Coming of age of human adaptability studies in Samoa

Studies of populations subjected to specific environmental stressors such as hypoxia, hypothermia, or seasonal hypocaloric intake are fundamentally different from studies of populations undergoing the _stress of culture change. While the field-work is no easier in the former cases than in the latter, at least there are clear-cut models from ecology, physiology, and nutrition predicting how these stressors operate on human populations. However, in Samoa, where the principal stressor of interest is culture change the predictive models available are problematic in many respects. This chapter begins with a discussion of the adaptation paradigm used in many of the studies done in Samoa, then considers issues of social forces as stressors. Next a review is provided of some of the progress made in 20 years of studies of Samoan response to cultural change, and finally some assessments of this research are offered and some cautions and hopes for the future tendered.