pappito:In Samoan culture there is an emphasis on the group and family than on the individual. There

pappito:

In Samoan culture there is an emphasis on the group and family than on the individual. Therefore, whatever is best for the group is best for the individual. So raising a boy to be a woman is not taboo because they have been given a role in society as a third gender.

Fa'afafine are the gender liminal, or third-gendered people of Samoa. A recognized and integral part of traditional Samoan culture, fa'afafine, born biologically male, embody both male and female gender traits. Their gendered behavior typically ranges from extravagantly feminine to mundanely masculine.

The word fa'afafine includes the causative prefix “fa'a”, meaning “in the manner of”, and the word fafine, meaning “woman”. It is cognate with linguistically related words in other Polynesian languages, such as the Tongan fakafefine (alsofakaleiti), the Maori whakawahine, the Cook Islands Maori akava'ine and Hawaiianmahu. The Samoan slangword mala (or “devastation”, by way of the Samoan Bible) is in less frequent use for fa'afafine.

Fa'afafine are known for their hard work and dedication to the family, in the Samoan tradition of tautua. Ideas of the family in Samoa and Polynesia are markedly different from Western constructions of family, and include all the members of a sa, or a communal family within the fa'amatai family systems