Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2007. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 246-264). Also available online in Scholars' Bank; and in ProQuest, free to University of Oregon users.

This is a sociological essay, named Reshaping Samoan Relations – a study on the increasing reports and regarding violence against women in Samoa, written by Shahab Mirbabaei. The aim of this study was to explain the reason, or reasons, for the increasing reports of violence against women to the police and help-organizations in Samoa.The study was done in Samoa by conducting semi-structured interviews with women, from the rural and urban areas, and with workers from relevant organizations that are involved with questions regarding violence against women. The women were primarily asked for general Samoans changing views of gender, violence and trust for police and help-organizations. The workers were primarily asked for changes in the working process in their organization.The main theoretical choices were Outsiders, by Howard S. Becker, and Masculinities by R.W. Connell. These theories allowed this this study to capture all the important elements by offering a terminology that focuses on gender and deviance.The main results show that different organizations have created a new set of rules for the Samoan society, which in the same time has weakened the Fa’a Samoa system. With the help of awareness, these organizations have criminalized domestic violence towards women in Samoa and offered solutions to women to combat violent occurrences. The awareness has extended the possibilities of women in Samoan society, and allowed them to challenge the authority that upholds the hegemonic rule of men. This challenge is partly seen by the increasing number of women that work in the public, and by women combating the violent occurrences by reporting the matter to outside parties.

Submitted by JOHNNY VICTOR TOMA (johnny.toma2015@fgvmail.br) on 2015-01-27T13:49:52Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Johnny Toma_CIM Thesis_10 8 14 submission.pdf: 2451193 bytes, checksum: bb3657254477027d36e42cf222b16a15 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Janete de Oliveira Feitosa (janete.feitosa@fgv.br) on 2015-01-28T14:10:52Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Johnny Toma_CIM Thesis_10 8 14 submission.pdf: 2451193 bytes, checksum: bb3657254477027d36e42cf222b16a15 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2015-02-05T12:16:44Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Johnny Toma_CIM Thesis_10 8 14 submission.pdf: 2451193 bytes, checksum: bb3657254477027d36e42cf222b16a15 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-02-05T12:17:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Johnny Toma_CIM Thesis_10 8 14 submission.pdf: 2451193 bytes, checksum: bb3657254477027d36e42cf222b16a15 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-10-29 / Deep in the South Pacific region about 2,300 miles southwest of the Hawaiian islands1 lies a United States territory that many Americans have never heard of nor known anything about. However, some famous Americans such as Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers, semi retired professional wrestler Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, and Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard have genealogical roots there. More importantly, many of the Territory’s sons and daughters have served and lost their lives for the United States flag and the cause of freedom around the world. This place is called American Samoa, a collection of seven islands that if glued together would have a total landmass of approximately 76 square miles, just a tad bigger than the capital city of the United States. According to the United States Census Bureau, there were 55,519 residents of American Samoa in 2010.1 The majority of them are ethnic Samoans, a Polynesian sect that traces its history back to early migrants from Southeast Asia who settled the islands around 1500 B.C.2 3 The climate is warm all year long and the forests along the mountains are ripe with vegetation. The main island is Tutuila with its beautiful and coveted landlocked harbor that was used as a coaling station by the United States naval ships during World War II. In fact, it was the Pago Pago Harbor that diminished the impact of the 2009 Tsunami that devastated the Samoan islands by channeling the waters of the Pacific Ocean towards the end of the harbor instead of flooding many other villages surrounding the Pago Pago Bay area. Lives and property were destroyed near the end of the Harbor but it could have been worse for the entire Bay area. Locally grown foods include coconut, taro, banana, guava, sugar cane, papaya, yam, pineapple, and breadfruit. It is completely surrounded by the Pacific Ocean from which the locals obtain a variety of seafood. There is a popular saying in Samoa that goes, 'In Samoa, it is impossible to starve 1 American Samoa Department of Commerce, 2012 Statistical Yearbook, http://www.doc.as/wpcontent/uploads/2011/06/2012-Statistical-Yearbook-1.pdf 2 U.S. Census Bureau News, U.S. Census Bureau Releases 2010 Census Population Counts for American Samoa, http://www.census.gov/2010census/news/releases/operations/cb11-cn177.html (Aug. 24, 2011). 3 3 J. Robert Shaffer, American Samoa: 100 Years Under the United States Flag (Honolulu, Hawaii: Island Heritage Publishing, 2000), 34. 4 because people live off of the land’s and the ocean’s abundant resources.' To the west of American Samoa lies a larger group of four islands that make up the Sovereign State of Samoa, which became independent from New Zealand in 1962. Samoa and American Samoa share the same language, culture, and religion but are divided by government and political systems. The focus of this study will be on American Samoa, which became a United States territory in 1900 when the principal chiefs of Tutuila (the largest island in American Samoa) ceded the islands to the United States.

