Adaptive+Strategies

=Adaptive Strategies =

When an indigenous culture like the Samoan culture is presented with aspects and traditions of the “New World”, certain adaptive strategies to maintain one’s culture must be put into place. Once American administration began to influence the Samoan structure and relationship to the land, the population of the Samoan people began to sky rocket. In response to this overwhelming population growth and decline in job availability and opportunity, the taule’ale’a (untitled men) traveled to American cities in search of jobs and new lives instead of settling for work on plantations. This was a huge strategy to the adaptation of colonization and increase in exposure to the modern world. Migration became more wide spread and normal as more and more young adults left Samoa in search of wages that could be sent back to their homeland (Franco 1984).

A Tradition of the Samoan people is the “Malaga movements”. This is when relatives from the western Samoan island would travel to American Samoa to visit and spend time with ‘aiga (extended family). Even though migration of the Samoan people and dispersion of these ‘aiga made Malaga movements more complicated and costly, the Samoan people remained committed to maintaining the tradition. When artificial political boundaries were put up by the Treaty of Berlin in 1899, there are little to no effect of the traditional practice of visiting ‘aiga and maintaining close family ties. Even today, the Samoan Malaga movements are essential to the keeping of “warm” ‘aiga relations (Franco 1984).

Another important adaptation the Samoans were forced to induce upon themselves occurred with the migration to more modern environments such as Hawaii, New Zealand, and especially America. It was difficult for these Samoan immigrants to adjust to Americanized life and culture due to a lack of education and language barrier. Even the simplest of tasks would be complex to teach a Samoan employee due to the differences in language. For this reason employers were extremely resistant in hiring them.

The average income for a Samoan household of seven to fifteen people in Los Angeles County was between 300 and 500 dollars a month in the 1990s. This only increased the poverty level of non-farm families. Samoans also believed that maintaining this level of poverty was a sign of piety or humility in their culture.



There are many barriers that cause this economic deficiency in Samoans that have migrated from their home island. Culturally, the younger Samoans much spend much of their time caring for younger siblings and cousins along with elderly adults. They are also expected to attend religious affairs and assist their parents with anything else they need. This does not leave much room for educational or social growth among peers. In fact, insufficient knowledge of the English language has led job officials to believe that Samoan language difficulties have majorly influenced their ability to learn useful trades of skills and were not able to communicate effectively to employers (Franco 1984). Therefore, Samoans due to language, educational, and discriminatory barriers are forced into lower-paying jobs.

A tradition that the Samoans, even those who lived abroad, were able to maintain was the return of the elderly to their homeland before they pass on. Very few elderly Samoans received old-age care and believed that their lifetime cycle of mobility would be complete once returning to Samoa to die. “O le falo e gase I Pa’au.” (The galo dies in Pa’au) represents the belief of the return to home to die no matter what (Franco 1984). Another aspect of Samoan culture that was not so successful in maintaining its validity was the social and political control of the matai, or chiefs. In Western Samoa only the matai hold the ability to vote and this gives them an increased importance on the island to the residents. Within the last couple decades, title splitting f the “creation” of titles have led to a decrease in importance and credibility in the matai name. A large number of matai have migrated to Los Angeles and Hawaii despite their importance on the island, which has also led to the incredibility of the matai since in America, the matai has no official power.

Many adaptive strategies to preserve the Samoan culture and traditions of the indigenous people of the islands have been put into place throughout colonization and exposure to migration. However, the important economical factors have not seemed to be taken into consideration by the people of Samoa. Hopefully Samoa will be able to adapt and persevere in this monetarily motivated world.