The work of the dead in Samoa: Rank, status and property

Abstract

In Samoa the selection of burial sites and the type of monuments chosen to mark them not only signify affection and memorialisation, but also make visible statements about traditional rank, and nowadays about family status and claims to property. We examine what is known about burial practices and locations in pre-colonial Samoa and trace the changes that have occurred as a result of 19th-century power struggles, political change, colonial influences and regulations, and new settlement patterns and house-building practices.