perpetual
kinship" and "covenant".
Assistance, help.
A ceremonial or offical meeting of chiefs; a council meeting.
The Council of Samoan Ministers in Southern California.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
haole A Hawaiian term for a white person.
hau A Maori term for the spiritual power residing in ancestral
land.
ie lavalava The brightly colored cloth wrap-around worn by men.
ie toga Finely woven pandanus mats; the most valued and significant
objects in Samoan material culture.
Jdrildti The game of cricket— Samoan style.
lalaga Relatively coarse kind of finemat; least valuable individually,
but impressive when offered in quantity. Lalaga are usually
packaged in lots of ten.
malae The village green.
malaga A ceremonial visit in accordance with Samoan custom; a
delegation.
mamalu Honor, prestige, dignity.
mana Spiritual power.
matai The titled head of a Samoan extended family.
mavaega The most precious of ie toga. Literally, "farewell" or "parting
promise". These finemats represent family heirlooms.
nu 'u Village.
’ oloa Goods, trade-goods; materials that have a utilitarian value.
palagi Samoan term for European or white person. Literally, "burst
from the sky".
puletasi A Samoan two-piece dress with a hip length blouse over a
straight ankle length wrap-around skirt.
saofa I The ceremonial installation of the new matai.
siapo Barkcloth; also called tapa.
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tafuga ta tatau
Tatalaga ole
Faleula
tatau
taupou
tautua
toja
toga
va ’ a tele
Tattooist.
A ceremony that occurs one year after a funeral service to
mark a formal end to the period of mourning.
Tattooing.
A ceremonial virgin.
Service; to serve a matai.
Finemat of an intermediate grade, (presented from an
assortment of finemats) still valued as something close to the
family.
A term for certain goods or artifacts that command a high
social and ceremonial value; a traditional source of wealth and
prestige.
A large double canoe used by ancient Samoans for long ocean
voyages.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
217
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APPENDIX:
226
SAM OAN CIRCULATION STUDY
Date:______________________ Study Phase:,
Name:____________________________________________
1. Location:_______________________________________
2. Age:______ 3. Sex:_________ 4. Occupation:______________
5. Church Affiliation:______________________________________
6. Do you hold a matai title? 7. Tulafale?_______Or Ali’ R
8. Name of title?_________________________________________
9. From which side of your family does this title com e?_________
10. From which village does this title come?_______
11. American or Western Sam oa?_______________
12. What are some of the senior titles in your family?
13. What is the name of the person who heads your family [’ aiga)'?
14. What is his/her title?__________________________________
15. Where is this person now living?________________________
16. How long have you lived in (dty name)?__________________
17. What village are you from?____________________________
18. Housing history since leaving Samoa (Location and Duration):
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227
HOUSEHOLD DATA:
N A M E Relation to
Head of
Household
Birthdate BirthPlace Sex Religion
Routine Circulation Activities:
30. Summarize normal weekly and monthly travel outside of this
community (Destination, Purpose, Frequency):
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228
Uncommon Circulation Activities:
40. Uncommon Travel during the last year:
Destination Date(s) Purpose(s) Gifts
(Types)
Travel
Companions
50. Uncommon Travel during the last five years:
Destination Date(s) Purpose(s) Gifts
(Types)
Travel
Companions
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229
60. Visitors hosted during the last five years:
Name Date(s) Hometown Purpose(s) Gifts (Types)
70. Travel to Samoa:
Gifts
(Types)
Travel
Companions
Purpose(s) Date(s) Destination
71. How is the decision made as to when to go?
72. How is the decision made as to who should go?
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230
73. How is the decision made as to which gifts to bring?
74. What kinds of items do you bring back from Samoa?
Questions about Finemats:
SO. Do you have any ie’ toga? ___
81. Which are the most valuable?
82. Do any have nam es?______
83. Why are they valuable?____
84. How old?_____________
85. Can you tell me where they are from?
86. Can you tell me where they have been?
86. Can you tell me about previous owners and fa’ a /ave/ave?
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Asset Metadata

Creator Koletty, Stephen Ronald (author)

Core Title The role of circulation in the modernization and spatialization of Fa'aSamoa

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Geography

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag anthropology, cultural,Geography,OAI-PMH Harvest,sociology, ethnic and racial studies

Language English

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c16-80631

Unique identifier UC11337826

Identifier 3018098.pdf (filename),usctheses-c16-80631 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier 3018098.pdf

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Document Type Dissertation

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Type texts

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