SEX IN SAMOA

Margaret Mead's famous study of adolescence and

sex in primitive society is a scientific classic that
has been widely acclaimed by both educators and
the general reader.

Coming of Age in Samoa is a frank and beautiful

book, incisive and original, leavened with charm
and humor. Dr. Mead descrihea the basic pri:nciples
of Samoan life which shape attitudes and hehavior
from hirth to maturity, and viYidly portrays the
moral and social problems adolescents have to solve
and the values that guide them in their solutions.

Among the suhjects Dr. Mead discusses are: edn-

cation, family relationships and rivalry, community
life, pre-marital and post-marital sex tahoo , homo-
sexuality, the role of the dance, personality and
temperament, and religi.on.

"A.s Miss Mead's careful scientific work deserves

the most earnest tribute, so her method of pre-
senting its results cails for the hiahest p-i:aise.
Her book, broad in its canvas and keen in its de-
tail, is sympathetic throughout, warmly human,
yet never sentimental, frank with the clean,
clear frankness of the scientist-, unbiased in its
jndgment, richly read .ahle in its style. lt is a
remarkahle contribution to our knowledge of
huxnanity." -New York Times

THIS IS A REPRINT OF THE ORIGINAL HARDCOVER

EDITION PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM MORROW & COMPANY
 V

COMING OF AGE IN
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SAMOA
MARGARET MEAD o: A Psychological Study of Primitive
Growing Up in New Guinea ( #MP368--60C) Youth for Western Civilis ation .
Male and Female (#MT555-75C)
Sex and Temperamentin Three PrimitiveSocieties
(#MP37o-60C) MARG ARET MEAD
CulturalPatternsand TechnicalChange
(#MT34C-75C) Forewordby Franz Boas -::>.,, ~ ,

New Lives for Old

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Contents
FoREWORD BY FRANZ BOAS vii
PREFACE TO THE 1949 EDITION ix
1. INTRODUCTION 11
2. A DAY IN SAMOA 18
3. 21
Li t
THE EDUCATION OF THE SAMOAN CH!LD
4. TuE SAMOAN HOUSEHOLD 31
To THE GIRLS OF TAU 5. THE GIRL AND HER AGE GROUP 42
Tms Boox 1s DEDICATED C "
1_. ::::, \ Ir
6. THE GIRL IN THE CoMMUNITY 50
'Ou te avatu 7. FORMAL SEX RELATIONS 57
lenei tusitala
ia te 'outou 8. THE RÖLE OF THE 0ANCE 70
0 Teinetiti male Aualuma 9. THE ATTITUDE ToWARDS PERSONALITY 76
oTaü I',
10. THE EXPERIENCE AND INDIVIDUALITY OF
THE AVERAGE GIRL 81
11. THE GIRL IN CoNFLICT 96
12. MATURITY AND ÜLD AGE 110
13., ÜUR EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS IN THE LIGHT OF
COPYRIGHT, 1928, BY MARGARET MEAD
J>REFACE TO THE MENTOR EDITION SAMOAN CONTRASTS 115
COPYRIGHT, 19_49, BY MARGARET MEAD 14. EDUCATION FOR CHoICE 137
.• ,,,
APPENDIX

