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Society, change and the global villageCluny Macpherson and La’avasa Macpherson(2009) The Warm Winds of Change: Globalisa-tion in Contemporary Samoa. Auckland: Auck-land University Press, 211 pp., US29.95, pbk,ISBN: 978-1-86940-445-1.

There is a burgeoning international literature onthe processes and theory of globalisation andtransnationalism. The Warm Winds of Change isan important study of the impact of these pro-cesses on Samoan society. It draws on researchconducted over more than four decades andacross transnational networks of families, vil-lages and people.

The book was developed after the presenta-tion of a series of lectures in 2007 at the Mac-millan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies atCanterbury University, Christchurch, NewZealand. It is a product of the authors’ long termengagement with Samoa through their familyconnections and professional interests. Thesecircumstances put them in a most valuable posi-tion to combine indigenous perspectives andacademic analysis in an accessible and illumi-nating text.

The book has six chapters that describe andanalyse the impact of migration, ideas and tech-nology on life in Samoan villages. A brief intro-duction describes the development of the book,and the authors’ extensive research backgroundon Samoa-related topics. Chapter one outlinesthe methodology and the rationale for thebook’s focus on family and village and whatthese terms mean in the context of this study.Chapter two is a historical overview of Samoa’sengagement with global forces, beginningwith its settlement around 3000 years ago. Thesurvey is well written with informative, yetconcise, coverage of complex periods inSamoa’s history.

It is in chapter three that the book examinesthe main processes of change over the past twocenturies in more detail. The impact of migra-tion out of villages has been critical for the waythe winds of change have blown through

Samoa. The migration of Samoans overseas hasdepleted local populations but expanded theeconomic and social resources available tovillage leaders and their families. Economicactivity has become more transnational and theborders and effective population of the villageextend well beyond Samoa’s shores. Villageleaders can think and act more globally. Thesefactors redistribute risk in various enterprisesand make village economies more robust.

Chapter four explores the influence of intro-duced ideologies – particularly Christianity,capitalism and colonialism – on Samoa andhow village leaders have managed them overtime. There is fascinating discussion of thevarious internal challenges to secular and reli-gious authority, the influence of better organ-ised and funded NGOs, and the way Samoansociety is debating how people’s interests andrights can be redefined.

Chapter five deals with the influence of tech-nology on the social organisation of Samoansociety; the ways radio, television and improvedtelecommunications have changed the sociallives of Samoan people. Technology such asmobile phones, computers and the Internet havequickened the pace of change and have hadpronounced influence on villagers’ worldview,their lifestyles and the forms of relationship theyhave with each other and the wider world.

Chapter six serves as a short conclusion. Theauthors challenge the views of some leadingSamoan academics who maintain that Samoancultural institutions remain unchanged in theface of external influences. Macpherson andMacpherson argue that to continue to representSamoa and its key social and cultural institu-tions as unchanging and stable is to only post-pone important conversations about how torespond to intensifying processes of change.

The Warm Winds of Change is written in anaccessible style that is sure to make it popularwith undergraduate students and teachersof academic courses on globalisation in thePacific. Its themes and issues will resonate withnon-Pacific specialists outside the region. The

Asia Pacific Viewpoint, Vol. 52, No. 1, April 2011ISSN 1360-7456, pp119–120

© 2011 The AuthorAsia Pacific Viewpoint © 2011 Victoria University of Wellington

doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8373.2011.01443.x

text, while informed by theory, is not overbur-dened by it. The authors are not advancingtheory in a significant way, but they are provid-ing a broad range of much-needed and verystrong ethnographic materials of a type that islimited and dispersed in the current Pacific lit-erature. The text is well organised with chaptersand section headings that assist in reading andnavigating the book. The few illustrations havebeen reproduced very poorly but are not criticalin such a rich text.

Cluny Macpherson and La’avasa Macphersonhave a 40-year track record of research andpublishing on Samoan society and culture. Insome ways, this book is a compilation of manyof their previous articles but it is not anuncrafted or a hastily packaged one. In fact, it

shows the extent to which they have led thefield in their sociological studies of Samoa. Thebook is a thought-provoking piece of work thatprovides a dynamic and complicated pictureof late twentieth century and contemporarySamoan society across and between islands.However, as extensive as its coverage is, thebook identifies many leads for further researchand offers temptation to further explore andexpand the analysis to other parts of the globalSamoan village.

Sean MallonSenior Curator, Pacific CulturesMuseum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa,Wellington, New Zealand.Email: seanm@tepapa.govt.nz

Book Review

© 2011 The AuthorAsia Pacific Viewpoint © 2011 Victoria University of Wellington

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