Samoans are a Polynesian people native to the Samoan Islands, today divided between the independent state of Samoa and the United States territory of American Samoa, with a substantial diaspora concentrated in New Zealand, the United States (notably Hawaii and California) and Australia. Samoan social organization is structured through the fa'amatai system of chiefly titles (matai) held within extended family groups (aiga) that govern land tenure and village decision-making, alongside the fa'a Samoa ('the Samoan way') code of communal and familial obligation that continues to shape social life both in Samoa and within diaspora communities. Samoan chiefly and communal land tenure operates alongside, and is legally distinct from, the introduced Western individual land-title systems in both the independent state and the American territory. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Group TypeSourced to the subject's own accountEthnic group (Polynesian) 1 Typical RegionSourced to the subject's own accountOceania (Samoa and American Samoa, with a substantial diaspora in New Zealand and the United States) 1 Primary LanguageSourced to the subject's own account Subsistence ModeSourced to the subject's own accountHistorically horticulture (taro, breadfruit, coconut) and fishing, organized through the fa'amatai chiefly title and extended-family (aiga) land-tenure system. 1 Disputed
Population Estimateapproximately 500,000 to 550,000 worldwide, including diaspora communities 1 Sourced to the subject's own accountSamoan diaspora populations in New Zealand, the United States and elsewhere are counted under differing national census ethnicity categories, making a single aggregate total approximate. Connections
Associated With
Margaret Mead study Coming of Age in Samoa is a direct ethnographic account of adolescent social life among the Samoan people, though its conclusions have since been disputed by later fieldwork.
Source Wikipedia: Coming of Age in Samoa
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Samoan
WikipediaIntroductionQuote, Introduction
Samoans or Samoan people are the Indigenous Polynesian people of the Samoan Islands, an archipelago in Polynesia, who speak the Samoan language.
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