I Notes to Chapters 146

II Methodology of This Study 152
III Samoan Civilisation As lt ls To-day 155
IV The Mentally Defective and the Mentally
Diseased 162
V Materials Upon Which the Analysis ls Based 164
a. Sample Record Sheet
Ml!>NTOR TRADEMARK REG. U.8. PAT. Oll'll'. AND FOREIGN OOUNTRIIIIB b. Table 1. Showing Menstrual History, Sex
B F.lGTSTERED TRADEMARK-MA.BOA RE GIST&ADA
IIE OHO BIN OHIOA GO, U.8.A. Experience and Residence in Pastor's
Household
MENTOR BOOKS are publisbed in the. United itates by c. Table II. Family Structure, and Analysis
The New American Libracy of World L1terature lpc.,
501 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10022, of Table
in Canada by The New American Library of CanadaLimited, d. Intelligence Tests Used
156 Front Street West. Toronto 1, Ontario
e. Check List Used in lnvestigation of Bach
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Girl's Experience
Glossary of Native Terms Used in the Text 175
114 COMING OF AGE IN SAMOA ÜUR EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS 115
the whole empbasis is UPoD a steady demonstration of in~~- always hear bis questions, can still tel1 him many things."
ing skill wbich will be eamest of ~ necessa.ry slll?e.nortty The women's lives pursue a more even tenor. The wives of
over bis fellows . Only the lazy, the shiftless, the amb1tionless chiefs and talking chiefs have to give some time to the mastery
fail to respond to t.hiscompetition. Tu e one exception to this of ceremonial. The old women who become midwives or
is in the- case of the son or heir of the high chief who may be doctors pursue their professions but seldom and in a furtive,
mad e the manaia at twenty . But here bis high rank has already private fashion. The menopause is marked by some slight tem-
subjected him to more rigorous discipline and careful training peramental instability, irritability, finickiness about food, a
than the other youths, and, as manaia, he is tbe titular head tendency to sudden whims and inexplicable fancies. Once past
of tbe Aumaga, and must lead it weil or lose bis prestige. the menopause and relieved of child-bearing, a woman turns
Once baving acquired a matai name and entered the Fono, her attention again to the heavy work of the plantations. The
differences in temperament prevail. Tue . matai name he re- hardest work of the village is dorre by women between forty-
ceives may be a very small one, carrying with it no right to a five and fifty-five. Then, as age approaches, she settles down to
post in the council house, or other prerogatives. lt may be so performing the skilled tasks in the household, to weaving and
small that matai though he is, he does not try to command a tapa making. ·
bousehold, but lives instead in the sbadow of some more im- Where a man is disqualified from active work by rheuma-
portant relative . But he will be a member of the Fono, classed tism, elephantiasis, or general feebleness, bis röle as a teacher
with the elders of the village, and removed forever from the is diminished. He can teach the aspirant young fisherman the
hearty group activities of the young men. Should he become a lore of fishing but not the technique. The old woman on the
widower and wish to court a new wife, he can only do so by other band is mistress of housebound crafts and to her must
Iaying aside bis matai name and entering her house under the go the girl who is ambitious to become a skilled weaver. An-
fiction that he is still a youth. His main preoccupation is tbe · other can gather the herbs which she needs for her medicines,
affairs of the village; bis main diversion, hours spent in cer e- while she keeps the secret of compounding them. The cere-
monious argument in some meeting . He always carries bis bun- monial burning of the candle-nut to obtain black dye is in the
dle of beaten cocoanut .fi.bre and as he talks, he rolls th.e fibres hands of very old women. And also these old women are
together on bis bare thigh. usually more of a power witbin the household than the old
The less ambitious rest up on this achievement. The more men. The men rule partly by the authority conferred by their
ambitious continue the game, for higher titles, for greater pres- titles, but their wives and sisters rule by force of personality
tige as craftsmen or orators, for the control of more strings in änd knowl edge of human nature. A life-long preoccupation
the political game. At last the preference for the most ~le, within th.e smaller group makes them omniscient and tyranni-
tbe very preference wbich, in defiance of laws of primogerutare cal. They suffer no diminution of prestige except such as is
or direct descent, may bave given a man his title, takes it away inherent in the complete loss of their faculties.
from bim. For should he live beyond his prime, fifty -.fi.ve or The feeling for generation is retained until death, and the
sixty, bis name is taken from bim and given to an<;>th.e;r, ~d very old people sit in the sun and talk softly without regard
he is given a "little matai name," so that be may still s1t with for taboo or sex.
tb.e other matais and drink bis kava. These old men stay at
home, guard the house while the others go inland to tbe
plantations, superintend the chil~en, braid c_inet and ~e
advice, or in a final perverse assertion of authonty, fail to give 13
it. One young chief who bad been given bis father's name d~ -
ing bis father's lifetime, complained to me: ''1 bad no old man Our Educational Problems in the Light of
to help me. My father was angry that bis title was given to me Samoan Contrasts
and he would teil roe noth.ing. My moth.er was wise but she
came from another island and did not know weil the ancient
ways of our village. There was no old one in the house to sit FoR MANY CHAPTERS we have followed the Jives of Samoan
with me in the evening and fill my ears witb the t.hings from girls, watched them change from babies to baby-tenders,
the olden time. A young matai should always have an old learn to make the oven and weave fine mats, forsake the
man beside bim, who, even th.ough he is deaf and cannot life of the gang to become more active members of the
116 COMING OF AGE IN SAMOA ÜUR EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS 117
bousehold, defer marriage through as many years of casual to do longer, more adult tasks, rendered shy by a change
love-making as possible, finally many and settle down to of clothing, while-her cousin, slower to attain her growth, will
rearing children who will repeat the same cycle. As far as our still be treated as a child and will have to solve only the
material perm.itted, an experiment has. been cond_u~ to slightly fewer problems of childhood. Tbe precedent of edu -
discover what the process of development was lik:e m a cators here who recommend special tactics in the treatment of
society very different from our own. B~use !he length ~f adolescent girls translated into Samoan terms would read: Tall
human life and the complexity of our society d1d not permit girls are different from short girls of the same age, we must
us to make our experiment here, to cb.oose a group of baby adopt a different method of educating them.
girls and bring tbem to maturity under <?Onditions created But when we have answered the question we set out to an-
for the experiment, i:t was necessary to go mstead to another swer we have not finished witb the problem. A further question
country where history bad set tbe stage for us. There we presents itself. _If it is p~oved that adol~ce~ce .isnQt nec;.~y
found girl children passing tbrou~ the S8:ß1e process . of ~y .difficult period in a girl's life-and proved rt IS if
physical development through which. our ~ls go, cuttmg we can find any society in which that is so--then what ac-
their first teeth and losing them, cutting therr second teeth, connts for the presence of stonn and stress in American
growing ta1l and ungainly, ~ching p~berty wi~ tbeir first a o escents? First, we may say quite simply, that there must be
menstruation, gradually reaching phys1cal_ maturity , and be- something in the two civilisations to account for the differ-
coming ready to produce the next generation. lt w~ possible ence. If the same process takes a different form in two dif-
to say: Here are the proper conclifü:ms for 3;0 expe~ent; th: ferent environments, we cannot make any explanations in
developing girl is a constant factor m ~eri:ca and m Samoa, terms of the process, for that is tbe same in botb cases. But
the civilisation of A.merica and the c1vilisation of Samoa are the social environment is very different and it is to it that we
different. In the course of development, the process of growth must lock for an explanation. What is there in Samoa which
