Chapter XXI: Appendix: V

MATERIALS UPON WHICH THE ANALYSIS IS BASED

This study included sixty-eight girls between the ages of eight and nine and nineteen or twenty—all the girls between these ages in the three villages of Faleasao, Lumā and Siufaga, the three villages on the west coast of the island of Taū in the Manu’a Archipelago of the Samoan Islands.

Owing to the impossibility of obtaining accurate dates of birth except in a very few cases, the ages must all be regarded as approximate. The approximations were based upon the few known ages and the testimony of relatives as to the relative age of the others. For purpose of description and analysis I have divided them roughly into three groups, the children who showed no mammary signs of puberty, twenty-eight in number, ranging in age from eight or nine to about twelve or thirteen; the children who would probably mature within the next year or year and a half, fourteen in number, ranging in age from twelve or thirteen to fourteen or fifteen; and the girls who were past puberty, but who were not yet considered as adults by the community, twenty-five in number, ranging in age from fourteen or fifteen to nineteen or twenty. These two latter groups and eleven of the younger children were studied in detail, making a group of fifty. The remaining fourteen children in the youngest group were studied less carefully as individuals. They formed a large check group in studying play, gang life, the development of brother and sister avoidance, the attitude between the sexes, the difference in the interests and activities of this age and the girls approaching puberty. They also provided abundant material for the study of the education and discipline of the child in the home. The two tables present in summary form the major statistical facts which were gathered about the children specially studied, order of birth, number of brothers and sisters, death or remarriage or divorce of parents, residence of the child, type of household in which the child lived and whether the girl was the daughter of the head of the household or not. The second table relates only to the twenty-five girls past puberty and gives length of time since first menstruation, frequency of menstruation, amount and location of menstrual pain, the presence or absence of masturbation, homosexual and heterosexual experience, and the very pertinent fact of residence or non-residence in the pastor’s household. A survey of the summary analyses joined to these tables will show that these fifty girls present a fairly wide range in family organisation, order of birth, and relation to parents. The group may be fairly considered as representative of the various types of environment, personal and social, which are found in Samoan civilisation as it is to-day.

DISTRIBUTION OF GROUP OF ADOLESCENTS IN RELATION TO
FIRST MENSTRUATION

Within last six months 6
Within last year 3
Within last two years 5
Within last three years 7
Within last four years 3
Within last five years 1
——
Total 25

SAMPLE RECORD SHEET FILLED OUT FOR EACH GIRL

Household number Girl’s number Name Age (How estimated)
Matai Rank Father Rank Father’s residence
Mother Residence of mother Either parent been married before?
Economic status of household Church membership of father, mother, guardian
Menstruated? Date of commencement? Pain Regularity Estimate of physical development
Grade in government school? In pastor’s school? Any knowledge of English?
Foreign experience (outside Taū) Physical defects
Order of birth?
Best friends in order?

_Test Scores_ Religious attitudes
Colour naming
Rote memory for digits
Digit symbol substitution
Opposites
Picture Interpretation
Ball and Field

_Judgments on individuals in the village_ Personality
Most beautiful girl
Handsomest boy
Wisest man
Cleverest woman Attitude towards household
Worst boy
Worst girl
Best boy
Best girl
Attitude towards contemporaries

TABLE I

TABLE SHOWING LENGTH OF TIME SINCE PUBERTY, PERIODICITY, AMOUNT OF
PAIN DURING MENSES, MASTURBATION, HOMOSEXUAL EXPERIENCE, HETEROSEXUAL
EXPERIENCE, AND RESIDENCE OR NON-RESIDENCE IN PASTOR’S HOUSEHOLD

_Residence
_Time Elapsed _Homosexual _Heterosexual in Pastor’s
_No._ _Name_ Since Puberty_ _Periodicity_ _Pain_[12] _Masturbation_ Experience_ Experience_ Household_
1. Luna 3 years monthly abdo. yes yes yes no
2. Masina 3 ” ” ” ” ” ” ”
3. Losa 2 ” ” abdo. back no ” no yes
4. Sona 3 ” semi-monthly ” ” yes ” ” ”
5. Loto 2 months monthly back ” ” ” ”
6. Pala 6 ” ” none ” ” ” no
7. Aso 18 ” semi-monthly back ” no ” ”
8. Tolo 3 ” ” ” extreme ” ” ” ”
9. Lotu 3 years monthly ” ” yes yes ”
10. Tulipa 2 months ” abdo. back ” ” no yes
14. Lita 2 years ” back ” ” ” no
16. Namu 3 ” ” ” ” ” yes ”
17. Ana 2 ” Every three
months ” ” ” no yes
18. Lua 3 months monthly ” no no ” no
19. Tolu 4 years semi-monthly ” yes yes yes ”
21. Mala 2 months monthly ” ” no no ”
22. Fala 1 year ” ” ” yes yes ”
23. Lola 1 ” semi-monthly abdo. ” ” ” ”
23ᵃ. Tulipa 3 years monthly back ” ” ” ”
24. Leta 2 months ” none ” ” ” yes
25. Ela 2 years ” extreme ” ” ” ”
27. Mina 5 ” ” ” ” no no ”
28. Moana 4 ” bi-monthly abdo. back ” ” yes no
29. Luina 4 ” monthly extreme no ” no yes
30. Sala 3 ” semi-monthly ” yes ” yes no

