SAMOAN TĀ-VĀ (TIME-SPACE) CONCEPTS AND PRACTICES IN LANGUAGE, SOCIETY, AND ARCHITECTURE

Authors

Fepulea‘i Micah Van der Ryn, American Samoa Community CollegeFollow

Abstract

This essay gives new insights into indigenous Samoan spatial, temporal, and social concepts as distinctive aspects of Samoan culture, expressed linguistically, socially, and architecturally in a changing contemporary Samoan context. Four Samoan concepts are examined: (1) mata (the eye and a point of convergence and emanation), (2) tā (strike and a point in time), (3) vā (the interval and relation between points in space or time and society), and (4) tuā‘oi (neighbor and boundary). The general tā-vā theory of reality (Māhina 2008a, 2008b; Ka‘ili 2008) informs the analysis augmented by the theory of point-field spatiality as discussed by Lehman and Herdrich (2002). The analysis develops an understanding of how Samoan language, architecture, and socio-spatial and temporal practices express a cultural system through which a sense of order (or harmony) and conflict are produced and addressed in Samoan society.

Recommended Citation

Van der Ryn, Fepulea‘i Micah (2017) "SAMOAN TĀ-VĀ (TIME-SPACE) CONCEPTS AND PRACTICES IN LANGUAGE, SOCIETY, AND ARCHITECTURE," Pacific Studies Journal: Vol. 40: No. 1, Article 11.
Available at: https://digitalcollections.byuh.edu/pacific-studies-journal/vol40/iss1/11