particularism and conceptions of passion

For old Samoan society, in which a daughter’s marriage was an important route to social ascent, the idea of mating for reasons of personal sentiment had dangerous implications. We have seen that the sexual independence of lower-status girls was tolerated, as long as they acted in the status interests of their families. A danger in this sexual system had long been acknowledged: the girl’s inner feelings might become so strong in relation to an inappropriate (low-status) sexual partner that she would elope, gainsaying her parents and other relatives (avaga i le loto o le teine). In Samoan the word loto refers to private thoughts and personal feelings. The phrase momo i loto means “inner yearning” or “inner longing” and is used to describe the feelings of a girl who runs off with a boy and is brought home but then runs off again. In these cases friends may counsel parents that there is nothing they can do. Clearly, passion for a specific individual in sexual relations is not confined to Euro-Americans cultures. But in old Samoa this phenomenon was viewed as something of a hurricane, a misfortune in the face of which resignation was appropriate. It was not cultivated.
- Mageo, Jeannette Marie. 1996. “Spirit Girls and Marines: Possession and Ethnopsychiatry as Historical Discourse in Samoa.” American Ethnologist 23(1):61-82.