University of Alabama at Birmingham

Graduate Student, Anthropology

Thesis Title: Fijian Marine Invertebrates, Climate and Culture Change

About

My thesis is a zooarchaeological analysis of invertebrates, specifically shellfish, from a unit excavated from Wai Turu Turu, a cave on Nayau, a small island in the Lau group of Fiji. Invertebrates were chosen as a subject of study in part because fluctuations in shell size, population numbers and frequency of Mollusca species can be potentially used to clarify the nature of human/environmental interactions across large stretches of land, water and time. The unit from which the invertebrate species came was excavated by ethnoarchaeologist and primary investigator Dr. Sharyn Jones and her team of students, with the assistance of cultural anthropologist Dr. Loretta Cormier.

I'm interested in practically every aspect of human life, but particularly in human/environmental interactions, historical ecology, Mollusca, island archaeology, Aotearoa, marine invertebrates, climate, Fiji, sustainability, foodways, agriculture, zooarchaeology, primatology, tool use, Trinidad, Capuchins, evolution, hominids, genetics, the future, etc.

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