Whispers and Vanities in Samoan Indigenous Religious Culture

eflected manhood or womanhood more than a desire to cover the skin. In public it
was only the genitals that were kept covered and this was in protection of their
sacredness. The female breasts were not necessary for the conception of new life and
so not afforded the same tapu as the genitals.
The public display and deliberate flaunting of the genitals only really occurred during
formal sacred events such as during tini or marriage rituals or auala or funeral rituals
and/or at the pinnacle moment in poula 24 where the beauty and sexuality of the body
was flaunted in dance, such as during the sa’ē 25 (one of the preliminaries before the
taualuga 26 ). Sexuality in this context was always to be read as ultimately aimed
towards procreation and as an endowment from God Tagaloa and a reminder of the
divinity we shared with him.
In thinking about the sa’ē dance the custodian smiles. The sa’ē involved anyone,
except children, who wanted to join in. In being the dance that needed to create the
right ambiance for the taualuga in the faafeagaiga o aumaga ma aualuma 27 , where it
was hoped that by the end of which sex would occur (except for those who had to
preserve themselves for political reasons), the words and movements of the sa’ē were
deliberately designed to provoke a sexual reaction. The sa’ē sent the message that in
the clearly defined and monitored space of the faafeagaiga o aumaga ma aualuma,
sexuality can and should be celebrated publicly.
The ritual dance of the sa’ē is an unsynchronised dance that would begin with the
young virgins entering the dance house first, followed by more mature women and
then the more elderly women. 28 During the dance the women would tease and
tantalise the audience by exposing themselves openly through generous and
gregarious dance movements and by chanting or shouting sexually-explicit phrases to
provoke reaction from the men. The men would usually respond by approaching the
young virgins in exaggerated bashfulness, playing coy by attempting to hide their
genitalia with a leaf or piece of cloth. The older women would mock them and the
men would in turn respond. After this to and fro of words and gestures (all performed
in dance and chant form), the men then do away with the leaf or cloth covering their
genitalia, fully exposing themselves to the women in great merriment while trying to
catch the attention of those female dancers they fancy.
In this forum the male and female dancers have to be comfortable with their
nakedness and in the public display of their sacred parts. This was achievable then
because Samoan social and religious discourse perceived the sexual organs not as
instruments of sinful pleasure but as gifts from God Tagaloa.
24
Literally the term refers to the night of the shrimp. People tended to see the behaviour of the
shrimp as hyperactive or very energetic. They were believed to be prolific breeders and assumed to be
very sexual. Poula captures these metaphoric meanings.
25
Richard Moyle draws on the journals of the missionary John Williams to describe this dance.
The quote cited by Richard (1975, p.240-241) is taken from John Williams journal 1832/1833.
26
Taualuga (taua meaning coming together; luga meaning high) is a shortened version of the
term taumaualuga, meaning peak meeting point in the roof of a house. The term taualuga thus refers
to the high point or pinnacle of an event. In this case, it is the high point in the poula.
27
This is literally the meeting (faafeagaiga) between the (o) untitled men’s guild (aumaga) and
ladies’ guild (aualuma).
28
The evidence for the retelling of this dance form is taken from Richard Moyle’s article on
Samoan sexuality. See Moyle (1975).
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