My research and teaching interests
lie at the intersection between anthropology, human ecology, and marine science.
I follow a research agenda focusing on the human and cultural ecology of insular
coastal groups, property rights and common property resources, and marine indigenous
ecological knowledge of populations in Melanesia and the Insular Pacific in
general. Close fields of specialization include human behavioral ecology, political
ecology, sociocultural anthropology, economic anthropology, applied anthropology,
and ethnohistory. I am dedicated to active field research concentrating on the
ecological adaptations of insular horticulturist-fishers and their transformation
of island ecosystems, and the incorporation of approaches in human ecology and
integrated coastal zone management. I am also very active in applied projects.
Building upon twelve years of research, I am currently establishing and expanding
existing permanent community-based Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) under customary
sea tenure in the Roviana and Vonavona Lagoons, Western Province, Solomon Islands.
The overarching goal is to create a network of Marine Protected Areas in southwestern
New Georgia.
I am also involved in ethnohistorical
research. Through my participation in the project "Adaptation
and Human Diversity: The Prehistory of Human Settlement in Roviana Lagoon,
South New Georgia, Solomon Islands" in conjunction with the
University of Auckland, New Zealand, I have documented Roviana oral
history on regional pre- and post-European contact settlement patterns,
exchange systems, and politico-religious organization to explain the
development of regional socio-political complexity.
My latest project is entitled Integrating
Social and Natural Science for Designing and Implementing a Marine Protected
Area Network in the Western Solomon Islands and is funded by Conservation
International, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the PEW Charitable
Trust. This initiative expands the projects entitled The Roviana and Vonavona Lagoons Marine Resource Management
Project and the Rural
Development and Community-based Resource Management in the Solomon Islands,
which were funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur and David and Lucile
Packard Foundations respectively. These projects combine anthropological research
with marine science to study different human-environmental interactions and
their linkages at different spatial and temporal scales in the Roviana and Vonavona
Lagoons, Solomon Islands. Through these inititatives we have established a network
of locally managed marine protected areas under customary sea tenure, while
assisting local communities in their development and education needs. This research
and applied program offers prospective students in anthropology and marine science
ample opportunities to get involved in fieldwork in the region.
Aswani, S., and P. Weiant.
2004a. Scientific evaluation in womens participatory management: monitoring
marine invertebrate refugia in the Solomon Islands. Human Organization 63: 301-319.
Aswani, S. 2000. Women, rural development
and community-based resource management in the Roviana Lagoon, Solomon Islands:
establishing marine invertebrate refugia. Traditional Marine Resource Management
and Knowledge Information Bulletin, South Pacific Commission (SPC). Nouméa,
New Caledonia 12: 11-22.
Aswani, S. 2000. Changing identities:
The ethnohistory of Roviana predatory headhunting. In Essays on Head-hunting
in the Western Solomon Islands, Shankar Aswani, (ed). Journal of the Polynesian
Society 109:39-70.
Aswani, S. and M. Graves 1998. The
Tongan Maritime Expansion: A Case in the Evolutionary Ecology of Social Complexity.
Asian Perspectives 37 (1): 135-164.
Aswani, S. 1998. The use of optimal
foraging theory to assess the fishing strategies of Pacific Island artisanal
fishers: A methodological review. Traditional Marine Resource Management and
Knowledge Information Bulletin, South Pacific Commission (SPC). Nouméa,
New Caledonia 9: 21-26.
Aswani, S. 1997. Troubled
waters in South-western New Georgia, Solomon Islands. Is codification of the
commons a viable avenue for resource use regularisation? Traditional Marine
Resource Management and Knowledge Information Bulletin. South Pacific Commission.
Nouméa, New Caledonia 8: 2-16.