by which the girl baby b~mes a grown. woman, are tbe sud- is absent in America, what is there in America which is absent
den and conspicuous bodily changes which .tak~ place at p_u- in Samoa, which will account for this difference?
berty accompanied by a developfI!ent which is spasmo'!i~, Such a question has enormous implications and any attempt
emotionally charged, and accompanied by an ~wakened re~gi- to answer it will be subject to many possibilities of error. But
ous sense, a fiowering of idealism, a great desrre for ~ertion if we narrow our question to the way in which aspects of
of self against authority-or not? 1s adolesce~ce a penod _of Samoan life which irremediably affect the life of the adolescent
mental and emotional distress for the growmg grrl as m- girl di:ffer from the forces whlch infiuence our growing girls,
evitably as teething is a period of llllsery for the small baby? it is possible to try to answer it.
Can we think of adolescence as a time in the life history of The background of these differences is a broad one, with
evecy gir1 child which carries with it symptoms o eo __Eii two important components; one is due to characteristics which
1 ~ as sureJy as it II!!Plies_a cbange in tbe girl's oody?
Föllowing the Samoan girls thr?ugh ev_ery aspect of thett
. areSamoan , the other to characteristics whicb are prilllltive.
The Samoan background which makes growing _u.,!: ~...si~o;...-,__ ...
lives we have tried to answer this question, and we found so imple a matter, is tne gene casualriess of l:1:iew o e ~o-
tbroughoot that we had to answer it in ~e ne~ative. Tue c1en,.For Samoa is a place where no one plays for vexy'high
.a.dllescent · l in Samoa differed from be~ s1ster who bad "!lot stakes, no one pays very heavy pric no one smfers for his
reached u _ny m one c e respect. . in e o er..~ _ cer- convictions or fights to the dealh for special ends. Disagree-
tain boclily chan!les were present which ~ere absent lil thB . nts between arent and child are settled by the chila's
younger giß, Tlfere were no other p:eat differences to set off moving across tbe street, between a man andnis vi.Ilage bytbe
the group ·passing thro1,1ghadolessence frQm tbe ,gro~ man's removal to the nex:t village, between a b,usbän.d and füs
would become adolescent in two y'earsor the group wbi.s_hbad wife's seducerby a few fine mats. Neither poverty nor great
become adoles@At two years befgr e. . disasters threaten the people to make tbem bold their Jives
And if one girl past puberty is undersized_ while h~ cousm de:arly and.. tremble for continued exfatence. No implacable
is ta1l and able to do beavier work, there w~ be a d:ifference gods, s~ to anger and strong to punisb , disturo the even
between them due to their different phys1cal endowment, teor of their days. Wars and cannibalism are fong since
far
which will be greater than that which is due to ~uberty. The passed away and now tbe grea:test cause for tears short of
tal1, husky girl will be isolated from her companions, forced eaIB1tself · a joumey of a i:el~tive to another island. No one
118 COMING OF AGE IN SAMOA ÜUR ED UC ATIONAL PROBLEMS 119
is hurried along in life or punisbed harsbly for slowness of ods o e a e ted reli ious .PiaC_tice, and if a .mm g~ not
development. Instead the gifted, the precocious, are held back. believ~ his only recourse is to believe less than his fellows;
until th.e slowest amo ng th.em hav e caaght the pace . ~j.n · e ay scoffJ>ufile.r.e · o _Jle faith to wfüch he may turn .
!:ersonal relatio.ns, caring is as s~t Lov e and hate , iruousy hes e t-dal ~a roximat es tliis con 1tion; all are
revenge, sorrow an reavemen are all ma ers o weeks . ·stians o th,e ame sect. There is no coiifl.ict m matters
From die 1i:rstmonth.s oflts · e, when the cfilla is ban ded of belief although there is a difference in practice between
careless ly from one woman' s hands to another's, lesson is Church-members and non-Church -members. And it was re-
leaxned of not caring for one person grea-tly, not setting high marked that in the case of several of the growing girls the
opes on any one rela ons · . ·nee fo ·ce be ~o ~e two .Eractices may soJDe day
::An just as we may eel lliat the Occident penalises th ose örociuce a confl.ict. But at pre$ent tbe Church makes too
unfortunates wbo are bom into Western civilisation with a s a bjd for young unmarri ed members to force th e
taste for meditation and a complete distaste for activity, so we ado escent to .iiijil:.e any „decjsion.
may say that Samoa is k:ind to th ose who hav e learned the les- - similarly , our children are faced with half a dozen stand-
son of not caring, and har d upon th ose few individu als who ards of morality: a double sex. staodard for men and women, a
hav e failed to learn it. Lola and Mala and little Siva, Lola's single standard for men and women, and groups which advo-
sister, all were girls with a capacity for emotio n greater than cate that the sjngle standard should be freedom while others
their fellows. And Lola and Mala , passionately desiring affec- argue that the single standard sbould be absolute monogamy.
tion and too violently venting upon the community their Trial marriage, compani onat e marriage, contract marriage--
disappointment over their lack of it, were both delinquent, un- all tbese possible solutions of a social impass e are paraded be-
happy misfits in a society which gave all the rewards to those fore tbe growing children while tbe actual conditions in the.ir
who took defeat lightly and tumed to some other goal with own cornmunities and tbe moving pictures and magazines
a smile. inform them of mass . violations of every code, violations
In this casu al attitude towar ds life, in this avoidance of which march under no banners of social reform.
cooflict; of poignant situations, Samoa contrasts stroogly not ___The S _oan.Lcliildwfaces nq such dilemma. Sex is a natural,
only with America but also with most primitive civilisations . l~urab e thing; the freedom witli which i ma_ybe ind,ulged
And however much we may deplore such an attitude and feeI in is li.mited by just one consideration, social status. Chiefs'
that important pers onalities and great art are not born in so te d .c.h"efs' wives should indulge 1.:!1
no ex.tra-mantäl
shallow a society, we must rec ognise tha t here is a stro ng erimeots. Responsible adults, heads of households and
facto r in the painless development from childhood to woman - mo ers of fa.milies sbould have too maoy important matters
bood . Fo r where no one feels very strong ly, the adolescent will on hand to leave them much time for casual amorou s adven-
not be tortured by poign ant situations. There are no such dis- tures. Every one in the community agrees about the matter,
astrous choices as those whicb confronted young people who the onJy dissenter s are the missionari es who dissent so vainly
felt that the service of God deman ded fors wearing the world that their p rotests are unimportant. But as soon as a sufficient
forever, as in the Middle Ages, or cutting off one's finger as a sentiment gathers about the mission ary attitude with its
religious offering, as among the Plains Indians . So, high up in European standard of sex behaviour , the need for choice, the
our list of explanations we must place the lack of deep feelin g forerunner of conflict, will enter into Samoan society.
which the Samoans have conventionalised until it is th.e very ,Our young people are fac_ed by a series of different groups
fram ework of all their attitudes toward life. which oelieve different thin gs and advoc ate different practices,
And next there is the most striking way in which all iso- and to each of which some trusted friend or relative may be-
lated primitive civilisation and many modern ones dilfer fr om orlg. So a girl's fätber may be a Presbyte rian, an imp erialist,
our own, in the numb er of choices which are perm.itted to
eacb individual . Our cbildr en grow up to find a world of
a vegetarian, a teetota ler , with a str ong literary pre feren ce
for Edmund Barke, a believer in the open shop and a high tar-
choices dazzling their unaccustomed eyes. In religion they iff, who believes that woman's place is in the home, th at youog
may be Catholi cs, Protest.ants, Christian Scie-ntists, Spiritual - girls should wear corsets , not roll their stockings, not smoke,
ists, Agnostics, Ath eists, or even pay no attention at all to nor go riding with young rnen in the evening. But her mother's
religion. This is an unthiokable situati on in any primitive so- father may be a Low Episcopalian , a believer in high living, a
ciety not exposed to foreign influence. Tb ere is one of strong advocate of States' Rights and the Monroe Doctrine,
120 COMING OF AGE IN SAMOA ÜUR EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS 121