[12] Abdomen—pain only there; back—pain only there; extreme—so
characterized by girl, never so ill that she couldn’t work.

TABLE II

FAMILY STRUCTURE

_No. Name 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
Pre-Ads._

1. Tuna 1 3 x x
2. Vala 1- 3- x x x
3. Pele 3 4 x
4. Timu x x x
5. Suna x x x
6. Pola 3 2 1 x x
7. Tua 1 4 1 x
8. Sina 1 1 2 3 x x
9. Fiva 1 1 3 x
10. Ula 1 1 1 2 x x
11. Siva 1 4 x x

_Midways_
1. Tasi 1 4 x x x
2. Fitu 1 2 2 x x
3. Mata 1 1 3 x x x
4. Vi 3 3 1 1 x
6. Ipu 2 1 x x x
7. Selu 3
8. Pula 2 1 1 x x
9. Meta 3 1 1 x
10. Maliu 2 2 2 x x
11. Fiatia 3- 2- x x ½ ½ x
13. Tino 1 2 1 x x x
14. Vina 1 2 2 1 x x
15. Talo 2 4 x

_Adolescents_
1. Luna 2 5 1 x x x x
2. Masina 3 2 2 x x
3. Losa 2 1 x x x
4. Sona 2 x x x
5. Loto 4 1 x x x
6. Pala 3 3 1 x
7. Iso 1 3 1 x x
8. Tolo 1 2 x x
9. Lotu 3 5 x x
10. Tulipa 5 3
14. Lita 4 2 1 x
16. Namu 4 2 x x x
17. Ana 3- x x
18. Lua 7 1
19. Tolu x x x
21. Mala 3 1 x x x
22. Fala 1 3 3 1 x x x
23. Lola 1 2 2 x x x
23ᵃ.Tulipa 2 2 x x x
24. Leta 1 4 x
25. Ela 2 1 1 x x
27. Mina 1 x x x x
28. Moana 1 4 1 1ˣ 1ˣ x x x
29. Luina 1 x x
30. Sala 3 1 x x

KEY TO TABLE ON FAMILY STRUCTURE

_Column_ _Subject_

1 Number of older brothers
2 Number of older sisters
3 Number of younger brothers
4 Number of younger sisters
5 Half brother, _plus_, number older, _minus_, number younger
6 Half sister, _plus_, number older, _minus_, number younger
7 Mother dead
8 Father dead
9 Child of mother’s second marriage
10 Child of father’s second marriage
11 Mother remarried
12 Father remarried
13 Residence with both parents and patrilocal
14 Residence with both parents and matrilocal
15 Residence with mother only
16 Residence with father only
17 Parents divorced
18 Residence with paternal relatives
19 Residence with maternal relatives
20 Father is _matai_ of household
21 Residence in a biological family, i.e., household of parents,
children, and no more than two additional relatives.

x in the table means the presence of trait. For example, x in column 7 means that the mother is dead.

ANALYSIS OF TABLE ON FAMILY STRUCTURE

There were among the sixty-eight girls:

7 only children

15 youngest children

5 oldest children

5 with half brother or sister in the same household

5 whose mother was dead

14 whose father was dead

3 who were children of mother’s second marriage

2 children of father’s second marriage

7 whose mother had remarried

5 whose father had remarried

4 residence with both parents patrilocal

8 residence with both parents matrilocal

9 residence with mother only

1 residence with father only

7 parents divorced

12 residence with paternal relatives (without either parent)

6 residence with maternal relatives (without either parent)

15, or 30%, whose fathers were heads of households

12 who belonged to a qualified biological family (i.e., a family
which during my stay on the island comprised only two relatives
beside the parents and children).

