Sarah Keene Meltzoff, Professor of Anthropology
Sarah Keene Meltzoff is an ethnographer of coastal cultures from the Solomon Islands and Spain to Galapagos and Chile. Her stories of grassroots conservation, fisheries decision-making and management, reveal global patterns from 40 years’ fieldwork. As a professor in Marine Ecosystems and Society, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, she considers climates of change and impermanence, exploring interrelationships among fisheries, tourism, and conservation. She uncovers the shifting alliances and rivalries, showing the strange bedfellows angling for control over marine resources. Her recent book is Listening to Sea Lions: Currents of Change from Galapagos to Patagonia (AltaMira Press 2013) https://www.facebook.com/ListeningToSeaLions
Meltzoff first lived among the Lau of Small Malaita in the Solomon Islands in 1973 on a Watson Fellowship, participating in their custom dolphin hunt and over the next score of years watching their island world transform with “civilization”—Pidgin English for industrialized society. She has joined the O’Barry team to lend her expertise in grassroots community education and conservation fueled by geotourism and voluntourism.
Meltzoff co-founded and chairs the Board of IOI–the Intercultural Outreach Institute of Isabela http://www.ioi.ec/ —focusing on Galapagos grassroots community education and social development.
Associate Professor, Department of Marine Affairs and Policy Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS) Secondary Appointment, Anthropology Department, University of Miami
EDUCATION
1982 Ph.D. 1977 M.A. 1972 B.A.
Columbia University, Anthropology Columbia University, Anthropology Connecticut College, New London
FIELD LANGUAGES
Spanish, Neo-Melanesian, Sa’a (Austronesian)
EMPLOYMENT
Associate Professor, Marine Affairs and Policy
Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science; Secondary appointment Anthropology Department, University of Miami.
Chair and Associate Professor Marine Affairs and Policy Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science; Secondary appointment Anthropology Department University of Miami
Acting Chair and Assistant Professor (02/86 – 09/86 and 11/88 – 03/89), Marine Affairs, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science; Secondary appointment Anthropology Department, University of Miami.
President and Founder, Biped Institute, a not-for-profit, tax-exempt research institution for Third World issues.
PEER REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS
2013 Meltzoff, Sarah Keene. Listening to Sea Lions: Currents of Change from Galapagos to Patagonia. AltaMira Press.
2012 Meltzoff, S.K. Notas introductorias a “Mariscadoras” y Protagonistas da revolución do marisco: a crecente presenza das mulleres na coxestión dos recursos na Illa de Arousa, Galicia. Invited Chapters in Enrique Alonso Población e Sharon R. Roseman, eds. Anthropoloxía das Mulleres Galegas. Gotelo Blanco: Santiago de Compostella. 137-168.
2005 Meltzoff, S.K., M. Lemons, L. Asfour, G. Guardia-Montoya, and R. Gonzales. Sustaining El Niño-Induced Scallop Booms with Aquaculture: Livelihood Transitions of Artisanal Fishing People in the Paracas National Reserve, Peru. Journal of Culture and Agriculture 27(1):1-15.
2002 Meltzoff, S. K., W. Stotz, and Y. G. Lichtensztajn. Competing Visions for Marine Tenure and Co-Management: Genesis of a Marine Management Area System in Chile. Journal of Coastal Management 30:85-99.
2001 Development and Fisheries Management Among the Political Ghosts of Pisagua, Chile. Journal of Political Ecology 8:45-80.
2000 Meltzoff, S. K., Nylon Nets and National Elites: Alata System of Marine Tenure Among the Lau of Fanalei Village, Port Adam Passage, Small Malaita, Solomon Islands”. Invited Chapter in Durrenberger, E. Paul, and Thomas D. King, eds. State and Community in Fisheries Management: Power, Policy, and Practice. Westport, CT:Greenwood Publishing. 69-82
1999 Guest Editor with Pricilla Weeks for a Special Volume of Culture and Agriculture 21(3).
1999 Meltzoff, S.K. and J. Schull. Miskito Ethnic Struggle over Land and Lobster: Conserving Culture and Resources on Corn Island. Culture and Agriculture 21(3):10-18.
1997 Meltzoff, S.K. Beneath the Veneer of Paradise; The Struggle over Cuban Ethnic Identity and Place in Key West. Ecumene 4 (2):139-160.
