Words from the Earth: Tia Seu Lupe Proverbs

Enright, John

A newspaper article draft about the connection to the past in American Samoa through archaeology and oral tradition using the example of Samoan star mounds. There is no indication in which newspaper the article is/was planned to be published. Excerpt: "After three millennia of human habitation the Samoan Islands are rich in archaeological evidence, much of it still to be recovered. Thanks to the tenacious love of the Samoan people for their culture much of their oral tradition has survived the ravages of contact and modernization. A prime example of how these two modes of study can conjoin is in the consideration of Samoan star mounds. ... Star mounds were once used for the ritual Samoan sport of pigeon-catching, thus their Samoan name tia seu lupe. Using trained decoy fruit doves, the chiefly competitors would lure in wild jungle pigeons then attempt to snare them with nets on the end of long pole. They camouflaged themselves in blinds on the arms of the star mound, which rose them up closer to the jungle canopy. We know from early missionary reports that the pastime was popular at the time of contact, because the missionaries railed against it. Entire villages would to the bush for weeks to party and attend to the chiefs at their sport. The cultural importance of the seu lupe practice is also attested to in Samoan oral tradition, as seen in traditional proverbial sayings still employed by orators today. Thus if a tulafale wishes to praise the first speech delivered at a meeting he might quote the proverb O le lupe o le taeo (the pigeon of the early morning), a polite upu fa'aaloalo referring to the fact that to catch the first pigeon of the day was considered a special achievement." Project funding was provided in part by a Historic Preservation Fund grant to the American Samoa Historic Preservation Office, Executive Offices of the Governor, administered by the Pacific West Regional Office, National Park Service, U.S. Department of Interior (grant number 60-09-21857).

Words from the Earth: Tia Seu Lupe Proverbs

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