INTELLIGENCE TESTS USED

It was impossible to standardise any intelligence tests and consequently my results are quantitatively valueless. But as I had had some experience in the diagnostic use of tests, I found them useful in forming a preliminary estimate of the girls’ intelligence. Also, the natives have long been accustomed to examinations which the missionary authorities conduct each year, and the knowledge that an examination is in progress makes them respect the privacy of investigator and subject. In this way it was possible for me to get the children alone, without antagonising their parents. Furthermore, the novelty of the tests, especially the colour-naming and picture interpretation tests, served to divert their attention from other questions which I wished to ask them. The results of the tests showed a much narrower range than would be expected in a group varying in age from ten to twenty. Without any standardisation it is impossible to draw any more detailed conclusions. I shall, however, include a few comments about the peculiar responses which the girls made to particular tests, as I believe such comment is useful in evaluating intelligence testing among primitive peoples and also in estimating the possibilities of such testing.

_Tests Used_

Colour Naming. 100 half-inch squares, red, yellow, black and blue.

Rote Memory for Digits. Customary Stanford Binet directions were
used.

Digit Symbol Substitution. 72 one-inch figures, square, circle,
cross, triangle and diamond.

Opposites. 23 words. Stimulus words: fat, white, long, old, tall,
wise, beautiful, late, night, near, hot, win, thick, sweet, tired,
slow, rich, happy, darkness, up, inland, inside, sick.

Picture Interpretation. Three reproductions from the moving picture
_Moana_, showing, (_a_) Two children who had caught a cocoanut crab
by smoking it out of the rocks above them, (_b_) A canoe putting
out to sea after bonito as evidenced by the shape of the canoe and
the position of the crew, (_c_) A Samoan girl sitting on a log
eating a small live fish which a boy, garlanded and stretched on
the ground at her feet, had given her.

Ball and Field. Standard-sized circle.

Standard directions were given throughout in all cases entirely in Samoan. Many children, unused to such definitely set tasks, although all are accustomed to the use of slate and of pencil and paper, had to be encouraged to start. The ball and field test was the least satisfactory as in over fifty per cent of the cases the children followed an accidental first line and simply completed an elaborate pattern within the circle. When this pattern happened by accident to be either the Inferior or Superior solution, the child’s comment usually betrayed the guiding idea as æsthetic rather than as an attempt to solve the problem. The children whom I was led to believe to be most intelligent, subordinated the æsthetic consideration to the solution of the problem, but the less intelligent children were sidetracked by their interest in the design they could make much more easily than are children in our civilisation. In only two cases did I find a rote memory for digits which exceeded six digits; two girls completing seven successfully. The Samoan civilisation puts the slightest of premiums upon rote memory of any sort. On the digit-symbol test they were slow to understand the point of the test and very few learned the combinations before the last line of the test sheet. The picture interpretation test was the most subject to vitiation through a cultural factor; almost all of the children adopted some highly stylized form of comment and then pursued it through one balanced sentence after another: “Beautiful is the boy and beautiful is the girl. Beautiful is the garland of the boy and beautiful is the wreath of the girl,” etc. In the two pictures which emphasised human beings no discussion could be commenced until the question of the relationship of the characters had been ascertained. The opposites test was the one which they did most easily, a natural consequence of a vivid interest in words, an interest which leads them to spend most of their mythological speculation upon punning explanations of names.

CHECK LIST USED IN INVESTIGATION OF EACH GIRL’S EXPERIENCE

In order to standardise this investigation I made out a questionnaire which I filled out for each girl. The questions were not asked consecutively but from time to time I added one item of information after another to the record sheets. The various items fell into the loose groupings indicated below.

_Agricultural proficiency._ Weeding, selecting leaves for use in
cooking, gathering bananas, taro, breadfruit, cutting cocoanuts
for copra.

_Cooking._ Skinning bananas, grating cocoanut, preparing
breadfruit, mixing _palusami_,[13] wrapping _palusami_, making
_tafolo_,[14] making banana _poi_, making arrow-root pudding.

_Fishing._ Daylight reef fishing, torchlight reef fishing,
gathering _lole_, catching small fish on reef, using the “come
hither” octopus stick, gathering large crabs.

_Weaving._ Balls, pin-wheels, baskets to hold food gifts, carrying
baskets, woven blinds, floor mats, fishing baskets, food trays,
thatching mats, roof bonetting mats, plain fans, pandanus floor
mats, bed mats (number of designs known and number of mats
completed), fine mats, dancing skirts, sugar-cane thatch.

_Bark cloth making._ Gathering paper mulberry wands, scraping
the bark, pounding the bark, using a pattern board, tracing
patterns free hand.

_Care of clothing._ Washing, ironing, ironing starched clothes,
sewing, sewing on a machine, embroidering.

_Athletics._ Climbing palm trees, swimming, swimming in the
swimming hole within the reef,[15] playing cricket.

_Kava making._ Pounding the kava root, distributing the kava,
making the kava, shaking out the hibiscus bark strainer.

_Proficiency in foreign things._ Writing a letter, telling time,
reading a calendar, filling a fountain pen.

