APPENDIX V

MATERIALS UPON WHICH THE ANALYSIS IS BASED

This study included sixty-eight girls between the ages of eight and nine and nineteen or twenty—all the girls between these ages in the three villages of Faleasao, Lumā and Siufaga, the three villages on the west coast of the island of Taū in the Manu’a Archipelago of the Samoan Islands.

Owing to the impossibility of obtaining accurate dates of birth except in a very few cases, the ages must all be regarded as approximate. The approximations were based upon the few known ages and the testimony of relatives as to the relative age of the others. For purpose of description and analysis I have divided them roughly into three groups, the children who showed no mammary signs of puberty, twenty-eight in number, ranging in age from eight or nine to about twelve or thirteen; the children who would probably mature within the next year or year and a half, fourteen in number, ranging in age from twelve or thirteen to fourteen or fifteen; and the girls who were past puberty, but who were not yet considered as adults by the community, twenty-five in number, ranging in age from fourteen or fifteen to nineteen or twenty. These two latter groups and eleven of the younger children were studied in detail, making a group of fifty. The remaining fourteen children in the youngest group were studied less carefully as individuals. They formed a large check group in studying play, gang life, the development of brother and sister avoidance, the attitude between the sexes, the difference in the interests and activities of this age and the girls approaching puberty. They also provided abundant material for the study of the education and discipline of the child in the home. The two tables present in summary form the major statistical facts which were gathered about the children specially studied, order of birth, number of brothers and sisters, death or remarriage or divorce of parents, residence of the child, type of household in which the child lived and whether the girl was the daughter of the head of the household or not. The second table relates only to the twenty-five girls past puberty and gives length of time since first menstruation, frequency of menstruation, amount and location of menstrual pain, the presence or absence of masturbation, homosexual and heterosexual experience, and the very pertinent fact of residence or non-residence in the pastor’s household. A survey of the summary analyses joined to these tables will show that these fifty girls present a fairly wide range in family organisation, order of birth, and relation to parents. The group may be fairly considered as representative of the various types of environment, personal and social, which are found in Samoan civilisation as it is to-day.

DISTRIBUTION OF GROUP OF ADOLESCENTS IN RELATION TO FIRST MENSTRUATION

Within last six months	6
Within last year	3
Within last two years	5
Within last three years	7
Within last four years	3
Within last five years	1
	—
Total	25