Regin 1

Nancy Regin

Professor Miller

American History

July 19, 2010

Samoan & U.S. Cultural Differences

Samoan and U.S. cultures are very different in many ways. Some of the differences that

will be compared are food, religion, and tattoos.

Seafood and coconuts are very popular foods in the Samoan culture. Samoan food tends

not to be spicy, and their foods are not seasoned. Some foods that Samoans eat are breadfruit,

taro, taro leaves, cooked green bananas and raw fish. Most Samoan cultures eat raw fish,

smoked salmon and sushi. Oka is the way Samoans prepare and serve raw fish. In addition,

their foods are unexplainable to describe the taste, but they believe that their foods satisfy their

gods. However, here in the U.S. Americans eat just about anything. There’s a lot of fast food.

I think that’s one of the main reasons why there’s a lot of obesity and why young children and

teenagers have such a bad health and won’t grow up to be as old as our grandparents are. In

addition, here in the U.S., Americans eat just about anything, but depending on their race or

religion. For example my culture, Mexican Americans tend to eat a lot of spicy and sweet food.

These foods include posole, menudo and albondigas all of which are delicious. In my culture,

Mexican American, we eat a lot of meat. Also we eat our foods very well seasoned. One thing

that Samoans and my culture in the U.S. that we have in common are that we eat together as a

family.

Religion is one of the most important aspects of Samoan culture. The ancient Samoans

believed in family and village gods. Samoan families get together and discuss and plead to their
 Regin 2

god for forgiveness. In addition, Samoans believe that the dead spirits come back and live

among the living. When a death occurs, Samoans go to the person in the family who passed

away and pray and plead to their spirit, or to their god and ask for forgiveness for the person’s

sins. Also, they believe that if special herbs are rubbed on a person’s body, they will make the

ghosts go away which they call them ( Aitu ). In comparison, religion is not so important to

Americans here in the U.S. about 76 percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians.

But most of them never attend church and do things that Christians should not do. Also, I think

Americans, as a family, don’t go to church together like some Samoan families do.

Tattoos demonstrate the strong bond that Samoans have with their culture. Tattoos are

very important in their culture. Most tattoos have a symbol or a meaning. Sometimes the tattoos

tell a story. Samoan boys get tattooed between the ages of 14 – 18. There has been a traditional

tattooing in the past generations. The Samoan word for tattoo is tatau, the word comes from

Polynesian, which means correct or workmanlike. Their black ink comes from the soot of burnt

candlenut shells. Samoans go through a painful process when they get tattoos. Young Samoan

men considered tattoos to be a mark of their manhood. Tattoos can be traced back to their

ancestors as well, sometimes they could tell if one of their family members were part of the

tattoo guild (group). In comparison, here in the U.S., I think that people get tattoos because they

want to look like everyone else (“cool”). In addition, tattoos here often don’t have meanings to

them. Tattoos here seem to be stars, hearts, butterflies, but in the Samoan culture they have

awesome designs that have a background story. I would love to have a tattoo with a meaning or

a story like Samoans.

 Regin 3

In summery, food, religion and tattoos are very different in the Samoan culture compared

to the U.S. but in a way they have some things alike. Such as some foods like sushi and salmon.

But the religion and tattoos are not alike.