Adult Life

After marriage, the husband lived in the house of his wife's family and worked and fished with her kindred, but his social group remained primarily that of his father. He took part in the activities of his own kindred and received a share of the fruits of his father's land when they were needed. His father or the head of his kindred still exercised authority over him in all interests of their kindred.

The girl remained a daughter of her family's house and continued her daily work of caring for the small brothers and sisters, and assisting her mother and the older women of the house in all their work. With the news of her pregnancy, her position became more honored. The news was heralded with great rejoicing by both families and a feast of the first pregnancy was immediately planned. The cherished hope of both families for an heir was now promised and the marriage was considered a success.

When the young couple had children, they still remained in the home of the wife's parents if she was the eldest daughter of the family; but if she was a younger daughter, they frequently set up their own home on the land of the kindred of either side. There is still much variation in this final page 43 settlement, depending upon the number of children in the family of either the wife or the husband, and upon the wealth in land of the respective kindreds. If the husband was the eldest son in his family, he set up his household on his father's land. Before building a house, the consent of the assembled kindred was necessary to occupy the land and take building materials from the plantation.

When a man had established a household of his own and had become skilled in man's crafts, he assumed an authoritative position within his kindred and retired from active participation in the work for the household, now done by his sons and sons-in-law. He became a member of the village council, a position corresponding to that of the matai of Samoa, who is elected head of his kindred ('ainga) and inherits the family title. If a man was a skilled bonito fisherman, he was given a second position of importance, that of fishing captain (tautai) in the family canoe.

A man never gave up his fishing until he had become too infirm to paddle his canoe. If he lived to be 65 or 70 years old he joined the chief council group of the village who, with the high chief, governed the community. He and his wife moved to a small house and were cared for by two or three of their elder grandchildren who brought them food from the family oven.