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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

fa'alupega, American Samoa, Western Samoa, Samoan tradition

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Political Science

Abstract

In most literature on the political systems of American Samoa and (Western) Samoa, the two countries are rarely grouped in the same study despite their shared cultural identity. An unincorporated territory of the United States, American Samoa tends to be classified with other U.S. territories which include Guam, the Northern Marianas, and the Virgin Islands (Cook 1995; Van Cleve 1993). Meanwhile, Samoa, an independent state since 1962, is more commonly compared to other independent Pacific island states (Lawson 1996; White and Linstrom 1997). While different colonial experiences clearly point out the reason for this separation, the inherent pervasiveness of Samoan tradition or fa’asamoa warrants greater attention to American Samoa and Samoa as grouped political subjects. My goal was to examine tradition in the context of the matai system and how it has changed western institutions and how it, in turn, has been changed by western institutions. In order to do this, I examined the influence of and extent to which the matai system, has been incorporated into both Samoa’s governmental institutions. Moreover, I looked at existing literature and conducted extensive interviews with Samoans living in Samoa and American Samoa in order to gain insight on both western and native perceptions of the changes within the matai system over the years. Through this case study, I hoped to expose some of the universal problems of democratization in societies where tradition, e.g. chiefdoms, regardless of outside influences, still hold legitimate authority.

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