I asked Doug about some of the different aspect of the Samoan culture and this is what he told me about clothing. He said some people were normal modern clothing, or what we consider to be normal modern clothing. But it is traditional for men to wear, Lava Lava’s, which are light pieces of cloth that wrap around their waists. It looks like what we might call a skirt. It is very much a lounging around type of clothing. Doug himself has a few that he wears on an occasion at the dorm. The women wear something similar to the Lava Lava’s but they have two pieces, a top and a bottom. They are called Mumu’us, they are a piece of cloth that also wraps around the waist and a piece that wraps around the torso and ties behind the neck. Many people in Hawaii also wear this type of clothing for there are many Samoans that have moved to H

Family life in Samoan culture is huge. They value family very much. They mostly live with their extended family all in one house. The Grandmother and Grandfather will live with one of the children and it is quite often so will a couple of the Aunts and Uncles.

The Samoans do not actually have their own religion but have had Christianity and Mormon religions introduced to them when Captain Cook arrived on the islands. Doug had told me that a lot of Samoans that live in Hawaii are Mormon, he himself is also one. The closest thing he said that they have to their own religion is dancing. They have traditional dances that are signature strait from Samoa. They have a seductive dance called the Sasa. They also have the Samoan Slap Dance, where they slap themselves all over their own bodies. The Sivafi is a very dangerous dance that many people have seen at one point or another. It was brought to Hawaii from Samoa. They take machetes and bend the tip of the blade inward, so the blade looks somewhat like the letter J. They then wrap the handle and tip of the blade with a cloth that has been soaked in kerosene. They light one side and then light the other side with their mouth from the already lit side. They then proceed to twirl and dance around with

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