From modest grade to pork prime cuts

Swimming with Sharks Chapter 2.1

When people first arrived in Sāmoa, they found a place where food grew easily and lagoons were alive with fish. With limited storage, there was no point in growing more than could be eaten.

Sāmoans used their free time to build an ornate chiefly system. 

Everybody had a place in it with teenagers, at the base, the exploited workforce. For ambitious people, life was about garnering superior titles. Earning chiefly titles came via service, seldom by birth. Every man in Sāmoa could be a chief.  Art existed in tattoo and fale building but high culture was in oratory.