Polynesians

Polynesians

ETHNONYM: Pacific Islanders

Orientation

Identification. Polynesia is the culture area of the Pacific Ocean that lies roughly between 170° and 110° E and 40° to 20° S. It is a vast area with a relatively small population occupying a number of coral and volcanic islands. Only the Hawaiian and Line islands are north of the Equator. Despite the large area and geographical spread of the islands, traditional Polynesian cultures were similar linguistically and culturally. The major island groupings, most of which were and are now distinct political entities, are American Samoa, Cook Islands, French Polynesia, the Hawaiian Islands, Niue, Pitcairn Island, Tokelau, Tonga, Wallis, Futuna, and Western Samoa. In some classification schemes, Fiji and the Ellice Islands are included in Polynesia, but more often they are classified in Melanesia. Most Polynesians who have immigrated to and settled in North America have done so in the last thirty or so years and live almost exclusively in the United States. They are mainly from American Samoa, Western Samoa, Tonga, and Hawaii.

Location. Polynesians in North America live mainly on the West Coast. The major Samoan communities are in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas, with smaller Communities in San Diego and Seattle. There are also several thousand Samoans in St. Louis and Salt Lake City, most of whom are Mormons. Tongans live mainly near Los Angeles and San Francisco with a smaller community in Salt Lake City. Hawaiians live mostly in California.

Demography. Estimates for 1982 indicate that in the United States there were 24,000 American Samoans, 20,000 Western Samoans, 10,000 Tongans, 1,200 French Polynesians, and 510 Cook Islanders, Niueans, and Tokelauans. In 1981 there were 515 Polynesians in Canada.

Linguistic Affiliation. Because of the long political and economic affiliation with the United States and the British Empire, most Polynesians enter North America already speaking English as well as their native language. There are language education programs in both the Samoan and the Tongan communities designed to maintain the native Language in North America, although the majority of U.S.-born Polynesians speak only English fluently.

History and Cultural Relations

For most Polynesian islands, contact with the Western world goes back to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when explorers, missionaries, and business interests visited and eventually settled on the major islands. Hawaii was visited by Congregational ministers in 1819. Later in the century the native rulers were overthrown and the economy and political structure came under control of American business interests, with Hawaii formally annexed by the United States in 1898. It became the fiftieth state in 1959. Because of the long and intense contact with the United States, native Hawaiians who immigrated to the mainland arrrived already assimilated into mainstream American society. American Samoa was claimed by the United States in 1900, and other island Cultures were claimed at various times by Germany, France, and New Zealand. Today, Western Samoa, Tonga, and Tuvalu are independent nations; American Samoa is a territory of the United States; Wallis, Futuna, and French Polynesia are Territories of France; Tokelau is governed by New Zealand; and the Cook Islands and Niue are independent though affiliated with New Zealand.

Samoan immigration to the United States began in the 1950s and is part of a broader diaspora of Pacific Island Peoples to cities in their own islands, to other islands, New Zealand, Australia and the United States. Tongan migration to the United States began in the 1960s. On some islands, such as the Cook Islands, out-migration is so great that now more people live away from the islands than on them. The major factor pushing people off the islands is the lack of economic opportunity, and the major pull factor is economic opportunity in the cities or in developed nations. The actual host nation one migrates to is determined mainly by the historical ties between an island and the developed nation and the Current immigration policies of the host nation. Thus, American Samoans can enter the United States freely, but Tongans and Western Samoans are subject to immigration restrictions. Cook Islanders and others with ties to New Zealand are more likely to migrate there, although some are now moving on to the United States where economic prospects seem brighter. Most immigration has been in the form of chain migrations, with relatives assisting others who follow them to the United States. In the past, overseas immigration was cyclical; today, most immigrants settle permanently in the United States. It has been suggested that those who do return to the islands are mostly people who have failed economically overseas.

Within the United States, Polynesians remain an Economically disadvantaged group. Their cultural identity is ambiguous, as they are rarely identified by other Americans as being from a specific island or even as Polynesians or Pacific Islanders. Rather, they are more often lumped with Filipinos or Asians in general or with Latinos or African-Americans.

Settlements

As mentioned above, Polynesians are settled in urban areas, mainly on the West Coast. They do not form distinct ethnic neighborhoods, although there is a marked preference for extended family living arrangements and for relatives to live near one another.

