Book Reading #28 - Coming of Age in Samoa



Book Author: Margaret Mead

Chapter 9: The Attitude of the Personality   

Summary

In this chapter, Mead discusses  the Samoans' view of personality. She starts by characterizing it as cautious and fatalist. She also defines the word musu. Musu means someone who is unwilling. Generally Samoans don't try to find out the reasons behind a person's feelings and attitude.  

When asked about a person's personality, the response will generally go along the lines of : "I don't know", or be descriptive on other information such as  sex, age, rank, relationship, defects and activities.

Mead also alludes to the peculiar way in which Samoans describe attitudes. They tend to be described as being either good or bad, easy or difficult.

 

Overall,  there is a lack of motivation to find out the reason why a person acts the way they act. Often, a person will not be characterized by their personality but rather by the role they should have in the community. For examples, children would be expect to obey elders, so one would not expect to ask a child: "Why are you disobeying?"

 

Discussion

  

I found this chapter interesting especially in contrast to attitudes in the west. In the west, there is emphasis on seeking help and on speaking up whenever a person is feeling a certain way (i.e depressed). It seems however, that for Samoans personality is not talked about openly, and there is more emphasis on the role one should play in the community.