who reads Rabelais, likes to go to musica1 shows and horse her s~~ ~ou:p, ~ucb as the daughter of Puritan parents, who
races. Her aunt is an agnostic, an ardent advocate of woman's penruts mdiscrurunate caresses,.must ~ake in our society.
rights, an intemationalist who rests all her hopes on Esperanto, And not only ai:eo~ developmg children faced by a series
is devoted to Bemard Shaw, and spends her spare time in cam- of groups advocating different and mutually exclusive stand -
paigns of anti-vivisection. Her elder brother, whom she adm.ims ards, but a m?~. pe~le~g problem presents itself to· them.
exceedingly, has just spent two years at Oxford. He is an Bec~use our. civilisation lS woven of so many diverse strands ,
Anglo-Catholic, an enthusiast concerning all things medireval, the 1deas which any one group accepts will be found to contain
writes mystical poetry, reads Chesterton, and means to devote n~erous contradictions. So if the girl has given her al-
bis life to seeking for the lost secret of medireval stained glass. leg1ance whole-beartedJy to some one group and has accepted
Her mother's younger brother is an engineer, a strict materi- in good faith th~ir asse1:7erations~ they alone are cight and
alist, wbo never recovered from reading Haeckel in bis youth; other philosophies of life are Antichrist and anathema. her
he scorns art, believes that science will save the world, scoffs troubles are still not over. While the less thoughtful receives
at everytbing that was said and thought before tbe nineteenth her worst blows in the discoveiy that what father thinks is
century, and ruins bis bealtb by experiments in tbe scientific good,_grandfather thinks is bad, and that things which are
elimination of sleep. Her motber is of a quietistic frame of pe:ffiltted at home are banned at scbooI, the more thoughtful
mind, very much interested in Indian philosophy, a pacifist, a c~d has subtler di.fficulties in store for her. If she has
strict non -participator in life, who in spite of her daughter's philosophically accepted the fact that there are several
devotion to her will not make any move to enlist her enthus- s~~ amo~g ~hieb she must choose, she may still preserve
iasms. And this may be within the girl's own household. Add a child-like!aith ~ the ~heren~ of her chosen philosophy .
to it the groups represented, defended, advocated by her Beyond the ~ed:iate cho1~ which was so puzzling and hard
friends, her teachers, and the books which she reads by to. m~e, whicb . perhaps mvolved hurting her parents or
accident, and the list of possible enthusiasms, of suggested alienating her friends, she expects peace. But she has not
allegiances, incompatible with one another, becomes appalling. rec~oned with the fact that each of the philosophies with
The Samoan girl's choices are far otherwise. Her father is a which sh<::is confronted is itself but the half-ripened fruit of
member of the Church and so is her uncle. Her father lives in comprolll.lSe. If she accept Christianity, she is immediately
a village where there is good fishing, her uncle in a village confused between the Gospel teachings concerning peace and
where there are plenty of cocoanut crabs. Her father is a good the value of human life and the Church's whole-hearted ac-
fisherman and in bis house there is plenty to eat; her uncle is ceptance of war. The compromise made seventeen centuries
a talking chief and bis frequent presents of bark cloth provide ago between the Roman philosophy of war and domination
excellent dance dresses. Her patema1 grandmother, who lives and the early Church doctrine of peace and humility, is stili
with her uncle, can teach her many secrets of healing; her present 1? co~e the m~em child. If she accepts the
matema1 grandmother, who lives with her mother, is an expert philosophic premises upon which the Decla.ra.tion of Independ-
weaver of fans. Tue boys in her uncle's village are admitted e~ce of the Uß.i!ed States was founded, sbe fin.dsben;elf faced
younger into the A umaga and are not much fun when they with the ~1ty. of. reconciling the belief in the equality of
come to call; but there are three boys in her own village whom ~ and our mstitutio.nal pledges of equality of opportunity
WJ~ our treatment of the Negro and the Oriental. The di-
she likes very much. And her great dilemma is whether to live
with her father or her uncle, a frank, straightforward problem versity of standards ~ p~ent-day society is so striking that
which introduces no ethical perplexities, no quest10n of imper- th~ dupest,. th': most mcunous, cannot fail to notice it. And
sonal logic. Nor will her choice be taken as a personal matter, this divers1ty lS so old, so embodied in semi-solutio.ns in
as the American girl's allegiance to the views of one relative those co~~ro~ses between different philosophies which' we
might be interpreted by her other relatives. The Samoans will caUChristianity, or democracy, or buroanitarianism that it
be sure she chose one residence rather than the other for per- bafiles the most intelligent, the most curious the most
fectly good reasons, the food was better, she had a lover in one analytical. '
village, or she had quarrelled with a lover in the other village. S~ for the explanation of the lack of poignancy in the
In each case she was making concrete choices within one rec- cho1ces of growing girls in ~~03.iwe must look to the temper -
ognised pattern of behaviour. She was never caIJed upon to am~t of the Samoan ct~ation which discounts strong
make choices involving an actua1 rejection of the standards of feeling. But for the explanation of the Jack of conflict we must
122 CoMING OF AGE IN SAMOA ÜUR EDUCATIONA L PROBLEMS 123
look prin cipally to the diff.erence between a s_imp]e homogen - more entJy_by- its culture but that it is also better equi pped
ous °'pfuliitive civuisation, a cJvilisation. which cfiaiiges o 1§i1h .:aiffic ties w1iföliit oes meet.
slow y t O eacli gene r on it appears stati c, and a mo ey, Such an assumption is given force by the fact that little
diverse, beterogeneous modern civilisation. Samoan childre n pass apparently unharmed through experi-
And in making the comparison there is a third considera- ences whlch often have grave effects on individual develop-
tion, the lack of neuroses among the Samoans , the great num- ment in our civilisat ion . Our life histories are filled with the
ber of neuroses among ourselves . We must exam.ine the factors later diffi.culties which can be traced back to some early, bighly
in the early education of the Samoan cbildren whl ch hav e charged exp erience with sex or with birth or death. And yet
fitted them for a normal, unneurotic development. The find - .!._amoan chi.ld:ren are familiarised at an early age aod WJtfiout
ings of the behavi ourists and of the psycboanalysts alike lay dis_aster,with all three. lt is ve!Y possibl e th_atthere are ~ects
great emphasis upon the enormous röle wbicb is played by the oftb e life of tl:ie young child in Samoa which equip it particu-
environment of the fust few years . Children who bave been 1arly weil for passing through life without nervous instability.
given a bad start are often found to fun ction badly lat er on With this hypothesis in mind it is worth while to conside r in
when tbey are faced with important choi ces. And we know more detail which parts of the young child's social environ-
that the more severe the choice, the m ore confii ct; the more ment are most strik ingly differ ent from ours. Most of thes e
poigna ncy is attached to the demands made upon the indi- centre about th e family situation, the environme nt whlch im-
vidual, the more neuroses will result. H istory , in the form of pinges earliest and most intensely upon the child's conscious-
the last war, provided a stupendous illustration of the great ness. The organisat ion of a Samoan household eliminates at
number of maimed and handicapped individuals whose defects one strake, in almost all cases, many of the special situations
showed only under very special and terrible stress. Without which are belie ved to be produc tive of undesirable emo tional
the war, there is no reason to believe tha,t many of these sets. The youngest , the oldest, and the only child, hardly ever
shell-shocked individuals might not have gone through life occur bec ause of the !arge number of children in a household ,
unremarked; the bad start, the fears, the complexes , the bad all of whom receive the same treatment. F ew children are
conditionings of early childhood, would never have borne weighted down with responsibility, or rendered domineering
positiv e enough fruit to attract the attent ion of society. and overb earing as eldest cbildren so ofte n are, or isolated,
The implicati ons of this observ ation are do uble . Samoa's condemned to the society of adults and robbed of the socialis-
lack of diffi.cult situations, of conflicting choice, of situations ing e:ffe ct of contact with other childr en, as only children so
in which fear or pain or anxiety are sharpened to a knife edge often are. No chil d is petted and spoiled until its view of its
will probably account for a large part of the absen ce of psy- own deserts is hopelessly distorted , as is so often th e fate of
chological maladjustm ent. Just as a low-grad e moron would the younges:t chi ld. But in the few cases where Samo an family
not be hopelessly handicapped in Samoa, although he would life does approximate ours, the special attitudes inciden t to
be a public charge in a Iarge American city, so ind ividuals order of birth and to close affection al ties with the paren t tend
with slight nervous instability have a much more favourable to develop.
chance in Samoa than in Am erica. Futhermore the amount The close rel ~tionship between parent and child, y,:hicqJ:1~ .-
of individualisation, the range of variation, is much smaller in snch a ecis1ve in.6.uence upon so .many in our civilisation,
Samoa. Within our wider limits of deviation there are inevita- tliats ubmissio n. to the parent or defia.l!ce of the parent mäy
bly found weak and non-resis tant temperaments. And just as become the dominating pattern of a lifetime, is not found in
our society shows a greater development of personality , so also Samoa. Children reared in households wh ere there are a half
it shows a !arger proportion of individuals who have suc- "flozen adult women to car e for them and dry their tears, and
a half dozen adul t males , all of whom represent constituted
cumbed before the complicated exactions of modern life .
authority , do not distinguish their parents as sharply as our
Nevertheless, it is possible that there are factors in the early
children do. The image of the fostering, loving mother, or the
environment of the Samoan child wh ich ar e particular ly fa- admirable father, which may serve to determine affecti onal
vourable to the establishmen t of nervous stability. Just as a choices later in life, is a composite affair, composed of several
child from a better home environment in our civilisation may aunts, cousins, older sisters and grandmothers; of chief, fath er,
be presumed to have a better chance under all circumstances uncles, brothers and cousins. Instea d of learning as its first
it is conc eivable that the Samoan child is not only handled lesson that here is a kind mothe r whose speci al and principal
124 COMING OF AGE IN SAMOA ÜUR EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS 125
care is for its welfare, and a father whose authority is to be can and English stage. But while granting the desirability of
deferred to, _the Samoan baby learns that its world is com- this development of sensitive, discriminating response to per-
posed of a hier archy of mäle and female adults, all oLwhom sonality, as a better basis for dignified human Jives than an
can 'be depended upon and must be deferred to. automatic, undifferentiated response to sex attraction , we may
Tue lack of specialised feeling which results from this dif- still, in .the light of Samoan solutions, count our meithods
fusion of affection in the household is further reinforced by exceedingly expensive.
the segregation of the boys from the girls, so that a child re- The strict segregation of related boys and girls, the institu-
gards the children of the opposite sex as taboo relatives, tionalised hostility between pre-adolescent children of oppos~te
regardless of individuality, or as present enemies and future sexes in Samoa are cultural features with which we are com-
lovers, again regardless of individuality. And the substitution pletely out of sympathy. For the vestiges of such attitudes ,
of relationship for preference in forming friendship completes expressed in our one-sex schools, we are trying to substitute
the work. By the time she reaches puberty the Samoan girl has coeducation, to habituate one sex to another sufficiently so
leamed to subordinate choice in the selection of friends or thait difference of sex will be lost sight of in the raore im-
lovers to an observance of certain categories. Friends must be portant and more striking differences in personality. There are
relatives of one's own sex; lovers, non-relatives. All claim of no recognisable gains in the Samoan system of taboo and seg-
personal attraction or congeniality between relatives of op- regation, of response to a group rather than response to an
posite sex must be flouted. All of this means that casual sex individual. But when we contrast the other factor of difference
relations carry no onus of strong attachment, that the marriage the conclusion is not so sure. What are the rewards of the tiny,
of convenience dictated by economic and social considerations ingrown, biological family opposing its closed circle of affec-
is easily born and casually broken without strong emotion. tion to a forbidding world, of the stron g ties between parents
Nothing could present a sharper contrast to the average and children' , ties which imply an active personal relation from
American home, with its small number of children, the close, birth until death? Specialisation of affection, it is true, but
theoretically permanent tie between the parents, the drama of at the price of many individuals' preserving through life the at-
the entrance of each new child upon the scene and the deposi- titudes of dependent children, of ties between parents and
tion of the last baby. Here the grow ing girl learns to depend children which successfully defeat the children's attempts to
upon a few individuals ,tö'expecf' the rewar ds'-of life fr o - make other adjustments, of necessary choices made unnec~
tain 1cindsof perso nali ties. 1th this first set towards pre fer - sarily poignant because they become issues in an intense emo-
ence in personal relations she grows up playing with boys as tional relationship. Perhaps these are too heavy prices to pay
weil as with girls, learning to know weil brothers and cousins for a specialisation of emotion which might be brought about
and school mates. She does not think of boys as a class but as in other ways, notably through coeducation. And with such a
individuals , nice ones like the brother of whom she is fond, or question in our minds it is interesting to note that a larger
disagreeable, domineering ones , like a brother with whom she family community, in which there are several adult men and
is always on bad terms. Preference in physical make-up, in women , seems to ensure the child against the development of
temperament, in character, develops and forms the foundations the crippling attitudes which have been labelled CEdipus
for a very different adult attitude in which choice plays a vivid complexes, Electra complexes , and so on.

