Catalogue
Catalogue
Object Type
Name/Title
Die Samoa-Inseln : Entwurf einer Monographie mit besonderer Berucksichtigung Deutsch-Samoas
Primary Maker
Contributor/Publisher
E. Schweizerbartsche Verlagsbuchhandlung (E. Nagele)
Place
Date
1902-1903
Physical Description
2 volumes : illustrations, portraits, maps, genealogy ; 31 cm
Language
German
Samoan
Level of Current Record
Bib record
Member Object
Subject Category
Provenance Details
Copy 33961 has the bookplate of James Edge Partington.
Copy 46434 has a page of handwritten notes by Sam Tonga Kronfeld.
Content
Bd. 1. Verfassung, Stammbaume und Uberlieferungen
Bd. 2. Ethnographie.
Verso of title page in volume 1 has the following note, handwritten in ink by Sam Kronfeld:
╧n 1919 I was in Apia and stayed a night with my cousin Mrs Kate Hufnagel (eldest daughter of Mrs Anna Betham) at her Lotopa Plantation. In the morning very early they waked me to dress quickly and prepare to receive a deposition of Samoan Chiefs. I enquired the reason but they didn't know. Eventually High Chiefs Mafoafa and Tuimalealiifamo with other chiefs and about 200 men arrived. They said that nearly all the members of the Society that learnt by memory the pedigree etc. of the various chieftain families had died during the influenza epidemic of 1918, and they wanted my Mother to return to Samoa to take the place of her sister Mrs Anna Betham who had died and who had been their leading arbitrator. Owing to ill health, my Mother could not accept. My Mother was the granddaughter of the High Chief Fiame and I believe Tuimalealiifamo was a grandson of the same chief. Their Mothers were sisters and daughters of the Fiame.
There is some disagreement about the authenticity of Kramer's work but I consider that he gathered his information at a time when properly qualified people were alive to give it to him.
Sam Kronfeld, April 9th 1971. (p.188 Tuimalealiifamo).
Public Access Text
[Keywords: Samoan Islands - Social life and customs; Samoan Islands - Genealogy; Samoan Islands - Constitution]
The "Anhang" has special title page. Includes bibliographical references (Book 2, pages [435]-439) and index. Kramer acknowledges Tofa Maunu Sauni's for his generous sharing of traditional knowledge in Part One of the book, where Kramer describes his travels and work across the Pacific.
Associated Notes
Subject Notes
TofΓ Maunu Sauni (c. 1820s-1900s) held the Samoan orator chief title of Sauni for Tufulele, Upolu, Samoa, by the 1890s. He was the chief Samoan advisor to German ethnologist Dr Augustin Kraemer in Kraemer's study of Samoa, The Samoan Islands (Vols 1-2, 1901 & 1903). The German medical doctor turned ethnologist regarded Sauni as his 'best teacher' and 'unshakable friend.' According to Kraemer, Sauni was 'generally looked upon by other Samoans as one of the wisest men among them.'(1)--The Devil's Handwriting: Pre-Coloniality and the German State in Quingdao, Samoa, and Southwest Africa (pp. 310-311). George Steinmetz.
Augustin Friedrich Kraemer or KrΣmer (27 August 1865 - 11 November 1941) was a German naturalist and ethnographer. Augustin Kraemer was a Navy surgeon who worked in the Polynesia in 1893-95 and 1897-99.
Collection Type
Reserve Collection
Copyright
All rights reserved
Last Update
19 Dec 2023
Language Description
German and Samoan
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