How the Samoan Tattoo Survived Colonialism | Hacker News Reader

How the Samoan Tattoo Survived Colonialism

sapiens.org

38 pointsFossilHominid12 comments

In contrast, the tradition of Okinawan finger tattoos was essentially eradicated when the Japanese took over

https://blog.janm.org/index.php/2015/08/27/the-secret-histor...

Does fourth-generation Okinawan mean that her great-great- grandparent moved out of Okinawa and yet still consider oneself an

It seems like the article is using the fact the author is a fourth generation Okinawan to frame her as an authority on the subject, which I don’t think is valid.

All the second generation Europeans I know call themselves whatever citizenship they have adopted. They don’t learn their parents language, instead strive to be integrated into their new country.

Can someone explain the American habit of keeping track of being 1/8 Irish or a 4th generation anything? I can’t help but see this as a vain attempt at being unique and interesting.

In America it's a pride thing since even if you don't consider yourself whatever ethnicity, everyone else does. If you have an Irish last name people will call you Irish, even if your family has been in the states for 4 generations. So people become attached to that out of pride.

I get the pride but there comes a point when "Irish Americans" can no longer speak for Irish people, a point that I feel is much sooner than 4th generation

Like the commenter above you, I am very suspicious of Americans with only tenuous connections to a far off land claiming expertise/knowledge/understanding of that culture

Aotearoa/New Zealand's Māori facial tattoos (moko) were pushed underground during the late 1800s and 1900s. The detailed drawings from a Victorian collector of preserved heads enabled a revival of the art form from the diminished numbers of Māori tattoists who had continued the tradition. There's a very interesting radio show about this collector: https://www.radionz.co.nz/programmes/black-sheep/story/20186... and https://www.radionz.co.nz/programmes/black-sheep/story/20186...

I really wonder if the missionaries hadn't "worked out" they were religious, or if they were misrepresenting it to HQ in order to work their way into the local groups?

If you fight against the tattoos, you lose out. If you accept the tattoos, then you can make friends and still sell religion - which clearly worked in the end :)

Curious if there are differences in the practice or styles in American Samoa vs. the independent nation of Samoa.

I knew many Samoans and a few American Samoans as a child - I couldn't see that much of a cultural difference. My uber driver a few months ago was from American Samoa and I actually thought to ask - she said there's really no difference and people only see the distinction as being a foreign thing.

I'm sure there are some Samoans from either side that might disagree, or that there are subtle differences I never observed, but I think the biggest distinction is just who prints their passports.

Hmm, sounds like she's not a sports fan then. There's some significant differences in which sports they play, and something of a one-sided rivalry in the ones that they both play.

>she said there's really no difference and people only see the distinction as being a foreign thing.

Foreign as in the distinction only matters to non-Samoans or that the only difference between Samoans and American-Samoans is that they are technically de jour Foreign?

I'm not sure I understand much of a distinction between the two, to be honest.

> de jour

I'm not sure if this was intentional, but I kind of like this for a legal status viewed as being ephemeral, as a portmanteau of du jour and de jure.

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