"Critical Analysis of Adolescent Development – a Samoan Women's Perspective."

Abstract

Research on adolescent development has mushroomed during the last sixty years. It has been encouraging that developmentalists have, because of social and cultural differences, come to question the universality of the stages of human development. With reference to the Samoan culture, the findings of Margaret Mead in her text Coming of Age in Samoa broke new ground in that her conclusion claimed that the Samoan adolescent girl did not experience the storm and stress which was then the norm of adolescent development.Norm of adolescent development refers to the theories popular in Mead's era which seemed to suggest that adolescence appeared tumultous in nature. She claimed that this was due to the difference in environment. "A Samoan Women's Reading Of Coming of Age in Samoa" has, within a contemporary context, the intention of asking - What is adolescent development from a Samoan perspective? Had Mead defined and interpreted adolescence within a Samoan or a Western context? Was adolescence part of the Samoan girls' life experiences at the time of her research in the 1920s? Although Mead had accurately related culture to the shaping of the lives of the Samoan girls, her perception of fa'aSamoa and the adolescent girl seemed ethnocentric and eurocentric in nature. "A Samoan Woman's Reading Of Coming Of Age In Samoa" examines this and provides an alternative and Samoan perspective of Mead's findings and on fa'aSamoa and adolescent development. "Tama'ita'i Samoa - Contemporary Issues" was written at the request of the participants. Issues which had a great impact on us women were discussed in depth. The complexity of the Samoan culture and its expectations of Samoan women were emphasised. Our objective was to present an alternative perception of adolescence by analysing it within a Samoan context without the intention of producing a new developmental theory. Participants seemed to question the psychological and psycho-analytical definition of adolescence during Mead's era and suggested that adolescent development was a social concept prevalent in Western and industrialised societies. Many of us therefore found this to be a foreign concept which, will, with the exposure and impact of Westernisation, if not already present, become part of the Samoan girls' life. Within the last decade there has been an emergence of third world indigenous scholars and people in the research and literary arenas. An underlying reason has been the drive for self-empowerment in both the research method and literary structure. In joining with these groups this ethnography prioritizes collaboration, communalism, consensus, dialogue, narration, reciprocity and self-reflexivity, features which complement our own culture. Finally, "Critical Analysis of Adolescent Development - A Samoan Women's Perspective" is an alternative ethnography which allows us indigenous members to take control of our own research and our own text.