~
role. Tue Samoan girl never tastes the rewards of romantic The Sam oan picture sbows that it is not nec essary to chan -
love aswe kriow it, nor does she suffer as an old maid who has el so deeply the affecti on of a child for its parents and sug-
appealed to no lover or found no lover appealing to her, or •as gests that while we would reject that part of the Samoan
the frustrated wife in a marriage which has not fulfilled her heme which holds no rewards for us, th e segregation of the
high demands. xes before puberty, we m.ay learn from a picture in whi ch
Having learned a little of the art of disciplining sex feeling e hom e does not dominate and distott the li:fe of the ch.ü<i
into special channels approved by the whole personality, we Tbe presence of many str ongly beld and contradict ory
will be inclined to account our solution better than the Sa- points of view and the enormous influence of individuals in
moans . To a,tt ain what we consider a more dignified standard the Jives of their children in our country play into each
of personal relations we are willing to pay the penalty of other's hands in producing situations fraught with emotion
frigidity in marriage and a huge toll of barren, unmarried and pain . In Samoa the fact that one girl's father is a dom-
women who move in unsatisfied procession across the Ameri- ineering, dogmatic person, her cousin's father a gentle, reas-
 126 CoMING oF AGE IN SAMOA ÜUR EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS 127
onable person, and an.other cousin's father a vivid, brilliant, we may say that one striking difference between Samoan
eccentric person, will infiuence the three girls in only one soeiety and our own is the Jack"of'lhe specialisation of feel-
respect, choice of residence if any one of the three fathers is m ; ana pärticül;u-Iy of sex feeling, among the Sam._oaD$.
the head of a household . But the attitudes of the three girls o tliis difference is undoubtedly due a part of the Jack of
towards sex, and towards eligion, will ndt be atfecteo Y difficulty of marital adjustments in a marriage of convenience,
tli'.g iffe'rent e111eerame ts oi tbefr three fathers for and the lack of frigidity or psychic impotence. This lack
fathers p1ay too sligot a röle in their Jives. They are sc ool of specialisation of feeling must be attributed to the !arge
not b an in • · bu gY.an arm of re a: tXes ..lll o en- heterogeneous household, the segregation of the sexes be-
eral conformity on which the personality of thei.{ P,arents fore adolescence, and the regimentation of friendship-
~ a ery slig.bt effec And througb an endJess cbain of chiefly along relationship lines. And yet, although we deplore
cause and effect, individual differences of standard are not the prices in maladjusted and frustrated lives, which we must
perpetuated through the children's adherence to the parents' pay for the greater specialisation of sex feeling in our own
position, nor are children thrown into bizarre, untypicaJ society, we nevertheless vote the development of specialised
attitudes which might form the basis for departure and response as a gain which we would not relinquish. But an
change. lt is possible that where our own cuJture is so examination of these three casual factors suggest that we
charged with choice, it wouJd be desirable to mitigate, at might accomplish our desired end, the development of a
least in some slight measure, the strong röle which parents consciousness of personality, through coeducation and free
play in childreo's lives, and so eliminate one of the most and unregimented friendships, and possibly do away with
powerfuJ accidental factors in the choices of any individual the evils inherent in the too intimate family organisation,
life. thus eliminating a part of our penalty of maladjustment
The Samoan parent would reject as unseemJy and oclious without sacrificing any of our dearly bought gains.
an ethical plea made to a child in terms of personal affection. The next great difference between Samoa and our own
"Be good to please mother." "Go to church for father 's sake." culture which may be credited with a lower production of
"Don't be so disagreeable to your sister it makes father so maladjusted inclividuals is the difference in the attitude to-
unhappy." Where there is one standard of conduct and only rards s~x and the education of the children in"matters pertain-
ooe, such undignified confusion of ethics and affection is mg to b1rth aod death. None of the facts of sex or of birth are
blessedly eliminated . But where there are many standards and regarded as unfit for children, no child has to conceal its
all adults are striving desperately to bind their own children .~nowledge for fear of punishment or ponder painfully ov:er
to the particular courses wh:ich they themselves have chosen, httle-understood occurrences. Secrecy, ignorance, guilty
recourse is bad to devious and non-reputable means . Beliefs, knowledge, faulty speculations resulting in grotesque concep-
practices, courses of action, are pressed upon the child in the tions which may have far-reaching results, a knowledge of
name of filial loyalty. In our ideal picture of the freedoro of the bare physical facts of sex without a knowledge of the
the individual aod the dignity of human relations it is not accompanying excitement, of the fact of birth without the
pleasant to realise that we have developed a form of family pains of labour, of the fact of death without the fact of cor-
organisation which often cripples the emotional life, and ~ptio~-all the chief flaws in our fatal philosophy or spar-
warps and confuses the growth of many individuals' power to ~g children a knowledge of the dreadful trutb-are absent
~nsciously Hve their own lives. ~ Samo':. F~ermore, the Samoan child who participates in-
.:,, Tue third element in the Samoan pattem of lack of per- tunat~ly m the lives of a host of relatives has many and varied
sonal relationships and lack of specialised affection , is the expenences upon which to base its emotional attitudes. Our
case of friendship . Here, most of all, individuals are placed children, confined within one family circle (and such confine-
in categories ancf the response is to the category, "relative,'' ment is becoming more and more frequent with the growth
or "wife of my husband's talking chief " or "son of my father's of cities and the substitution of apartment houses with a
talking chief,' ' or "daughter of my father's talking c_h:ief." transitory population for a neighbourhood of householders),
Consideration of congenjality, of like-mindedness , are all o~ten owe their only experience with birth or death to the
ironed out in favour of regimented associations. Such attitudes b1rth of a younger brother or sister or the death of a parent
we would of course reject cornpietely. or grandparent. Their knowledge of sex, aside from chil-
Drawing the threads of this particular discussion together, dren's gossip, comes from an accidental glimpse of parental
128 CoMING oF AGE IN SAMOA ÜUR EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS 129
acti.vity. This bas several very obvio~s disadvantages. In .the member that arithmetic lesson. But what it would know about
first place, the cbild is dependent for tts .knowledge up~:,a~rrth tbe real nature of tbe calculations involved in room-papering
and death enteri.og its own home ; the youngest child in. a is doubtful. In one or two e-,,,-periences,the child is given no
family wbere there are no deaths may grow to adult life perspective, no chance to relegate the grotesque and unfa- ·
without ever having had any close knowled~e of pregnancy, miliar physical details of tbe life process to their proper place.
experience with young children, or contact Wl~ deathlif d False impressions, part impressions, repulsion, nausea , horror,
A host of ill-digested fragmentary . conce~tions of . e an d grow up about some fact ex:perienced only once under intense
death will fester in the ignorant, mexpenenced mmd an emotional stress and in an atmosphere unfavourable to the
rovide a fertile field for tbe later gro~ of ~ortunate cbild's attaining any real understanding.
~ttitudes Second such children draw tbeir expenences from A standard of reticence which forbids the child any sort
emot:ionally tooed a field; one birth may be the only one of comment upon its experiences makes for tbe continuance
100 of such false impressions, such hampering emotional atti-
witb wbich tbey come in close cootact for tbe first twenty
ears of their lives. And upon the accideotal aspects of this tudes, questions such as, "Why were grandma's lips so blue?"
~articular birth tbeir wbole. attitude is dependent ., lf the are -promptly hushed. In Samoa, wbere decomposition sets
birth is tbat of a younger cbild wbo usurps .tbe el~er s. place, in almost at once, a frank, naive repugnance to the odoUJS
if the motber dies in child bed, or if tbe cbild wbich 1s b~m of corruption on tbe part of all the participants at a funeral
is deformed birth may seem a horrible thing, fraugbt w1tb robs the physical aspect of death of any special significance .
only unwel~me consequen~ . lf the only dea~ bed at So, in our arrangements, the cbild is not aJlowed to repeat
wbich one bas ever watcbed 1sthe deatb bed of on~ s motl'l:er, his experiences, and he is not permitted to discuss tbose whicb
the bare fact of death may carry all the emotton which he has bad and correct bis mistakes.
that bereaveroent aroused, carry forever an effect out. of. all Witb tbe Samoan cbild it is profoundly different.

