Samoa

Question 1

Samoa Geography

Answer 1

1. Volcanic island
2. 3.2-1.0 my old
3. Eruptions on Savai’i 1911
4. Eruptions on Tutuila ca. AD 500
5. Ancient coastlines sunken
6. Hard to survey because very steep slopes
7. Archeological sites cut in rock

Question 2

Samoan Society

Answer 2

1. Family focused
   1.1 Large, adult children stay home, take care of grandparents
2. Chiefs (matai) of districts and villages
   2.1 Tied to districts and village based ones
   2.2 System based on genealogy and service (Men w/o title can do tasks or acts of service for village to gain title)
3. Gender roles
   3.1 Men
   3.2 Women
   3.3 Fa’afafine

Question 3

Samoan Society: Fa’afafine

Answer 3

1. Translates to “as/like a woman”
2. Do range of feminine roles (sewing, cooking, hairdresser)
3. Accepted as a gender
4. Use he and son descriptions but also call them sister
5. Been around since missionaries but highly increased in more recent times because realizing they are there
6. Seen as an asset because can be men in plantations and women in the house (past?)
7. Tend to hang around women more
8. They say mother encouraged them, men say didn’t know what’s happening, family say it is an asset
9. “Paradise Bent” video

Question 4

Contemporary Samoan Life

Answer 4

1. House (now)
   1.1 Electricity, cinderblock base, everyone has a farm to sell or eat themselves, some have fishing businesses
2. Farming and Fishing
   2.1 Businesses
3. Urban business
   3.1 In the markets
   3.2 Tourism
4. Villages
   4.1 Church central to village
   4.2 Big meals

Question 5

Archaeology in Samoa

Answer 5

1. Relatively unstudied
   1.1 Golson 1957
   1.2 Green and Davidson 1969
   1.3 Jennings 1976
   1.4 Hunt and Kirch 1988
   1.5 Quietus (and Kockran) 2015-present
   1.6 Shapiro (my graduate student) 2023
2. LiDAR help with archaeology

Question 6

Important Issues

Answer 6

1. Deforestation and erosion
   1.1 From clearing land in prehistory
   1.2 Sediment go to coastline and sink it
2. Islands subsidence
   2.1 Cliffs
3. Sea level change
   3.1 Hard to find early sites (Washed away and in valleys if anything)
   3.2 Risen 1.5 m

Question 7

Lapita Colonization

Answer 7

1. Mulifanua only site with dentate-stamps
   1.1 2800 BP
   1.2 Dredging barge dug out and excavated sediment and found pieces of pottery in sediment
   1.3 Now under water
2. Toaga
   2.1 3000-2500 BP
   2.2 Likely not Lapita
3. Perhaps very small population?
   3.1 Chicken
   3.2 Marine fauna (shells)
   3.3 Maybe didn’t settle there because cliffs went right down to water and need beach to drag canoe in
   3.4 “Uninhabitable” for first people to land there

Question 8

The end of Lapita

Answer 8

1. Disappears almost immediately
2. Replaced by plain ware (coarse and heavy)
   2.1 Why? (Too hard to make; No clay; Barely functional if make Lapita)

Question 9

Polynesian Plain Ware

Answer 9

1. 2800-1700 BP
2. Found in inland contexts
3. “Thick” and “thin” wares
   3.1 Cooking vs Storage? (Probably just went to earth ovens and pottery for storage)
4. Most sites show a steady decline in the frequency of sherds
5. Some retained ceramics for another 200-400 years

Question 10

Emergent Samoan Society

Answer 10

1. Dispersed household units
   1.1 Family house with cookhouse and some related structure dispersed around landscape
2. Central villages for small chiefs
   2.1 If Lapita brought chiefly lineages then have chiefs
3. Agricultural focus
   3.1 500-300 BP
   3.2 Pig and dog appear
4. (2300 BP for bottom of ditches in Samoa)
   4.1 Problem because not sure what silt is
   4.2 Date side dirt for more accurate dating because not sure what and when stuff is from

Question 11

Samoan Chiefs

Answer 11

1. Hereditary titles
   1.1 Ceremony to receive title
2. Tatau “tattoo” indicates family genealogy
   2.1 Pe’a (men) (Around waist, lower back, butt, thighs)
   2.2 Malu (women) (Thighs to knee)
3. Tattoo put on body by master and put on you by who you are
   3.1 Symbols appropriate to you and they don’t get to choose what is on your body
   3.2 Tie you to who you are
4. Tattoo
   4.1 Stick with tortoise shell and boars tooth cut and shaped into needle like structure
   4.2 Dipped in ink made of candle nut charcoal
   4.3 Use stick to tap tool and ink into body

Question 12

Samoan Pe’a

Answer 12

1. Broken into sections with name and meaning
2. Pute is the naval and connection to family
3. Other parts
4. Va’a shaped like canoe and brought ancestors
5. Wings of bat shape
6. Panels variable to family

Question 13

Samoan Malu

Answer 13

1. Symbols related to family
2. Malu protected is the house and rafters on the house that hold up the roof located on back of knee because women ones that hold up the family
   2.1 Strength of family on back of knee because knees hold up person
3. Go go seagull
4. Jellyfish, starfish, worm, caterpillar, cross, star
5. Reserved for chiefs daughters and now spread across world to identify as Samoan
   5.1 On chests and arms to indicate culture but not traditional form or structure (an interpretation) (men and women)