Samoan Moral Discourse and the Loto

An old adage in anthropology holds that societies perpetuate their moral codes by the manner in which people raise their children, but socialization is far more than the straightforward passing on of culture. Rather, culture acquisition is a highly conflictual process, rich in contested meanings. What other theorists have shown on the level of cultural systems, this analysis intends to show at the level of micro‐interactive processes. The article examines Samoan child‐rearing routines, subjective reactions to these routines, the manner in which these reactions are in conformity and in resistance to cultural norms, and the discourse through which Samoan society finally strives to temper the resisting subject. By taking the conflictual dimensions of the socialization process into account, the article describes and analyzes indigenous perspectives on Samoan temperament. These perspectives have the potential to reconcile certain vehement disagreements that characterize the ethnography of the self in Samoa.