Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1999 / Pacific Islands Studies

My interest in ethno-archaeology and a Minor Field Study grant brought me to Samoa. There I had a chance to participate in a multinational project “The Pulemelei project, the origins and Development of Monumental architecture”. On the former copra plantation Letolo situated on the SE part of the Island of Savai’i, is an extensive pre-historic settlement with over 3000 remains situated. The remains are now heavily overgrown but when the vegetation was cleared an extensive survey was carried out (1977-78). By using these records my aim is to understand more about how chiefdom society works in pre-historic times as well as in the present. The archaeological study is carried out with the aid of a correspondence analysis using the survey data as well as through a practical fieldwork (excavations) study of the settlement pattern at the Letolo plantation. The settlement shows large variations between the inland and the coastal region and those actions opened for whole new questions and ideas about the Samoan prehistory. During my journey I also got a better understanding for ethno-archaeology, and the problems that can meet us using these analogies and carrying out archaeological studies in a global setting and traditional society. To date, quite limited archaeology has been carried out on Samoa but the archaeological “revival” boosted by the project which started in this area in 2002 has created an opportunity to train the first generation of Samoan archaeologists and give them a good platform to stand on!

Thesis (doctoral) - Universität, Duisburg-Essen, 2004. / Includes bibliographies.

Tsunamis represent significant threats to human life and development in coastal communities. This quantitative study examines the influence of household characteristics on evacuation actions taken by 211 respondents in American Samoa who were at their homes during the 29 September 2009 Mw 8.1 Samoa Islands earthquake and tsunami disaster. Multiple logistic regression analysis of survey data was used to examine the association between evacuation and various household factors. Findings show that increases in distance to shoreline were associated with a slightly decreased likelihood of evacuation, whereas households reporting higher income had an increased probability of evacuation. The response in American Samoa was an effective one, with only 34 fatalities in a tsunami that reached shore in as little as 15 minutes. Consequently, future research should implement more qualitative study designs to identify event and cultural specific determinants of household evacuation behaviour to local tsunamis.

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Often disconnected from the African diaspora, the Black South Pacific is constantly laid to the wayside. My research works to shed light on the voices of Afro-Oceanic scholars who are fully capable of articulating their own narratives based on their traditional foundational knowledge that may not align with standard western notions of knowledge but in fact create a system or methods of knowledge unique to the Afro-Oceanic community and traditions. The indigenous Afro-Oceanic agenda of self-determination, indigenous rights and sovereignty, integrity, spiritual healing, reconciliation and humble morality, builds capacity towards a systematic change and re-acknowledgement of indigenous Afro-Oceanic epistemologies. By identifying and analyzing indigenous Oceanic epistemologies, ontologies, and cosmologies, my research seeks to place Afro-Oceanic peoples within the broader African Diaspora. Scholars throughout Afro-Oceania such as Dr. A.M Tupuola, Dr. Vaioleti T.M, and Dr. Helu-Thaman inter / African American Studies

This dissertation examines the production of knowledge around global climate change and the character of environmental literacy among youth in Tafuna, on Tutuila, American Samoa. I analyze this production of environmental knowledge across multiple social fields (i.e. status hierarchies, governance structures, etc.) and subjectivities (school-specific, village-based, and Samoan cultural identities) during a period of social, political, economic, and environmental transformation. I interrogate the emerging forms of control that have come to structure the formal educational system in American Samoa, such as standardized or "containerized" curriculum, assessment and accountability measures, and the assignation of risk/creation of dependency on funding, deployed by American governmental agencies such as the Department of Education, and utilized by state actors such as the American Samoa Department of Education. Of particular concern is the how these structures create contradictions that affect the possibilities of teaching, learning, and the integration of youth into meaningful social roles. Informal learning about the environment includes village-based forms of service, church initiatives concerning the environment, governmental agency programming, such as that provided by the American Samoa Environmental Protection Agency, and youth-serving non-profit programs concerned with engaging youth as leaders. In both these formal and informal contexts for environmental education, American Samoan youth dynamically co-create knowledge within and outside the parameters of the socialization processes in which they are embedded. This research encompassed four trips to American Samoa over the course of three years, and utilized ethnographic fieldwork, including participant observation, interviews, questionnaires, archival research, and demographic data analysis, as the primary forms of data gathering. What this data reveals is the disengagement American Samoan youth feel for school-based environmental education because their science classes, as structured, do not integrate the co-relatedness of the social, the political, and the environmental fields that youth encounter. I discovered that youth are largely ambivalent about their future aspirations because they lack some of the cultural, linguistic, and educational tools necessary for local participation as well as for opportunities to study and work on Hawaii or the mainland United States. Lastly, I found that American educational ideals continue to be contradictory in the American Samoan context; whereas schools value and promote individually-oriented goals and responsibility, youth are also embedded in the values of communal identification and practice known as fa'a Samoa. I conclude that young people lack social integration and plan for a future away from American Samoa. / Anthropology

