Sharyn Jones, Ph.D., wanted to be an anthropologist for as long as she can remember. What she didn’t know was what type of anthropology she wanted to explore and where she wanted to do her work.
Then, at the suggestion of a professor, she took a class at the University of California at Berkley called Pacific Island Archeology.

“I remember the slides he showed and the pictures were just beautiful,” Jones says. “I thought if I had to work, why not work in some place beautiful?”

And so the UAB assistant professor in anthropology has been doing just that for the past 11 years, traveling to the Fijian islands to interview with Fijians and conduct archaeology and ethnography research. She has uncovered much about the history of the islands and the people that first inhabited them 3,000 years ago.

This summer her research will go deeper. She is the principal investigator on a team that will conducting marine surveys in the region, specifically to look at the kinds and sizes of fish being consumed. The reefs that will be researched never have been studied by scientists, so Jones and her team share an excitement about what they may find.

Dear King of Lau
Believe it or not, researching the Fijian islands is not an easy task. Just as in many areas of life, your success in just getting an opportunity – in this case, to conduct the research – comes down to who you know.

Jones will be working on the islands of Lau thanks to the blessing of the king of Lau. She was introduced to the king several years ago by a scientist friend. Still, Jones has to write a letter to the king asking for permission to research the islands.

“Anyone can write a letter requesting to visit the island, and usually the king will respond with a yes,” Jones says. “You just have to present him with an herb called Kava at a ceremony upon your arrival. One of his people pounds up the root, mixes it up with water and everyone sits around drinking it with him.”

The relationships Jones has developed through the years have significantly aided her in her research on many levels, she says.

First and foremost, Jones relies on the indigenous knowledge of the islanders. They tell her how they fish, where they fish and the kinds of fish they prefer. And they can tell her stories dating back hundreds and even thousands of years.

“I can find out things like how they’ve seen the reef change during the last 50 years, it there are fewer fish now, are the fish being collected and eaten before they grow to the appropriate size, how the fish trade has affected the biomass of the reef and its diversity,” Jones explains.

“The people there have stories that have been handed down for generations and generations, and they often are accurate.”

Tried and true
The accuracy of those stories was proven early on in her research. The islanders refer to their ancestors that first arrived 3,000 years ago as “gods.” So when the chief or an islander says, “That’s where the gods lived,” Jones knows what they’re talking about.

She has excavated in those places before and found pottery that came from the earliest human inhabitants, the Lapita people. The Lapitans made the pottery 3,000 years ago, verifying the stories.

Jones has had some interesting interactions with the islanders during past research, too. One of her most memorable was when she found a burial in a sand dune that was almost 2,000 years old.

“I immediately stopped and reported back to the chief what I had found and he said ‘Oh, you can have it. Those people are cannibals. You can take that body with you,’ ” she says, noting that the islanders adopted Christianity within the past century.

“They are people who are interested in their past, but they don’t cling to it. They hold on to it in stories. That’s what matters to them, not so much the material things.”

Much to do
It promises to be a busy summer for Jones and her team. Her work is being supported by the National Geographic Society and involves a team of researchers including those based in the United States, Canada, Australia and Fiji.

There are many questions to which she hopes to find answers. She wants to begin finding out which fish have survived the global and cultural changes through the years the islands have been inhabited. “Maybe those species are where we should focus our conservation efforts,” she says.

And speaking of conservation, Jones has nothing but praise for the islanders and the efforts they have made in this area through the years. Of course, for some Fijians they had no choice. There are no grocery stores and no restaurants in the islands where Jones works. Most Lauans harvest everything they eat, both on land and in the sea.

“There’s much we have to learn from Fijians about conservation and managing resources,” she says. “Fijians have a long and rich tradition of conserving areas of the reef.”

And because of that, Jones is excited about her prospects of learning more about the people and the wildlife of that region.