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Samoan Moral Discourse and the Loto
Author(s) -
Mageo Jeannette Marie
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1991.93.2.02a00070
Subject(s) - samoan , socialization , conformity , sociology , indigenous , subject (documents) , ethnography , resistance (ecology) , epistemology , social psychology , anthropology , gender studies , psychology , social science , linguistics , philosophy , ecology , library science , computer science , biology
An old adage in anthropology holds that societies perpetuate their moral codes by the manner in which people raise their children, but socialization is far more than the straightforward passing on of culture. Rather, culture acquisition is a highly conflictual process, rich in contested meanings. What other theorists have shown on the level of cultural systems, this analysis intends to show at the level of micro‐interactive processes. The article examines Samoan child‐rearing routines, subjective reactions to these routines, the manner in which these reactions are in conformity and in resistance to cultural norms, and the discourse through which Samoan society finally strives to temper the resisting subject. By taking the conflictual dimensions of the socialization process into account, the article describes and analyzes indigenous perspectives on Samoan temperament. These perspectives have the potential to reconcile certain vehement disagreements that characterize the ethnography of the self in Samoa.