samoa6t.htm

Nonetheless, the overall crime rate reported to the UN is very low; my quick visit to the police indicated that one of the major offence was driving with too many passengers in a vehicle! Maybe this was simply a matter of local pride of the force displaying itself favourably to an unknown foreigner; maybe it was an indication of the strength of informal dispute resolution mechanisms, which can be just as powerful.

One casual informant, for instance, stated that when a colour tv was "borrowed without authorizaton" from his family's open fale, he and his chief had simply gotten a few local men and boys together to go and "borrow it back"--without bothering the local constabulary!

But understanding such issues in any cultural depth would take much longer than my few weeks' visit--or, perhaps in the case of Margaret Mead--a few months!