~r ro rtion to tbe particular deaths encountered later J.D ~fe.

intercou.rse seen only once or twice, bet_Ween re~atives
towards whom the cbild bas complicated e~otional att1tudes,
course, r
"cfffiences.
an9, cbild birtb, deatb, are all familiar oo-
e Samoan c · d experiences them in no
such ord~ed fasfüon._as -we,were we to dec1de for widening
may produce any number of false assumptions. ~ur records the child 's experimental field, would regard as essential In
of maladjusted children are full of cases where c~dren bave a civilisation which suspects privacy, cbildren of neigbbours
misunderstood the nature of the sexual act, ha"'.'e mterpret!! will be accidental and unemotional spectators in a house
it as struggle accompanied by anger, or as ch.ast1sem.ent, ba wbere tbe head of tbe household is dying or tbe wife is de-
recoiled in terror from one bighly charged ex.penen~ . So ~vered of a mis<:arriage. The patbology of tbe life processes
our children are dependent upon accident for tbe1r expenence IS known to tbem, as well as tbe normal. One impression
of life and death· and those expe1;ien<:eswbich they are voucb - co_rrectsan e~lier one until they are able, as adolescents, to
safed lie within tbe intimate family circle and so ~e ~e _w~rst think a~out ~e and deatb and emotion witbout undue pre-
possible way of learning g~nera) facts abo~t wbich it tS !Dl- occupat1on witb tbe purely pbysical details .
ortant to acquire no spec1al, d1storted attitudes . One death, lt must not be supposed , however, that tbe mere exposure
hvo birtbs , one sex ex.perience, is ~. generol!s total for .the of children to scenes of birth and deatb would be a suffi-
cbild brougbt up under living cond1t1ons w~<:h we cons1der cient guarantee against the growtb of undesirable attitudes.
consonant with an American sta;idard o~ livmg. An~ eo~· Probably eveo more influential than tbe facts wbich are so
sidering tbe number of illustrations wbich we cons1der it copiously presented to tbem, is the attitude of mind witb
necessaryto give of bow to calculate the number of square wbich tbeir elders regard the matter . To tbem, birth and sex
feet of paper 0 ecessary to paper a room eigbt fe.et by twelve and death are tbe natural, inevitable structure of existence of
feet by fourteeo feet, or bow to_ parse ~ Enghsh senteoce, an existence in wbich tbey expect their youogest children to
this is a low standard of illustration . lt m1gbt be argued tbat share. Our so ofteo repeated comment that "it's not natural"
these are experiences of such high emotional ~one tb~t repe- for children to be permitted to encounter deatb wouJd seem
tition is unnecessary. lt migbt also be argued 1f.a child w 7re as in~ngruous to them as if we were to say it was not natural
severely beaten before being given its first lessoo w calcuiaru:ig for chtldren to see otber people eat or sleep. And this calm,
how to paper a room, and as a sequel t? the lessoo, saw tts matter-of-fact acceptance of their childreo's presence en-
father bit its mother with tbe poker, 1t would always re- velops the cbildren in a protective atmosphere, saves them
130 COMING OF AGE IN SAMOA ÜUR EDUCA TIONAL PROBLEMS 131
from shock and binds them closer to the common emotion pr~ferenc_efor reserving sex activity for important relation-
whicb is so <llgnifi.edlypermitted them. ships, ne1ther do they regard relationships as important be-
As in every case, it is here impossible to separate attitude cause they are productive of sex satisfaction. The Samoan
from practice and say which is primacy. Tbe distinction is girl who shrugs her shoulder over the excellent technique of
made only for our use in another civilisation. Tue individual ~ome young Lothario is nearer to the recognition of sex as an
American parents, who believe in a practice like the Samoan, !Illpersonal force without any intrinsic validity, than is the
and permit their children to see adult human bodies and gain sheltered American girl who falls in love with the first man
a wider experience of the functioning of the human body wh? kisses her. From their familiarity with the reverberations
tban is commonly permitted in our civilisation, are building wh1ch accompany sex excitement comes this recognition of
upon sand. F or the child, as soon as it leaves tbe protecting the essential impersonality of sex attraction which we may
circle of its home, is blasted by an attitude whicb regards weil i:nvy them; from the too slight, too casual practice comes
such experience in children as ugly and unnatural. As likely the d1sregar_dof. pers~nality ~hieb seems to us unlovely.
as not, the attempt of the individual parents will have done . !~e fashion m which their sex practice reduces the pos-
the child more bann tban good, for the necessary supporting s1b1htr of neuroses has already been discussed. By dis-
social attitude is lacking. Tbis is just a further example of countmg ~ur ~tegory of peryersion, as applied to practice,
the possibilities of maladjustment inherent in a society where ~d reservmg 1t for the occas1onal psychic pervert, they Jeg-
each bome differs from each other home; for it is in the fact 1s!ate.a whole field of neurotic possibility out of existence.
of difference that the strain lies rather than in the nature of Onan1sm homosexuality, statistically unusual forms of hetero-
the difference. se?'ual activity, are neither banned nor institutionalised. The
Upon this quiet acceptance of tbe physical facts of life, wider range whicb these practices give prevents the develop-
the Samoans bwld, as they grow older, an acceptance of sex. ment ~f obsessions of guilt which are so frequent a cause of
Here again it is necessary to sort out wbich parts of tbeir m~adJustment among us. The more varied practices per-
practice seem to produce results whicb we certainly deprecate, m1tte~ heterosex~ally pr~e~e any individual from being
and whicb produce results which we desire. lt is possible to penahsed for Special cond1t1omng. This acceptance of a wider
analyse Samoan sex practice from the standpoint of devel- ~~e. as "normal" p~ovides a cultural atmosphere in which
opment of personal relationships on tbe one hand, and of the frig1d1tyand psychic impotence do not occur and in which
obviation of specrlic clifficulties upon the other. a sa~factory sex adjustment in marriage can always be
We have seen that the amoans have a low level of appre- established. The acceptance of such an attitude without in
ciatio n of personality differences, and a poverty of conception any.way acceptin~ pr~miscuity would go a long way towards
of personal relations. To such an attitude the acceptan ce solvmg many marital 1mpasses and emptying our park benches
of promiscuity undoubtedly contributes. The con temporane- and our houses of prostitution.
ousness of several experiences, their short duration, the . Among the factors in the Samoan scbeme of life which are
definite avoidance of forming any affectional ties, the blithe infiuential in ,Producing stable, well~adjusted, robust individ-
acceptance of tbe dictates of a favourable occasion, as in uals, the organisation of the family and the attitude towards
the expectation of infidelity in any wife whose husband sex are undoubtedly the most important. But it is necessary
is long from home, all serve to make sex an end rather to note also the general educational concept whicb clisap-
tban a means, something which is valued in itself, and dep- proves of pre~ocity and coddles the slow, the Iaggard, the
recated inasmuch as it tends to bind one individual to an- mept. In a soc1ety where the tecnpo of life was faster, the re-
otber. Whether such a disregard of personal ·reJations is w~ds gr:ater the amount of energy expended !arger, the
C-Ompletelycontingent upon the sex habits of the people is bnght children migbt deveJop symptoms of boredom.. But
doubtful. lt probably is also a reflection of a more general tbe sJower .pace dictated by the climate, the complacent,
cultural attitude in which personality is consistently disre- peacefuJ soc1eo/, and tbe compensation of the dance , in its
garded. But there is one respect in which these very practices blatant precoc!ous display of individuality whicb drains off
make possible a recognition of personality which is often some o_f the discontent which the bright child feels, prevent
deoied to many in our civilisation, because, from the Samoans' any child frorn becoming too bored. And the dullard is not
complete knowledge of sex, its possibilities and its rewards, g~aded ~d dra~ed alo~g faster than he is is able until, sick
they are able to count it at its true value. And if they have no Wlthmaking an 1D1poss1b}eeffort, he gives up entirely. Tbis
132 CoMING OF AGE IN SAMOA ÜUR EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS 133
educational policy also tends to blur indi~ dual di:fferen<:es example of the results of applying reason to the institutions of
and so to minimise jealousy, rivalry, emulation, those soctal our society. The old red school-house was almost as haphazard
attitndes wbich arise out of discrepan cies of endowment ~d and accidental a phenomenon as the Samoan dance floor. lt
are so far -reaching in their effects upon the. adult per sonality. was an institution which had grown up in response to a .
lt is one way of solving the problem of ~er ences be~een vaguely feit, unanalysed need. lts methods were analogous
individuals and a method of solution exceedmgly congewal to to the methods used by primitive peoples, non-rationalised
a strict adult world. Tue longer the child is kept in a sub- solutions of pressing problems . But the institutionalisation of
ject, non -initiating state, the more of the general cultl1?1 ~ - different methods of education for children of different capaci-
titude it will absorb, the less of a disturbing element 1t will ties and different rates of development is not like anything
become. Furtherm.ore, if time is given th em, the dull~ds which we find in Samoa or in any other primitive society.
