![]() Ideas of the family in Samoa and Polynesia include all the members of a sa, or communal family within the faʻamatai family system. However, faʻafafine are not fully accepted in all parts of the community, such as by some fundamentalist Christian groups and traditional leaders.įaʻafafine are known for their hard work and dedication to the family, in the Samoan tradition of tautua or service to family. The existence of a third gender is so well-accepted in Samoan culture that most Samoans state that they have friendships with at least one faʻafafine. This fits nicely in Samoan society where hierarchy is highly stratified, and customs are strictly adhered to. Freedom from the constraints of a traditional marriage and the raising of children allows faʻafafine to excel in nurturing the family and community dynamics. This means that families that include faʻafafine and members in other non-traditional roles, such as unmarried aunts and uncles, would have more time and resources to dedicate to the success of their kin. Vasey contends that the existence of androphilia may serve the evolutionary purpose of providing avunculate support for related kin. The existence of faʻafafine could be accounted for by a gene that directs kin-directed altruism, which proposes that androphilia could be passed down because it is societally advantageous to have non-traditional roles. Since the 1980s, the Samoan diaspora has given faʻafafine a higher profile outside Samoa. In Dolgoy's recorded interviews with faʻafafine from the 1980s, we know that Johnny Fruitcake was a popular faʻafafine during the American military occupation of American Samoa in World War II, and that Anita (Tony Schwenke) was the founder of Hollywood, a tailoring shop and house of refuge for faʻafafine in Apia in the 1960s–1970s. Nafanua, the female warrior and chief of Samoan early history, is often held up as an icon of faʻafafine and faʻatane. The history of faʻafafine is difficult to trace. There is no restriction on the transfer of chiefly titles to women or fa'afafine, and there is a healthy list of past and present faʻafafine chiefs. Samoa continues to value the leadership roles of women and third gender people. ![]() Queen Salamasina, holder of four paramount chief titles, ascended the throne in the 16th century through the shrewd maneuvering of the powerful female chieftains around her. Strong evidence points to Samoa being under matriarchal rule for centuries before contact with Europeans. The Samoan slang word mala (devastation) is a less-common term for faʻafafine, originating in fundamentalist-influenced homophobia and transphobia. Ultimately, Western terms like gay and transgender overlap but do not align exactly with Samoan gender terms found in the traditional culture of Samoa. A person assigned female at birth may belong to a masculine third gender, faʻatane, faʻatama, and fafatama. It is a cognate of related words in other Polynesian languages, such as Tongan: fakaleiti or fakafefine, the Cook Islands Māori: akava'ine, and Māori: whakawāhine. The word faʻafafine includes the causative prefix faʻa–, meaning "in the manner of", and the word fafine, meaning "woman". According to SBS news, there are up to 3,000 faʻafafine currently living in Samoa. It has been estimated that 1–5% of Samoans identify as faʻafafine. Īnthropologists have speculated that if a Samoan family had more boys than girls or not enough girls to help with women's duties about the house, male children would be chosen to be raised as faʻafafine however, this theory has been disputed. Their behaviour typically ranges from extravagantly feminine to conventionally masculine. A recognised gender identity/ gender role in traditional Samoan society, and an integral part of Samoan culture, faʻafafine are observed male at birth, and explicitly embody both masculine and feminine gender traits in a way unique to Polynesia. Faʻafafine are people who identify themselves as having a third gender or non-binary role in Samoa, American Samoa and the Samoan diaspora.
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