Titular disputes and national leadership in Samoa
Abstract The political history of Samoa is principally a contest about matai (titled family head) titles. The significance of matai titles lies in the appurtenant land to which is tied the welfare of most Samoans. The contest for titles translates into the struggle for security of rights and access to land and resources. Four ancient and sacred titles called pāapā stood at the apex of Samoan society and an elite group of orators called tumua ma pule managed the complex political contest. Successful accession to all four titles was rare and contending parties usually spent a good deal of their lifetime in the struggle maintaining this largely ceremonial status. The most eligible contenders came from the Sā Tupuā family and were joined in the early 19th century by the Sā Malietoā family. The title disputes caused endless disruptions and the colonial administrations eventually abolished the titles. But they could not be swept away because the titles provided an ideological superstructure which glued the majo...
All Becomes One in the Basin of the Waterfall: Dialectics and Multiple Trajectories of Samoan History before 1900
Ua Aofia i Le Futafu E Tasi All Becomes One in the Basin of the Waterfall Dialectics and Multiple Trajectories of Sāmoan History before 1900 A Thesis Submitted to the Undergraduate Division of the University of California Berkeley in Fulfillment of Bachelor of Arts In Interdisciplinary Studies Field May 2013 By Devin Perenise Matamata i Moana Murphy Thesis Committee Rakesh Bhandari Patrick V. Kirch i
Self-responsibility in health care/promotion: motivational factors.
This paper explores motivational factors at play in self-responsibility in health care and promotion. If people do not take responsibility for their health status, is it because they can not or will not? "Can" refers to the ability or skill to do something, while "will" refers to intention and effort. Each of these factors are analyzed in terms of their role as a cause of behavior in self-responsibility for the health status. Educational intervention to motivate self-responsibility is suggested as well as empirical research in how people attribute health outcomes.