|
F Ofoa had died 1936, and Fa'apua'a was thought to also be dead. It turned out that she was very much alive and eager to talk. For decades, she said, she had been burdened with guilt over the huge success of Margaret Mead's book, Coming of Age in Samoa, and now was relived at last to be able to tell her story.. A lifelong Christian, she swore to the truth of her account with a hand on a Samoan Bible. When Mead suggested that Fa'apua'a was promiscuous, Fa'apua'a was shocked. At that time she was what in Samoa is called a taupou, or ceremonial virgin. After understanding what Mead wanted them to say, the two girls decided to play a typical Samoan prank on this curious young woman from America. They never dreamed that Mead would base an entire book on their lies. In a 1991 interview with Fa'apua'a, by then an elderly woman, now a grandmother and nearing ninety, said that when Mead asked where she and Fofoa went at night they would pinch each other and say, "We spent our nights with boys, yes, with boys!" Samoan girls, Fa'apua'a added, "are terrific liars when it comes to joking. But Margaret accepted our trumped-up stories as though they were true. Yes, we just fibbed and fibbed to her." On three occasions, Mead was made a "ceremonial virgin" of Samoa. These honors, which she greatly enjoyed, would never have been confered on her if she had revealed that she was married at the time! It is said that Mead, during one of the ceremonies, danced about bare-breasted. |
 |
    |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Copyright © 2000 Tom Howell Productions | Comments about this Web site to: psychicinvestigator@yahoo.com |