1997 LiPuma, E., and S.K. Meltzoff. The Crosscurrents of Ethnicity and Class in the Construction of Public Policy. American Ethnologist 24(1):114-131.
1995 Meltzoff, S.K. Marisquadoras of the Shellfish Revolution: The Rise of Women in Co-Management on Illa de Arousa, Galicia. Journal of Political Ecology 2: 20-38.
1994 LiPuma, E. and S.K. Meltzoff. Economic Mediation and Power of Associations: Toward a Concept of Encompassment. With Edward LiPuma. American Anthropologist 96: 31-51.
1990 LiPuma, E. and S. K. Meltzoff. Ceremonies of Independence and Public Culture in the Solomon Islands. Public Culture 3:77-92.
1989 LiPuma, E. and S. K. Meltzoff. Towards a Theory of Culture and Class: An Iberian Example. American Ethnologist 16(2): 313-334.
1987 Meltzoff, S. K. Lethal Dance. Dominance, Aggression and War. Diane McGuiness (ed). NY: Plenum. 201-215
1986 Meltzoff, S. K. and E. LiPuma. The social and political economy of CZM: shrimp mariculture in Ecuador. Journal of Coastal Zone Management 14 (4): 349-380.
1986 Meltzoff, S. K. and E. LiPuma. The Social Economy Coastal Resources: Shrimp Mariculture in Ecuador. Culture and Agriculture 28 (Winter 85/86): 1-10.
1986 Meltzoff, S. K. and E. LiPuma. The Troubled Seas of Spanish Fishermen: Marine Policy and the Economy of Change. American Ethnologist 13(4): 681-699.
1986 Meltzoff, S. K. and E. LiPuma. Hunting for tuna and cash in the Solomons: a rebirth of artisanal fishing in Malaita. Human Organization 45(1): 53-62.
1985 Meltzoff, S. K. and E. LiPuma. The Social Organization of a Solomons- Japanese Joint Venture: Japanese Multinational Management in a Melanesian Context. Oceania 56(2): 85-105.
1980 T. Stocker, S. K. Meltzoff and S. Amsey. Crocodilians and Olmecs: Further Interpretations in Formative Period Iconography. Anthropological Literature, Harvard University. American Antiquity 45 (4):740-758.
OTHER MAJOR WORKS AND PUBLICATIONS
2010 Meltzoff, S.K. Ecuadorean Social Aspects for Cage Mariculture. Ecuadorean Fisheries Departement.
2003 Meltzoff, S.K. Culebra Offshore Cage Aquaculture Political Ecology Report on Potential Social Change. NOAA/UPR.
1998 Meltzoff, S. K. Faces of Fishing: People, Food and the Sea at the Beginning of the Twenty First Century, by Bradford Matsen. Book Review. Bulletin of Marine Science 62(1): 96.
1997 Meltzoff, S. K. Gulf Coast Soundings: People and Policy in the Mississippi Shrimp Industry, by E. Paul Durrenberger. Book Review. American Antrhopologist 99(4): 845-846.
1997 Meltzoff, S. K., K. Broad, C. Martinez. ENSO and Chilean Fisheries: A Case Study in Social Complexity. ENSO Signal, NOAA Issue 6 (February).
1996 Meltzoff, S. K. The Fish Factory, by Barbara Garrity-Blake. Book Review. American Ethnologist.
1993 Meltzoff, S. K. It’s All Politics: Alabama’s Seafood Industry, by E. Paul Durrenberger. Book Review. Journal of Anthropological Research 49(4): 845-846.
1992 Meltzoff, S. K. Chasing Galicia: An Anthropologist Decodes the Life and Customs of Coastal Spain. Sea Frontiers. December: 14-25.
1989 Meltzoff, S.K. Deep Water: Development and Change in Pacific Village Fisheries. by Margaret Rodman . Book Review. Bulletin of Marine Science 45(3): 713.
1987 Meltzoff, S. K. Prehistory in the Pacific Islands: A study of variation in language, customs, and human biology, by J. Terrell. Book Review. Journal of Asian Studies. 46(4): 949-950.
1987 Meltzoff, S. K. and LiPuma, E. The New England Fishing Economy, by P. B. Doeringer. Book Review. Contemporary Sociology 16(6): 804- 805.
1985 LiPuma, E. and S. Meltzoff. Panorama comparativo de los sistemas pesqueros español y japones: una perspectiva antropologica. El Campo No. 97: 106-111.
