Monday, February 28, 2011

Book Reading #28 - Coming of Age in Samoa

Chapter 9: The Attitude of the Personality

Summary:
The word misu is used to express unwillingness and intractability. This is an attitude used in the Samoan culture. The way Samoans describe attitudes, emotions, and the person's most disliked trait, fiasili, is described. They way people are judged is also discussed. All of these descriptions are how Samoans verbally express these ideas.

Discussion: 
The way Samoans think of people's attitudes is important bercause it reflects on a part of the society. I thought it was interesting how many of the people don't describe people directly by their positive attributes. One example given was describing a young boy, "..he runs errands efficiently and is wise enough to hold his tongue when..". The word fiasili means "stuck up" which is interesting that is the most undesirable trait.

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