can learn enough to provide a stout body of conservatives lt is the conscious, intelligent directing of human institutions
upon whose should ers the burden of the civilisatioo. _can in response to observed human needs.
safely rest Giving titles to young i:nen would put a premium Still another factor in Samoan education which results
upon the exceptional; giving titles to men of forty, who bave in different attitudes is the place of work and play in the
at last acqu:ired sufficient . training 1_0 hold them, ~~ th e children 's lives. Samoan childr en do not leam to work thr ough
continuati on of the usual . lt also discourages th e brilliant so learning to play, as the children of many primitive peop les
th at their social contribution is slighter than it might other- do. Nor are tbey permitted a period of Jack of responsibility
wise have been. . ·such as our childre n ar e allowed. From the tim e th ey are
We are slowly feeling our way towards a S?lution <;>fthis four or five years o)d they perfonn definite tasks, graded to
problem, at least in the case of formal education. Until ve_ry their str ength and intelligence, bu t still tasks which have a
recently our educational system offered only two v~ry part1al meaning in the structure of the whole society. This does not
solutions of the difficulties inherent in a great discrepancy mean that they have less time for play than American chil-
between children of different endowment and di:fferent rates dren who are shut up in schools from nine to three o'clock
of developm ent. One solution was to allow a sufficiently lon g every day. Before the intr oduction of schoo ls to complicate
tim e to each educational step so that all but tbe mentally the order ed rou tine of their Jives, the tim e spent by th e Samoan
defective coald succeed, a method similar to the Samoan one child in ronning errands, sweeping the bouse, carrying water,
and without its compensatory dan ce floor. The bright child, and taking actual care of the baby, was possibly less than
held back at intolerably boring ta sks unless he was for - that which the Am erican school child devotes to her studi es.
tunate eno~gh to find some other outlet for his unuse:<1energy, Tu e dilference lies not in the prop ort ion of tim e in which
was lik.elyto e:x.pendit upon truan cy and general delinquency . their activities are directed and th e propo rti on of time in
Our only alternative to this was "skipping,'' a child. fro1=11o~ which th ey are free, but ratber in the difference of attitude.
grade to another, relying upon th e child's supenor ~telli - With the professi onalisation of edu cation and the specialisa-
gence to bridge the gaps. This was a method congemal to tion of industrial tasks which bas stripp ed the individual
American enthusiasm for meteori c careers from canal boat home of its former variety of activiti es, our childr en are not
and log cabin to the White House. lts disadvantag~ in giv- made to feel that the time they do devote to supervised ac-
ing the child a sketchy, discontinuous backgr ound, in remov ~ tivity is fun ctionally related to the world of adult activity .
iDg it from its age group, have been e.numerated too <;>ften Altbough this lack of connecti on is more apparent than real ,
to need repetiti on here . But it is worthy of note that with a it is still sufficiently vivid to be a powerful determinant in
very different valuation of individual ability than that en~er- the child's attitud e. Th e Samoan girl who tend s bab ies,
tained by Samoan society we used for years one solution, carries water, sweeps the floor; or the little boy who digs
similar and less satisfactory than theirs, in our formal educa - for bait , or collects cocoanuts , has no such difficulty. Tue
tional attempts . . . necessary natur e of their tasks is obvious. And the pr act ice of
Tue methods wbich eXl'erimental educators are substituttn g giving a child a task which he can do well and never per -
for these unsatisfactory solutions, schemes like the Dalton mitting a childish, inefficient tink ering with adult apparatus,
Plan , or the rapidly moving classes in which a group of such as we permit to our childr en, who bang aimlessly and
children can move ahead at a high, even rate of speed without destructiv ely on th eir fathers' typewrit ers , results in a different
hurt to themselves or to their duller fellows, is a strik:ing attitude towards work. American children spend hour s in
134 CoMING OF AGE IN SAMOA ÜUR EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS 135
scbools leaming tasks whose visible relation to their moth~rs· from working, a way of fllling in the wide spaces in a
and fathers' activities is often quite impossible to recogruse. structure of unirksome work.
Their participatioo in adults' activities is eitber in terms of Play includes dancing, singing, games, weaving necklaces
toys, tea--sets and dolls and toy automobiles , or eise a meao- of flowers, flirting, repartee, all forms of sex activity. And -
ingless and hannfu1 tampering with the electric light system. there are social institutions like the ceremonial inter-village
(lt must be understood that here, as always, when I say visit which partake of both work and play. But the distinc-
Am.erican. 1 do not mean those Americans recently arrived tions between work as something one has to do but dislikes,
from Europe who still present a different ~ition of ed?-· and play as somethiog one wants to do; of work as the main
cation. Such a group would be the Southem ltalians, wbo still business of adults, play as the main concem of children, are
expect productive work from their children.) . conspicuously absent. Cbildren's play is like adults' play in
So our children make a false set of categones, work, play, kind, interest, and in its proportion to work. And the Samoan
aod school; work for adults, play for childreo 's pleasure,. and child has oo desire to turn adults' activities into play, to trans-
schools as an inexplicable nuisance wi.th some compensa tioos. late one sphere into the other . I bad a box of white clay pipes
These false distinctions are likely to produce all sorts of for blowing soap bubbles sent me. Tbe cbildren were familiar
strange attitudes, an apathetic treatment of a school which with soap bubbles, but their native method of blowing them
bears no known relation to life, a false dichotomy between was very inferior to the use of clay pipes. But after a few
work and play, which may result either in a dread of work mioutes' delight in tbe unusual size and beauty of the soap
as implying irksome responsibility or in a later contempt for bubbles, one little girl after another asked me if she might
play as childish. . please take her pipe bome to her motber, for pipes were meant
Tue Samoan child's dichotomy is different. Work cons1sts to smoke, not to play with. Poreign dolls did not interest
of those necessary tasks which keep the social life going: them, and they have no dol.ls of their own, although children
planting and harvesting and preparati~n of food, ~shing. of other islands weave dolls from the palm Ieaves from
bouse-building, mat-making , care of children, collectmg of which Samoa.n children weave balls. They never make toy
property to validate marriages and births and succession _to houses, nor play bouse, nor sail toy boats. Little boys would
titles and to entertain strangers, these are the necessary activ- climb into a real outrigger canoe and practise paddling it
ities of life, activities in which every member of the com- within the safety of tbe lagoon. This wbole attitude gave a
munity, down to the smallest child, has a part. Work is not a greater coherence to tbe children's lives than we often afford
way of acquiring leisure; where every household produces our children.
its own food and clothes and fumiture, where there is no The intelligibility of a cbild's life among us is measured
large amount of fixed capital and households of high rank only in terms of the bebaviour of other children. If all the
are simply characterised by greater industry in the discharge other children go to school the child who does not feels
incongruous in their midst. If the little girl next door is
of greater obligations, our whole picture of saving, of invest- taking music lessons, why can't Mary; or why must Mary
ment, of deferred enjoyment, is completely absent. (There is take music lessons, if the other little girl doesn't take tbem.
even a lack of clearly defined seasons of harvest, which would But so sharp is our sense of differeoce between the concerns
result in special abundance of food and consequent feasti.ng. of cbildren and of adults that the child does not lea.m to judge
Food is always abundant, except in some particular village its own behaviour in relationship to adult life. So children
where a few weeks of scarcity may follow a period of lavish often leam to regard play as somethiog ioherently undignified,
entertaining.) Rather, work is somethiog which goes on all and as adults mangle pitifully tbeir few moments of leisure.
the time for every one; no one is exempt; few are overworked. !3ut tbe Samoan child measures her every act of work or play
There is social reward for the industrious, social toleration m terms of her wbole community; each item of conduct is
for the man who does barely enough. And there is always dignified in terms of its realised relationship to tbe only
leisure--leisure, be it noted, which is not the result of hard standard she knows, tbe life of a Samoan village. So com-
work or accumulated capital at all, but is merely the result plex and stratified a society as ours cannot bope to develop
of a kindly climate , a small population, a well-integrated spontaneonsly any such simple scheme of education . Again
social system, and no social demands for spectacular expen- wi:will be hard put to it to devise ways of pa.rticipation for
diture. And play is what one does with the time left over children, and means of articulatiog their school life with the
136 COMING OF AGE IN SAMOA

