Samoans / Franz Boas.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Boas, Franz, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethnology--Samoan Islands.

Ethnology.

Samoan Islands--Description and travel.

Samoan Islands.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

New Haven, Conn : Human Relations Area Files, 2009.

Summary:

This collection about the Samoans consists of 15 documents and a culture summary, covering a wide variety of cultural and historical information from the1830s to the 1990s. The Samoans are Polynesian people who live on a group of small islands in the Central Pacific which constitute the territories of American Samoa and (since 1962) the independent state of Western Samoa. The earliest descriptions of Samoan culture and history were compiled by the missionaries John B. Stair and George Turner, who lived in different parts of the island from 1838-1945 and 1840-1880, respectively. Five documents are ethnographic accounts and essays by Margaret Mead who, in 1925-1928, lived among Samoans villagers mostly in the Manuan group of islands in American Samoa. One document revisits some of the major arguments advanced in Mead's works, notably her portrayal of adolescent Samoan girls as sexually permissive. The remaining seven documents in the collection further enrich the historical and cultural information on Samoa with additional themes and in-depth analysis including plant resources and indigenous botanical knowledge, traditional material culture, a socio-political analysis of the modern history of American and Western Samoa, post-war reconstruction of Western Samoa, material culture and social change, structures and processes in the Western Samoan Sala'ilua village, and recent changes in the economic options of households and individuals in Vaega and Neiafu villages in Western Samoa.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.