HAIRDOS AND DONTS - HAIR SYMBOLISM AND SEXUAL HISTORY IN SAMOA

This article uses changing hairdos in Samoa to construct a history of female sex roles and gender politics from contact to the present. The diachronic view that body symbols provide casts light on the nature of Samoan sexual relations - a subject that has long perplexed anthropol ogists. In turn, this sexual history reflects upon the controversy abo ut hair symbolism in the anthropological literature, a controversy tha t concerns both the particularity or comparability of body symbols bet ween cultures, and their communicative or personal nature within cultu res.