rest of life which will give them the same dignity which
, EDUCATION FOR CHOICE 137
emphasis on individual choice was historically inevitable, it is
Samoa affords her chlldren. regrettable that the convention has .lasted so long. lt has even
Last am.ong the cultural di:ffere.nces which may influence been taken over by non-sectarian reform groups, all of
the emotional stability of the child is the lack of pressure to whom regard the adolescent child as the most legitimat.e field
make important choices. Children are urged to leam. arged of activity.
to behave, urged to work, bnt they are not urged to hasten In all of these comparisons between Samoan and American
in the choices which they make themselves. The first point culture, many points are useful only in throwing a spotlight
at which this attitude makes itself feit is in the matter of the upon our own solutions, while in others it is possible to find
brother and sister taboo, a cardinal point of modesty and suggestions for cbange . Whether or not we envy other peopl es
decency . Yet the exact stage at which the taboo should be one of their solutions, our attitude towards our own solutions
observed is always left to the younger child. When it reaches must be greatly- broadened and deepened by a consideration
a point of discretion, of understanding, it will of itself feel of the way in which other peoples have met the same prob-
"ashamed" and establish tbe fonnal barrier which will last lems. Realising that our own ways are not humaaly inevit·
until old age. Likewise, sex activity is never urged upon the able nor God-ordained, but are the fruit of a long and
young people, nor marriage forced upon them at a tender turbulent history, we may well examine in turn all of our
age. Where the possibilities of deviation from the accepted institutions, thrown into strong relief against the history of
standard are so slight, a few years leeway holds no threat for other civilisations, and weighing them in the balance, be not
the society. The child who comes later to a realisation of the afraid to find them wanting .
brother and sister taboo really endangers nothing.
This laissez-faire attitude has been carried over into the
Samoan Christian Chttreb. The Samoan saw no reason why
young unmanied people should be pressed to make momen - 14
tous decisions which would spoil part of their fun in life .
Time enough for such serious matters after they were married Education f or Choice
or later still, when they were quite sure of what steps th.ey
were tak:ing and were in less danger of falling from grace
eyery month_ or so. The missionary authorities, realizing the WE HA VE BBBN comparing point for point, our civilisation
vrrtues of gomg slowly and sorely vexed to reconcile Samoan · and the simpler civilisation of Samoa, in order to illu.mi.nate
sex ethics with a Western European-code, .saw the gr~at disad- our own metb.ods of education. If now we turn from the
vantag es of unmarried Church members who were not locked Samoan picture and take away only the main lesson which
up in Church schools. Consequently, far from urging the we leamed there, rthat adolescence is not necessarily a time of
adolescent to think. upon her soul the native pastor advises stress and strain, ut that cultlmll conditions make it so, can
her to wait until she is older, which she is only too glad to we draw any conclusions which might bear bui1 in the
do. tr.aining of our adolescents? · '·
' But, especially in the case of our Protestant churches, ther e At first blush the answer seems simple enongh. lf adoles-
is a strong preference among us for the appeal to youth. Th e cents are. only plunged into difficulties and distress because of
Reformation, with its emphasis upon individual choice, was conditions in their social enviromnen t, then by all means let
unwilling to accept the tacit habitual Church membership us so modify that environment as to reduc e this stress and
which was the Catholic pattem, a membership marked by eliminate this strain and anguish of adjustment. But,' unfor-
additional sacramental gifts but demanding no sudden con- tunately, the conditions which vex our adolescents are the
version, no renewal of religious feeling. But the Protestant flesh and bone of our society, no more subject to straightfor-
solution is to defer the choice only so far as necessary, and ward manipulation upon our part than is the language which
the moment the child reaches an age wbich may be called we speak. We can alter a syllable here, a constructioo there;
"years of discretion" it makes a strong, dramatic appeal. This but the great and far -reaching changes in linguistic structure
appeal is reinforced by parental and social pressure; the child (as in all parts of culture) are the work of time, a work in
is bidden to choose now and wisely. While sucb a position in which each individual plays an unconscious and inco.nsidet-
the churches which stem irom the Reformation and its strong able part. The principal causes of our adolescents' difficulty