This Comparison of legislative and executive branches in the U.S. unincorporated territories thesis deals with political systems in unincorporated American territories - Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa. Today these territories stand as an integral part of the USA, but they do not hold federal state status. This study focuses on political systems of the individual territories, specifically on their legislative and executive bodies. It also explores relationships these territories have with the continental U.S., their status within American political system and it outlines genesis of autonomous government institutions of these territories. Concurrently, this thesis also elaborates on problem areas stemming from for example dual citizenship and citizens of these territories not being able to participate in presidential elections. This work comprises of five case studies that focus on political institutions of the individual territories. The main contribution of this study lies in the comparison work. In comparative analysis of the executive bodies and analysis of the extent of governors' authority within individual territories, and in the comparison with federal states. It also provides comparative analysis of legislative bodies of...

Amidst the wealth of knowledge across the globe, could there exist a diversity of approaches towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? Might the prevailing paradigm be the sole path ahead and, if it is, why does not it overlook consulting the indigenous peoples of our world? After all, indigenous knowledges have historically played a significant role in fostering sustainable practices of their sustenance, the enhancement of their lands, and the well-being of the people and planet. Utilizing in-depth interviews and an ethnographic methods of data collection, this study delves into the comparative exploration between Indigenous Knowledges Systems (IKSs) in Peru and Samoa employing Indigenous Cartography as a principal method of analysis. This method, created with indigenous ontology and epistemology, center Mother Earth as a common domain between countries with indigenous population, that allows for a coherent analysis of the SDGs along with their divergences, convergences, and repercussions. The study reveals a common reverence for Mother Earth among participants showcasing their embedding local oral policies, over written ones, that they pose in their cultural contexts, which refrains from conceptualizing IK as a homogenized component of mass policy initiatives. Instead, this suggests informing and directing policy development processes tailored to their unique contexts and relationships with the Earth, which should be a primarily focus on this globalized era, since it is a serious concern as a space that we all share. It emphasizes the importance of incorporating diverse indigenous perspectives into policy-making processes to ensure comprehensive and culturally sensitive approaches to sustainable development. / En medio de la riqueza de conocimientos en todo el mundo, ¿podría existir una diversidad de enfoques para lograr los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS)? ¿Podría el paradigma prevaleciente ser el único camino a seguir y, si lo es, por qué no pasa por alto la consulta a los pueblos indígenas de nuestro mundo? Después de todo, los conocimientos indígenas han desempeñado históricamente un papel importante en el fomento de prácticas sostenibles para su sustento, la mejora de sus tierras y el bienestar de las personas y el planeta. Utilizando entrevistas en profundidad y métodos etnográficos de recopilación de datos, este estudio profundiza en la exploración comparativa entre los Sistemas de Conocimiento Indígena (IKS) en Perú y Samoa empleando la Cartografía Indígena como método principal de análisis. Este método, creado con ontología y epistemología indígena, centra a la Madre Tierra como un dominio común entre países con poblaciones indígenas, que permite un análisis coherente de los ODS junto con sus divergencias, convergencias y repercusiones. El estudio revela una reverencia común por la Madre Tierra entre los participantes que muestran sus políticas orales locales, por encima de las escritas, que plantean en sus contextos culturales, lo que se abstiene de conceptualizar el conocimiento indígena como un componente homogeneizado de iniciativas de políticas de masas. En cambio, esto sugiere informar y dirigir procesos de desarrollo de políticas adaptados a sus contextos y relaciones únicos con la Tierra, lo que debería centrarse principalmente en esta era globalizada, ya que es una preocupación seria como espacio que todos compartimos. Enfatiza la importancia de incorporar diversas perspectivas indígenas en los procesos de formulación de políticas para garantizar enfoques integrales y culturalmente sensibles al desarrollo sostenible.

