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Tofiga: Place and Belonging in Samoan Architecture

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Journal article(2.33 MB)
Author Accepted Manuscript(147.5 KB)

Date

2025-09-22

Authors

Supervisor

Item type

Journal Article

Degree name

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

The German Association for Social and Cultural Anthropology and The Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory.

Abstract

The Samoan world opens with the notion of nu‘u tofi, in which every person is assigned a place or position that resonates with culture, polity, citizenship and governance. Tofi (or tofiga) places Samoans according to their ancestral connections within the order of the Samoan world, as ‘the reference point of political action and motivation’ (Tui Atua) – for instance, matai (chiefs) sitting in front of the pou (posts) of the fale (house).

Description

Keywords

1601 Anthropology, 4401 Anthropology, fa‘a Sāmoa, fale Sāmoa, Samoan architecture, locality and place, mobility and belonging

Source

Zeitschrift für Ethnologie/Journal of Social and Cultural Anthropology, ISSN: 0044-2666 (Print), 150(1). https://zfejsca.org/ojs/index.php/jsca/issue/view/150-1

DOI

10.60827/zfe/jsca.v150i1.3764

Publisher's version

https://zfejsca.org/ojs/index.php/jsca/article/view/3764

Rights statement

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Permanent link

http://hdl.handle.net/10292/20432

Collections

School of Art and Design - Te Kura Toi a Hoahoa