Economy

In traditional Polynesia, farming and fishing were the major subsistence activities. But skills associated with farming and fishing are of little value in the urban United States and most Polynesians find employment in unskilled and semiskilled jobs. Men work mainly in construction and in factories, and women work in such low-level service jobs as maids or hospital aides. The unemployment rate among Polynesian men in the 1970s was 25 percent. Recently, more Polynesians are attending college, suggesting the possibility of greater Polynesian involvement in the professional and business sectors in future years. Although Polynesians as a group are Economically disadvantaged in the United States, they perceive their situation there as more favorable than it would be in the Islands. An important feature of the Polynesian economy in the United States is the economic ties maintained with the homeland. These include ownership of island property and regular cash remittances sent to kin on the islands. These transfers are used to pay debts, to support the emigration of kin, to purchase goods, and to finance development projects. In Polynesian nations with a large out-migration, these Remittances are a major economic resource and benefit the nation by raising living standards, increasing employment, and reducing balance of payment problems. They are not exclusively an economic boon, however, as they tend to inflate prices in the local economy.

Kinship, Marriage and Family

Most initial immigrants were young men who after finding a job and a place to live arranged for other family members to follow. The initial stage of this chain migration process is now nearly complete, with the sex ratio in Polynesian Communities nearly balanced. Extended family households are a basic feature of the islands' economic and social systems. In the United States, the extended family serves as a major adaptive mechanism for Polynesians. Domestic groups tend to be large and flexible, readily accepting newcomers to the United States or others in need. In addition, ties are maintained with other kin within the larger Samoan or Tongan community. The household unit also serves a basic economic function, as a mechanism through which money and material goods can be shared and distributed within the extended family and as an employment center for recent arrivals in need of work. Ties to kin in the islands are maintained through visits to the homeland and the remittances. Socialization for life in the United States begins for many Polynesians in their native countries, where formal education outside the home usually emphasizes Western culture and teaches skills useful in the U.S. economy. In America, formal education and the church play major socialization roles, with the latter providing education in the traditional culture.

Sociopolitical Organization

Relationships between individuals and between groups in traditional Polynesian societies rest on an interlocking and intricate set of relations and identities based on reciprocity, land ownership, status, place of residence (island and village), and kinship. To some extent, Polynesians immigrating to the United States, because they are younger, better educated, and more likely to come from cities or towns, are less involved in the traditional social and political structure than those who stay behind. Still, various traditional beliefs and practices, Especially those concerning generosity, obligations to kin, and traditional sources of authority, remain important for the first generation of immigrants, especially within the Polynesian communities. For the second generation, more involved in mainstream society with the emphasis on achievement and status differentials based on wealth, adherence to traditional beliefs and customs is more difficult.

The various churches play a central social and political role in the Samoan and Tongan communities in the United States. With missionary activities going back to the early 1800s in Polynesia, Polynesians who immigrate to the United States are almost all Christians and all were involved in the church community on their island. In the United States, churches remain the center of Polynesian social life, with ministers often playing the role of culture broker in smoothing adaptation to American life while providing continuity with the traditional culture left behind. Samoans, Hawaiians, and Tongans have also formed social, recreational, cultural, and political interest groups outside the church, with a pan-Polynesian identity and movement emerging in the 1970s.

Religion and Expressive Culture

The majority of Tongans in the United States are Mormons, that church's missionaries having been active in Tonga. Some are Methodists, since the Methodist church is the state church in Tonga. The Tongan communities in St. Louis and Salt Lake City are heavily involved with the Mormon church. Samoans are mostly Protestants (Methodist, Congregationalist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal), though some are Mormons, Catholics, and Seventh-Day Adventists. As noted above, the function of churches in Polynesian communities goes well Beyond religion with much of the community social and Political organization centered on the local church.

Bibliography

Ablon, Joan (1971). "The Social Organization of an Urban Samoan Community." Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 27:75-96.

Connell, John (1987). "Paradise Left? Pacific Island Voyagers in the Modern World." In Pacific Bridges: The New Immigration from Asia and the Pacific Islands, edited by James T. Fawcett and Benjamin V. Cariño, 375-404. Staten Island, N.Y.: Center for Migration Studies.

Doi, Mary L., Chien Lin, and Indu Vohra-Sahu (1981). Pacific/Asian American Research: An Annotated Bibliography. Chicago: Pacific/Asian American Mental Health Research Center.

Macpherson, Cluny, Bradd Shore, and Robert Franco, eds. (1978). New Neighbors: Islanders in Adaptation. Santa Cruz, Calif.: Center for South Pacific Studies.

Shore, Bradd (1980). "Pacific Islanders." In Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, edited by Stephan Thernstrom, 763-768. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Belknap Press.