Whispers and Vanities in Samoan Indigenous Religious Culture

Let us celebrate this first
The purpose of the tini is to bolster the principals in the marriage, namely the bride
and groom. It is meant to help them relax, to arouse them and set the mood for their
marriage ceremony. The event is meant to be a celebration of the coming together of
two persons and two families. It is not meant to be overly formal and sombre.
The point about the biases of Christian Samoa is well noted when examining the
omission of the phrase “mimisā pua’i” (“sacred sperm spew out”) and the retention of
“faatu lou i’u” (“get your prick up”, i’u literally meaning an end). The Samoan words
in the latter are considered less offensive because they are less explicit.
Similarly, two sexually explicit lines of a chant that usually begins the Salelesi auala
or funeral ritual fall victim to the same dilemma. In this chant if the deceased is male
then the chant is worded:
Talofa i lena ate tele,
o le a pala i le ‘ele’ele
Pity that that great penis,
will now rot in the ground. 32
However, if the deceased is female then the chant goes:
Ma’imau lena pali tele,
ua palavale i le ‘ele’ele
That great vagina will be wasted
rotting uselessly in the ground. 33
These two lines of chant are the only references to death in the vaa funeral ritual.
Instead the vaa ritual gives the sex act pride of place making the point that human life
continues despite death. To make this point the performers move solemnly into a boat
formation, made known by their exaggerated paddling movements and as they move
they chant:
Ina soso atu ia
i lalo o le ‘aute o loo i ai le toeaina ma le loomatua
I urge you to approach
Under the hibiscus tree where there is the old man and old woman 34
32
The ate is known to literally refer to the liver (see Moyle, 1975: p.232), however in common
parlance it also refers to the penis. In terms of the object of this funeral ritual it is more likely that the
point about the ate is in relation to the wasted opportunity to procreate which is better symbolised by
the penis rather than the liver.
33
I share the same interpretation of the term pali as Richard Moyle (1975, p.232).
34
Use of the terms toeaina (old man) and loomatua (old woman) are deliberate in that they
suggest reference to the procreators or parents of, or an older generation to, the performers.
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