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The Samoan Way of Life
When I lived in Samoa, I stayed in a small village for a couple weeks with my host mother, Mataua, and her extended family. At dinner one night, she asked me how proud my parents were of all my tattoos, I had five at the time. Earlier in my stay, a group of school-aged children touched my tattoos in awe while a friend and I were riding a bus out of town. I was confused at first because "proud" was not the first thing my mother said to me when I started getting tattoos. In a Western-context, tattoos were not seen as anything other than art and some people find them unprofessional.
I shared a room with Mataua's niece Marietta, amongst all the other children in the family. She was only a year younger than me and we found that we got along really well. I asked her one night why everyone seemed amazed and proud of all the tattoos I had since because , in my experience, I had never heard that. She told me that tattoos were a sign of strength and apart of the fa'asamoa, or the Samoan way of life.
Photos from Lotofaga stay - 2017
When I asked her what that was, Marietta said that the fa'asamoa consists of three elements:
1. Matai
The matai is the head of the family unit and holds the most responsibility. They are the representative of their family and, largely, their community. The matai can be a man or a woman; however, in the past, the title has been male-dominated.
FUN FACT: In Samoa, you can only hold a position in Parliament if you are a matai.
2. 'Aiga
The 'aiga is the family unit and encompasses immediate and extended members. It is the responsibility of all members to be of service to all family members. That can look like helping pay school fees, going to university for higher education, migrating off island for a better job, or getting the pe'a or malu. Anything that can be helpful or aid in the family's happiness and success as a whole can be seen as service to the 'aiga.
3. Religion
Faith is a huge part of the fa'asamoa because Samoans have adapted by integrating their culture with the religions forced upon them by European colonizers and missionaries. Below are photos from a Catholic church where you can see a traditional kava ceremony below the Virgin Mary, Jesus, and God.
The ceiling of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Apia, Samoa - 2017
Following tradition is a great way of being of service to your family and your community in Samoa. However, this raises the question: What is tradition?
Traditions help a member of a group identify themselves within that group and to outsiders. They also are the process of communicating a groups' meaningful values and beliefs through lore.
Folklore concerns the identity of groups defined by the group, not by an individual inside (or outside) it; we share traditions in many different ways, in many different contexts, across the whole web of culture.
Living Folklore: an Introduction to to the Study of People and Their Traditions, p. 76
A key aspect of tradition to remember is that they are always changing and adapting to the needs of the group that they belong to. Any tradition will survive through the ages, no matter how much it changes, as long as it still holds meaning to that group. The authenticity of a tradition can only be determined and defined by the group it belongs to and not an outsider (Sims & Stephens 2011, p. 69-97).
With the introduction of Christianity to Samoa in 1830, the tradition of tatau had a high probability of being erased because the Bible states that we shall not spill blood or alter the flesh. Tatau was not always accepted and was done in secrecy where people used burned tire ash mixed with water as ink. However, as stated earlier, the Samoan people took the religion and made it their own. They did not allow the Christian missionaries to erase their sacred tradition and, instead, kept it alive.
Tattooing in the Western perspective is very different from tatau in the Samoan perspective. Tatau is a way to pay service to your family because it is seen as more than just a mark of the skin. It is a way to proudly represent cultural heritage and identify oneself to insiders and outsiders as Samoan.
In Polynesia, tattooing was maximal, that is, extensive and compulsory, in amplified devolved societies such as Samoa [. . .] Here tattooing was a suitable means for expressing social identities: in conical societies tattooing rituals express the 'passive acceptance of authority' and in devolved societies, the 'agnostic political motive of defiance'
"Tattooing, Gender and Social Stratification in Micro-Polynesia",
p. 344-345
This is what makes tatau a tradition. The tradition bearer, or a person capable of educating others because they have mastered the tradition, is called a tufuga. They are responsible for giving the tatau and training their apprentices. It has adapted through the ages to fit the needs, beliefs, and available resources of the Samoan people in the islands and across the globe. (Sims & Stephens 2011, p. 69-97).
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