Tafesilafa'i: exploring Samoan alcohol use and health within the framework of fa'asamoa

Abstract

This study seeks to establish how cultural change is transforming Samoan perceptions of alcohol and its role in social life by comparing understandings of, attitudes to, and patterns of alcohol use in successive generations of Samoans to establish how these are changing, and how trends in alcohol use might be expected to affect Samoan health status. It examines the complex relationships between alcohol and culture, and how such relationships interact to influence health. As well, it explores how Samoan culture, fa'asamoa, has changed since contact with Europeans, how, these changes have influenced Samoan people's perceptions and use of alcohol, and the role alcohol now plays in Samoan social life. Moreover, the thesis documents the social history of alcohol in Samoa since the nineteenth century, and explores the roles of some of the Europeans in shaping Samoan people's attitudes and behaviours towards alcohol and its use. Additionally, it examines the commercial and political economic interests of early European agencies in Samoa such as beachcombers, traders, colonial administrators, and missionaries which impacted on and influenced, to a considerable extent, Samoan people's drinking patterns. The study uses a qualitative methodological approach, utilizing qualitative interviewing as the main method of gathering data and various other methods to supplement the data. The sample population included Samoan men and women, of various religious denominations, drinkers and abstainers, born and raised in Samoa and in New Zealand. Unstructured interviews with thirty-nine participants, and eight key informants were conducted in Apia, Auckland, and Christchurch. The key informants included: a bishop of the Church of Latter Day Saints, the Samoan Police Commissioner, and the Secretary of the Samoan Liquor Authority who were interviewed in Apia; a pastor/lecturer of the Congregational Christian Church of American Samoa who was interviewed in Pago Pago, American Samoa; while two Samoan-born medical health professionals, a pastor of the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa, and one New Zealand-born woman researcher were interviewed in Auckland. The study found that alcohol and the drinking of it has secured a place in the social life of Samoans in the islands and in migrant communities such as those in Auckland, and to a lesser extent, Christchurch. It also found that while older women's and men's experiences and attitudes to alcohol differ significantly, particularly those born and raised in the islands, some similarities in the attitudes and practices of younger people towards alcohol, especially those born- and raised in New Zealand have emerged.