xviii, 264 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / This dissertation examines the role of stone tool production as a strategic resource in the development of chiefly authority in prehistoric Samoa. The evolution of Polynesia's complex chiefly systems is a long standing issue in anthropology, and prior archaeological research has identified that specialized goods were a significant factor in the elevation of elite status in many Polynesian contexts. Before Western contact, Samoa was a stratified chiefdom with leaders claiming exclusive privileges and participating in an extensive trade network within the Fiji-West Polynesian region during the Traditional Samoan period (c. A.D. 300-1700). However, Samoa's political structure was quite different in the earlier Polynesian Plainware period (c. 500 B.C.-A.D. 300). Archaeologists, with the aid of historical linguistics, have documented a simple hereditary system operating among small horticultural communities. To address this political transformation, I investigate coeval changes occurring in stone adze production recovered on Tutuila Island. Based firmly in the theoretical perspective of political economy, I ask three inter-related questions in my dissertation: were adze specialists present in ancient Samoa; if so, what was their connection to chiefly prerogatives; and what further relationship did these adze producers have with Samoa's emerging elite? To answer these questions, I utilize mass flake analysis and typological classifications to document technological and spatial changes in stone tool production. I also employ settlement studies and geochemical characterization to chart how leaders managed and controlled raw materials, as well as the distribution of basalt adzes in exchange networks. From my research, I record numerous nucleated workshops of adze specialization on Tutuila dating as far back as 800 years ago. As a new form of economic organization, these adze specialists acted as catalysts for increased political complexity and stratified authority. In addition, I trace how Samoan elites used their bourgeoning authority in restricting access to basalt sources and the distribution of the finished products during this same time period. In the larger Samoan political economy, I conclude that Tutuilan chiefs, located in an otherwise economically-impoverished island, utilized these newly-developed adze specialists and high-quality basalt as strategic resources for accumulating material surplus in prestige competition. / Adviser: William S. Ayres

No description available.

The aim of the thesis was to collect baseline data and to investigating suitable physical tests and a self-rapport questionnaire. Collected data was used to find a routine measurement when investigating foot health, function and mobility among clients suffering from diabetes in Samoa. Twenty-one participants suffering from diabetes were included in the study. Clients answered the Foot function index (FFI) questionnaire and performed physical tests, consisting of Bergs balance scale (BBS) and Time up and go (TUG). Results from the physical tests revealed a great balance disturbance and mobility limitations among the majority of the clients. General high weight and BMI was measured among both genders. Subjects with the highest BMI performed lowest time during TUG test. The statistic analyze revealed a strong correlation between the two physical tests, indicating that one of the tests could be applied as a routine measurement in the future, when evaluating function and mobility in Samoa. The compilation of self-report questionnaires indicated a general good foot health with a low amount of pain, disabilities and activity limitations. / Syftet med studien var att samla in grundata och att hitta ett lämpligt fysiskt test och ett självadministrativt formulär. Den insamlade grunddatan användes för att hitta ett rutinmässigt mätinstrument för undersökning av fothälsa, funktion och mobilitet hos klienter som lider av diabetes i landet Samoa. I undersökningen deltog 21 personer som lider av diabetes. Deltagarna fick besvara ett så kallat ”Foot Function Index formulär” (FFI) och utföra de två fysiska testerna ”Bergs Balance Scale” (BBS) och ”Time Up and Go” (TUG). Resultaten från de fysiska testerna påvisade såväl en stor balansrubbning som mobilitetsbegränsningar hos majoriteten av deltagarna. Ett generellt högt BMI-värde och stor vikt uppmättes hos båda könen. Personer med högst BMI-värde presterade kortast tid under TUG-testet. Den statistiska analysen påvisade en stark korrelation mellan de två fysiska testen, vilket indikerar att endast ett av testerna kan användas som mätinstrument i framtida undersökningar av funktion och mobilitet på Samoa. Sammanställningen av de självadministrativa formulären påvisade en generellt god fothälsa med begränsad smärta, oförmåga och aktivitetsbegränsning hos deltagarna i studien.

