Closing observations: some indications of change

So far, this chapter has analysed implications of religious change from the perspective of different attitudes to and prioritisations of tradition and fa'asamoa in new and mainline churches. Members of new churches expressed markedly different ideals and priorities than commonly shared conceptions of fa'asamoa, and members of mainline churches often expressed concern that the establishment of new churches posed a direct threat to fa'asamoa and that the new churches would undermine the importance of culture. Leone, a member of the Congregational church in Salesi, thus expressed his concerns about the new churches and their lack of community responsibility and respect for traditional authorities, especially regarding fa'alavelave: "the new churches, they don't really like that. They're more like 'Oh no, you do your own thing'. You see, the culture is sort of starting to, you know, break down with this new kind of thinking". Pelesala, the pastor of the congregational church in Salesi also believed that with the establishment of new churches "people will miss out on the value of the culture. That's what saddens me. Because we are Samoans and we are known through our culture". As noted in chapter 6, Lani even predicted the breakdown of Salesi village, stating that in 10 years the village would no longer "be together".

Whether or not such radical cultural change will indeed follow from the establishment of new churches is, I believe, too soon to tell. Some practical changes in both fa'alavelave and social organisation might, however, be identified from my empirical data, relating to the practice of saofa'i and in the functioning of the Women's Committee.

My informants of Salesi told me that some families had stated conducting saofa'is on Sundays when travelling was not considered appropriate, thereby limiting the amounts of guests and exchange and especially preventing high ranking members of the extended family and pastors from showing up, who would be expecting to be presented with large amounts of money and food. Leone, himself a matai of Salesi, believed this to be caused by the influence of the new churches:

"I think it's like people are becoming more materialistic, don't want to share their goods with other people, you know? Well, I suppose that's the trend. People are starting to keep it in our own little circle. All these new churches, creeping in.

Trying to keep things to themselves. I think that's where that part came from".

In Leone's view, this change of practice of the saofa'i was directly related to the presence of the new churches, believing that they were the ones to advise people in this direction by advocating not spending money on fa'alavelave.

Another change possibly related to the establishment of new churches was taking place in the Women's Committees. After the tsunami, the Committees in both Levao and Salesi had not been functioning very well and none of my informants seemed to remember when the last meeting had been held in either of the villages. Several women of Levao felt that the unity and close connections between the women had weakened after the tsunami, partly because some women did not bother to show up for Committee meetings and did not respect the traditional female authorities. Poula, a woman of Levao, thus described the situation in the group of women after the tsunami:

"We're not connecting. That's how I feel! Before, the Women's committee used to get together and weave fine mats. But now we hardly ever do that (...) Like some members would attend, the others couldn't be bothered. That's how it is! Others couldn't care less".

Poula felt the community feeling among the women, "the bonding" as she called it, had been broken after the tsunami. Lani also got emotional when talking about changes in the group of women; especially how she felt the traditional authority of some women of the village had been undermined. Lani lamented an increasing lack of respect for the traditional authorities of the Committee, stating that some women no longer cared if they were scolded or fined for not showing up for joint activities. Lani felt that this was directly related to the religious changes taking place in Salesi and with individuals and families from Levao changing affiliation, which had caused women from the new churches to neglect the joint activities and responsibilities:

"So them, choosing to go to other religions, it's just like cutting themselves away from us, because as I say, nowadays there's more gathering for church activities rather than because of traditional activities. And them going up there and they chose to go to other churches. So we seldom see them, we seldom meet them, we seldom talk to them. And that's very sad".

Lani thus described the social consequences of attending new churches as very serious, with images of the women cutting themselves away from the community ("us") signalling a rather radical break with the rest of the village. I never saw any of my informants from Levao, who had joined the new churches in Salesi, participating in any of the communal activities for the women in the village. Filia also seemed eager to emphasise that she didn't have any time for these things any more, as she was so busy with church activities, and explicitly told me not to ask her any questions about the Women's Committees, as she did not know and really did not care. From my observations, Lani was right: there were more gatherings for religious than traditional activities. The women of the new churches were busy with their own women's groups, fund-raising and Bible school activities, and did not participate in joint village activities, which were dominated by women of the Congregational church.

It thus seems that the establishment of new churches is affecting the social organisation of the village by impeding the functioning of the Women's Committee. Practically, the women of the new churches were busy with activities in their own churches and therefore neglected the responsibilities to the Committee. Also, based on the analysis of this chapter, it seemed that new churches were actively promoting ideals of individual rights over social control which might have lead to an undermining of the traditional authority of Committee leaders. The new churches were explicitly prioritising religious matters and goals of salvation, proselytising and church expansion over traditional and cultural activities and values, and opting out of the Committee and other communal responsibilities was thus based on both the general doctrines and attitudes of the new churches and on the interpretations of the tsunami as rendering culture and tradition unimportant compared to religious purposes and activities.