_Dancing._

_Reciting the family genealogy._

_Index of knowledge of the courtesy language._ Giving the chiefs’
words for: arm, leg, food, house, dance, wife, sickness, talk,
sit. Giving courtesy phrases of welcome, when passing in front
of some one.

_Experience of life and death._ Witnessing of birth, miscarriage,
intercourse, death, Cæsarian post-mortem operation.

_Marital preferences_, rank, residence, age of marriage, number of
children.

_Index of knowledge of the social organisation._ Reason for
Cæsarian post-mortem, proper treatment of a chief’s bed,
exactions of the brother and sister taboo, penalties attached
to cocoanut _tapui_,[16] proper treatment of a kava bowl, the
titles and present incumbents of the titles of the _Manaia_
of Lumā, Siufaga and Faleasao, the Taupo of Fitiuta, the
meaning of the _Fale Ula_[17], the _Umu Sa_,[18] the _Mua o le
taule’ale’a_,[19] the proper kinds of property for a marriage
exchange, who was the high chief of Lumā, Siufaga, Faleasao and
Fitiuta, and what constituted the Lafo[20] of the talking chief.

[13] _Palusami_—a pudding prepared from grated cocoanut, flavoured
with red hot stone, mixed with sea water, and wrapped in taro
leaves, from which the acrid stem has been scorched, then in a
banana leaf, finally in a breadfruit leaf.

[14] _Tafolo_—a pudding made of breadfruit with a sauce of grated
cocoanut.

[15] Swimming in the hole within the reef required more skill than
swimming in still water; it involved diving and also battling with
a water level which changed several feet with each great wave.

[16] _Tapui._ The hieroglyphic signs used by the Samoans to protect
their property from thieves. The _tapui_ calls down an automatic
magical penalty upon the transgressor. The penalty for stealing
from property protected by the cocoanut _tapui_ is boils.

[17] The ceremonial name of the council house of the Tui Manu’a.

[18] The sacred oven of food and the ceremony accompanying its
presentation and the presentation of fine mats to the carpenters
who have completed a new house.

[19] The ceremonial call of the young men of the village upon a
visiting maiden.

[20] The ceremonial perquisite of the talking chief, usually a
piece of tapa, occasionally a fine mat.

GLOSSARY OF NATIVE TERMS USED IN THE TEXT

Aumaga (’aumāga)—the organisation of untitled men in each Samoan
village.

Aualuma—the organisation of unmarried girls past puberty, wives of
untitled men and widows.

Afafine—daughter (man speaking).

Aiga—relative.

Atali’i—son (man speaking).

Avaga—elopement.

Fa’alupega—the courtesy phrases, recited in formal speeches, which
embody the social pattern of each village.

Fale—house.

Faletua—“she who sits in the back of the house.” The courtesy term
for a chief’s wife.

Fono—a meeting. Specifically the organisation of titled men of a
village, district or island.

Fitafita—a member of the native marine corps.

Ifo—to lower oneself to some one whom one has offended or injured.

Ifoga—the act of doing so.

Lavalava—a loin cloth, fastened by a twist in the material at the
waist.

Lole—a sort of jelly fish; applied by the natives to candy.

Malaga—a travelling party; a journey.

Manaia—the heir-apparent of the principal chief; the leader of the
Aumāga; the heir of any important chief whose title carries the
privilege of giving a manaia title to his heir.

Matai—the holder of a title; the head of a household.

Moetotolo—surreptitious rape.

Moni—true, real.

Musu—unwillingness, obstinacy towards any course of action.

Olomatua—old woman.

Papalagi—white men; literally, “sky bursters.” Foreign.

Pua—the frangipani tree.

Soa—a companion in circumcision; an ambassador in love affairs.

Soafafine—a woman ambassador in love affairs.

Siva—to dance; a dance.

Tama—a child, a son (woman speaking).

Tamā—father.

Tamafafine—a child of the distaff side of the house.

Tamatane—a child of the male line.

Tapa—bark cloth.

Taule’ale’a—a member of the Aumaga; an untitled man.

Taupo—the village ceremonial hostess; the girl whom a high chief
has honoured with a title and a distribution of property.

Tausi—the courtesy term for the wife of a talking chief; literally,
“to care for.”

Tei—a younger sibling.

Teine—a girl.

Teinetiti—a little girl.

Tinā—mother.

Toa’ina—an old man.

Tuafafine—female sibling of a male.

Tuagane—male sibling of a female.

Tulafale—a talking chief.

Uso—sibling of the same sex.

NOTE ON THE PRONUNCIATION OF SAMOAN WORDS

The vowels are all pronounced as in Italian.
_G_ is always pronounced like NG.
The Glottal stop is indicated by a (’).

THE END

Transcriber’s Notes:

- Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
- Text enclosed by pluses is in small caps (+small caps+).
- Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected.