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For American Samoans, as for many Pacific Islanders, traditional land tenure provides stability in a fast-changing world. Yet even in countries where land tenure generally follows traditional practices, land is increasingly held by individual or small family units, rather than by large kinbased groups (see Ward and Kingdon I995). The shift to individually owned lands in many Polynesian societies began with European settlement and colonial rule during the nineteenth century.' Governments frequently imposed land registration and private ownership to secure land for settlers and facilitate development of commercial agriculture. Land registration also protected indigenous land rights and gave "order" to the land system. All too frequently, however, crippling land fragmentation, multiple ownership, and even land alienation have resulted.
For the most part, such problems have not disturbed American Samoa, whose indigenous land tenure system is protected by law. However, like other Pacific Islanders, some American Samoans are choosing private land ownership, which contradicts the indigenous system. Where land is used primarily for residences and small gardens, the new practice gives land ownership to individuals, not groups, and grants owners the right to sell land to other Samoans and to will the land to their heirs.
This essay explores this new practice-its geographical and historical roots. It tries to explain why American Samoans embrace this system, even though rhetoric and law support traditional land practices. The essay then briefly reviews land problems of some neighboring Polynesian groups. Finally, it explores factors that have allowed American Samoans to avoid some of those difficulties and suggests actions to maintain successful land tenure practices in this small island community.
Research was conducted in American Samoa on the island of Tutuila in I985-I987. Archival work was conducted in the Territorial Land Registration Office, Pago Pago, American Samoa, to determine the extent of registered individual land: the number of claimants, amount and location of land, and any land transfers. To find out who lived on the newly privatized land and what distinguished these families from others in American Samoa, I interviewed heads of households of 63 families living on Tutuila. Of those families, 37 lived on individual land, 23 were on communal land, and 3 lived on freehold land.
AMERICAN SAMOA: GEOGRAPHIC AND POLITICAL BACKGROUND
The islands of American Samoa are...