The Samoans, as a people, are most courteous and kind, and seem to be naturally endowed with pleasant dispositions and manners. They are particularly clean and in every way a most attractive race. Their houses are suited to the climate.
Samoan people are known for their warm smiles and friendly personalities. They have a gift for welcoming and accepting just about anyone they meet. So it's no surprise that qualities such as hospitality, cooperation, respect, and consensus are highly valued in Samoan culture.
Samoan culture is undoubtedly central to Polynesian life, and its styles of music, dance, and visual art have gained renown throughout the Pacific islands and the world. The country's international image is that of a tropical paradise inhabited by tourist-friendly flower-wreathed peoples.
The central element in Samoan culture is the aiga (family). Within the family, giving and receiving tautua (service), fa'aaloalo (respect) and alofa (love) are crucial in social relations.
Contemporary Samoan culture, music, dance and art continue to gain popularity throughout the Pacific Islands and around the world more broadly. Modern-day Samoans are often friendly and respectful people who are proud of their heritage.
It is insulting to pass something over the top of someone's head or to touch or pat the head of an adult. Avoid wearing any revealing clothing when walking through villages. Women should take particular care to avoid showing their knees and shoulders.
Human health risks, stronger cyclones, coral reef death, and coastal flooding are among the major challenges detailed in a new report on climate change in American Samoa published today.
Among the preeminent values of Fa'a Samoa are respect for the environment, a close-knit family and community structure, and adherence to other traditional values. Interestingly, Christian values brought to the island in the 19th century have been seamlessly integrated into Fa'a Samoa.
A unique identity to the Samoan culture and traditions, is that everything is thought about in terms of the families rather than individuality, whether it's earning money, sharing food or even houses. Samoan people are very traditional and respect elders in the family. They have an ancient social structure.
Public displays of affection between genders, such as kissing and hugging, are generally regarded as inappropriate. Generally, Samoans are modest and will limit the amount of physical contact. Touching among friends and family, such as a light slap on the arm, is more common.
The traditional culture of Samoa is a communal way of life based on Fa'a Samoa, the unique socio-political culture. In Samoan culture, most activities are done together. The traditional living quarters, or fale (houses), contain no walls and up to 20 people may sleep on the ground in the same fale.
The rising sun was replaced with a cross to highlight the nation's Christian belief in God as the motto Faavae i le Atua Samoa suggests. T... Like many Polynesian Island nations, Samoans were not at first aware of the foreign God.
“This high prevalence of obesity among Samoans is a relatively recent phenomenon,” Arslanian notes. It appears to be “heavily influenced by globalization” and “the shift from subsistence agriculture to excess consumption of high calorie, processed foods and sedentary lifestyles.”
Samoans have less Papuan admixture (estimated through f4 ratio) than the other Polynesian (Tongans) and Polynesian outlier (Ontong_Java, RenBel, and Tikopia) populations in our dataset, which collectively have an average of 35.38% Papuan ancestry (Fig.
Gender Roles
Samoan society tends to be patriarchal and this is reflected in the household structure. Women often maintain the home and take care of children, whilst men are seen as the primary income providers. Men are typically the key decision-makers; however, matriarchs are not uncommon.
58.4% of adult (aged 18 years and over) women and 43.8% of adult men are living with obesity. Samoa's obesity prevalence is higher than the regional average of 31.7% for women and 30.4% for men and among the highest in the world.
In Samoa, gender identity is largely based on a person's role in the family and if one family has numerous sons and no daughters, it's not uncommon to raise one of the boys as a girl.
Dutch people are the tallest people in the world. They have an average height of 175.62 cm (5 feet 7.96 inches). The Netherlands' King Willem-Alexander is 183 cm tall and Queen Maxim is 178 cm tall.
There are no real taboos, however it is considered very impolite to walk in front of people you are with (tu lou – bowing in front of a person meaning 'excuse me'). In Samoa, parents, their children and married children all live together in one compound area in separate houses.
Samoan society is based on a collectivist system known as 'fa'a Matai'. In this system, society is organised by extended families (aiga), with each family having its own 'Matai' ('chief' or 'leader') titles that are connected to certain districts, villages, and plots of family land.
In a Samoan home, don't talk to people while standing, and don't eat while walking around a village. Avoid stretching your legs straight out in front of you while sitting. If you can't fold them beneath you, then pull one of the floor mats over them.
Samoan stereotypes, the most common that Samoans are physi- cally large, athletic, strong, lazy, proud, and dangerous. Students. spoke of the effect of these stereotypes on their social interactions.
Samoa is highly exposed to natural hazards such as tropical cyclones, earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts, and floods. These damage economic growth and debt sustainability. Increasing frequency and intensity of coastal storms will likely amplify damage to infrastructure and livelihoods.
The unique mixture of Austronesian and Papuan ancestry in Samoans is possibly related to the initial settlement of the islands and suggests that groups with somewhat different ancestry settled Samoa, compared to nearby Tonga, Dr Cochrane says.