
How the Samoan Tattoo Survived Colonialism - FossilHominid
https://www.sapiens.org/body/samoan-tattoo/
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kochikame
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...](https://blog.janm.org/index.php/2015/08/27/the-secret-history-of-
okinawan-tattoos/)

~~~
ListeningPie
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.

~~~
ecshafer
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.

~~~
kochikame
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

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gnat
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...](https://www.radionz.co.nz/programmes/black-
sheep/story/2018668285/headhunter-the-story-of-horatio-robley-part-1) and
[https://www.radionz.co.nz/programmes/black-
sheep/story/20186...](https://www.radionz.co.nz/programmes/black-
sheep/story/2018669147/headhunter-the-story-of-horatio-robley-part-2)

------
yaleman
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 :)

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

~~~
TallGuyShort
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.

~~~
knolax
>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?

~~~
dragonwriter
> 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_.