There is a plethora of development literature, both academic and policy oriented, that problematises female-headed households in normative ways, positioning them as socially isolated, stigmatised, lacking in agency and poor, equated with the ‘feminisation of poverty’. Through positioning female-headed households as ‘other’ there is also a notable lack of regard for the diverse socio-political and cultural context which within female-headed households reside. By situating this research within a feminist postdevelopment framework, and through the use of participatory methodologies and the articulation of individual biographies of the development experience, this dissertation seeks to re-position our understanding of the development experience of female-headed households. Drawing on the case of Samoa, this study demonstrates how fa’asamoa (the Samoan way), inclusive of fa’amatai (customary system of governance), the feagaiga (brother/sister relationship) and the practice of fa’alavelave (demonstrating love and concern), all support the welfare and wellbeing of female-headed households, including any children born of these households. They also afford women in female-headed households a certain level of voice and agency. The thesis further highlights that the category of female-headed households was not well understood within Samoa because neither villagers nor policy makers labelled women in this way. Rather, women were recognised in relation to the cultural framework of fa’asamoa which situates them in terms of their position within their family, their natal village and the wider community. This illustrates the importance of culture when attempting to frame the development experiences of female-headed households in any part of the world. Development researchers and practitioners need to seriously question just how useful the practice of categorising and labelling is to Development Studies. In highlighting the problematic nature of universal labels and categories, this thesis concludes that the starting point of analysis for female-headed households needs to begin with the sociopolitical-cultural context, as opposed to the category of female-headed households. Shifting beyond a desire to uncritically categorise and label will provide a space for envisioning new approaches to development thinking and practice, and for truly seeing the ways that people struggle, often successfully, to create and pursue opportunities.

The oral histories utilized by this research reveal the experiences of those who suffered leprosy in five South Pacific nations, Fiji, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu. This thesis explores how leprosy and its stigma impacted on the lives of these people, some of whom suffered decades of isolation at various leprosaria including the case of one New Caledonian resident for nearly seventy years. The testimonies of their experiences of diagnosis, removal into isolation, medical treatment and eventual discharge back to their homes implicitly contain descriptions of attitudes of stigma in their communities. This research reveals that where there is openness and knowledge about the minimal risk of leprosy contagion, as occurred in Fiji and Vanuatu from the 1950s, less stigma is attached to the disease. Nevertheless even in these countries, prior to the 1950s and availability of any effective medication, the fear and horror of the physical effects of leprosy was such that the victims were either cast out or chose to move away from their homes. This segregation led to groups of leprosy sufferers banding together to help care for each other. Once the policy of isolation in leprosaria was implemented, advanced cases of leprosy benefited from the better medical facilities and found opportunities for friendships and camaraderie. However, where the conditions at leprosaria were miserable and movements of the residents visibly restricted by fences, as occurred in Samoa and Tonga, there was heightened leprosy stigma. Perceptions of stigma varied from person to person and region to region. Higher levels of stigma were evident in New Caledonia, where leprosaria had been situated at former prison sites and strict isolation enforced, and in Tonga, where the removal of all leprosy sufferers had from the earliest days been associated with biblical strictures asserting that leprosy was a curse and the sufferers unclean. Following the availability of sulphone treatment in the South Pacific in the1950s and the improved medication in the 1980s, leprosy need no longer be physically disfiguring or disabling. Assisted by the generous donations gathered by the Pacific Leprosy Foundation in New Zealand to the medical services at the central leprosy hospital in Fiji, and by direct assistance to leprosy sufferers in the Pacific, the disadvantages that were imposed by leprosy in the past are disappearing and as one contributor to the project said ‘the time of darkness’ is ending.

This thesis develops an interdisciplinary, theoretical framework for analyzing moments of legal pluralism in banishment cases in Samoa. In the first two chapters, select theoretical forms, discourses and practices from legal anthropology, comparative legal scholarship and law and society studies are critically analyzed. Chapter three examines the role of metaphors in theorizing legal pluralism and legal change in both comparative legal scholarship and law and society scholarship. In chapters four and five, elements that were critically analyzed in chapters one through three are drawn together and recombined to theorize legal pluralism in Samoa. As part of this recombination, I employ two metaphors to guide my analysis. Metaphor one, woven objects, is employed to represent select strands of legality existent in Samoa. Metaphor two, the weaving process, is used to analyze how people create moments of legal pluralism in Samoan banishment cases through the adoption of particular subjectivities, through articulation of legal information, and via relations of power.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-78). / vi, 78 leaves, bound ill. (some col.) 29 cm