The aim of this thesis is to provide insights into how previous negative social experiences and/or societal norms concerning body size influence social information processing. The first two studies included in this thesis were conducted in Germany, a society with high level of prejudice towards individuals with obesity. The third study was conducted in American Samoa, a society with low prejudice towards individuals with obesity. Study one (chapter 5.1) investigated potential alterations in social information processing and behavior in individuals with obesity compared to lean individuals by measuring heart rate and reaction times. To identify potential reasons for alterations in the individual’s personal history, the influence of weight-related teasing on social information processing was analyzed. In the second study (chapter 5.2), I examined how individuals with and without obesity respond to social inclusion and social exclusion by measuring affect and heart rate. Of special interest were subjective factors of body dissatisfaction and teasing experiences as potential influencing factors. Following this approach, the second study became a “travelling experiment” and was repeated in a Polynesian group on American Samoa (chapter 5.3), a country with a high obesity rate, but less negative social outcomes for individuals with obesity. It aimed at studying the influence of cultural norms and values related to body size as well as varying weight-related stigmatization on psychophysiological processing in social situations.:1 Introduction 2 Theoretical Background 2.1 Social exclusion and behavior 2.1.1 Evolutionary origins of social exclusion and stigmatization 2.1.2 Adaptive behavioral responses to recurrent negative social feedback 2.2 Social exclusion and affect 2.2.1 General biological aspects of emotions 2.2.2 Cultural aspects of emotions 2.2.3 Affect after social exclusion 2.3 Social exclusion and parasympathetic cardio-regulation 2.3.1 Parasympathetic cardio-regulation in psychological research 2.3.2 Parasympathetic cardio-regulation during negative social feedback 2.3.3 Methodological issues 2.4 Obesity in Western societies 2.4.1 Prevalence and health consequences 2.4.2 Obesity and parasympathetic cardio-regulation 2.4.3 The stigma of obesity 2.4.4 Obesity and social information processing 2.5 Obesity and the Samoan Islands 2.5.1 Geography and population 2.5.2 Traditional diets, modernization, and obesity prevalence 2.5.3 Cultural differences in the perception of body sizes 2.5.4 Body size perception in the Samoan Islands 2.5.5 Affect in Samoa 3 Rationale of the Experimental Work 4 Methods 4.1 Autonomic control of the heart 4.2 Heart rate variability analyses 5 Experimental Work 5.1 Study 1 – Differential heart rate responses to social and monetary reinforcement in women with obesity 5.2 Study 2 – Parasympathetic cardio-regulation during social interactions in individuals with obesity – The influence of negative body image 5.3 Study 3 – Body size-related socio-cultural norms in Westerners and Polynesians and their association with heart rate variability and affect during social interaction 5.3.1 Introduction 5.3.2 Methods 5.3.3 Results 5.3.4 Discussion 6 General Discussion and Implications 7 Summary 7.1 English summary 7.2 German summary 8 References 9 Appendix 9.1 Supplemental material 9.1.1 Participants: recruitment, inclusion and exclusion criteria 9.1.2 Overview procedures in Germany and American Samoa 9.1.3 Study 1 9.1.4 Study 2 9.1.5 Study 3 9.2 Declaration of authenticity 9.3 Authors' contributions 9.3.1 Study 1 9.3.2 Study 2 9.3.3 Study 3