1985 Meltzoff, S. K. and E. LiPuma. The Spanish Fisheries and the Common Fisheries Policy of the EEC. Industrias Pesqueras, Vigo.
1983 Meltzoff, S. K. and E. LiPuma. A Japanese Fishing Joint Venture: Worker Experience and National Development in the Solomon Islands. ICLARM Technical Report 12.
KEY ABSTRACTS AND ORAL PRESENTATIONS
March 2014. Changing Houses for Burmese Nats. Annual Society for Applied Anthropology, Albuquerque. Political Ecology Society Session Panel Organizer with Alaka Wali.
March 2013. Natural Resources and Social Well-Being in Uncertain Times. Annual Society for Applied Anthropology, Denver. Political Ecology Society Roundtable Organizer with Alaka Wali.
March 2012. Developing Measures of Well-being for Evaluating Projects. Annual Society for Applied Anthropology, Baltimore. Political Ecology Society Roundtable Organizer with Alaka Wali.
March 2011. Smoking Fish: What Blocks a Galapagos Women’s Cooperative Leader After Winning a Global Prize? Intimate Accounts Of Struggling For Well-Being. Paper at the Annual Society for Applied Anthropology, Seattle. Political Ecology Society Session . Panel Organizer with Alaka Wali.
March 2010. Local Perspectives on Social Well-being in Galapagos. Paper at the Annual Society for Applied Anthropology, Merida, Mexico. Political Ecology Society Session Panel Organizer with Alaka Wali.
April 2008. Galapagos Encounters: Founding Isabela Oceanographic Institute to Resolve Management Frictions . Paper at the Annual Society for Applied Anthropology, Memphis. Political Ecology Society Session Organizer with Alaka Wali and Priscilla Weeks.
April 2007. Cargo Art and Island Culture. Paper at the Annual Society for Applied Anthropology, Tampa. Political Ecology Society Session Organizer with Maria Cruz T orres.
April 2006. Educational Tourism in Isabela, Galapagos.
Paper at the Annual meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology, Vancouver, Canada. Political Ecology Society Session.
April 2005. Tourism and Conservation Courting the Galapagos Wild West. Paper at the Annual meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology, Santa Fe. Political Ecology Society Session Organizer with Pricilla Weeks.
April 2004. An International Conservation “Octopus” in the Eyes of Galapagos Fishermen: Embracing New Management Tools that Benefit Locals and the Marine environment. Paper at the Annual Society for Applied Anthropology, Dallas. Political Ecology Society Session Organizer with Pricilla Weeks.
September 2003. MARE II, Amsterdam. Conflict resolution and adaptive management in coastal Peruvian aquaculture development. Proceedings and invited panel participant.
March 2003. Human/Environmental Interactions in Paracas, Peru: Aquaculture Development and Major Niño events. Contested Landscapes: Global and Local Processes in Coastal Latin America. Society for Applied Anthropology Panel session organizer with Maria Cruz and Pris Weeks.
April 2002. National Social Science Strategy Workshop, NOAA. Monterey, CA. Community working group.
October 2001. Huayuna NGO, Pisco-Paracas. Invited lecture Importance for cohesion between aquaculture developers and NGO trainers, and the use of NOAA predictive models.
March 2000. Co-management and El Niño in Coquimbo Bay, Chile. Paper at the Annual Society for Applied Anthropology, Merida, Mexico. Political Ecology Society Session Organizer with Pricilla Weeks.
October 1999. Ecología Política de Pisagua. Invited seminar presentation at the Centro Costero de Acuacultura y de Investigaciones Marinas, Universidad Catolica del Norte at Guayacán, Coquimbo, Chile.
May 1999. Boom Pesquero And Bust In Chilean Southern Hake Fisheries: Social Change And The Enso “Hole.” NOAA Human Dimension PI Meeting, Tucson.
April 1999. Climate Changes In A Natural Prison: Transformations Among Fishermen, Political Ghosts, And Tourists In Pisagua, Chile, with Yair Gibrán Lichtensztajn.
Paper at the Annual Society for Applied Anthropology, Tucson. Political Ecology Society Session Organizer with Pricilla Weeks.
September 1998. Boom and Bust Pesquero: ENSO and the Southern Hake Fisheries of South Chile. Latin America Studies Association, Chicago.
April 1998. Ethnic Struggle over to Land and Lobster: Miskito Indians’ Cultural Conservation, with Jennifer Schull. Panel paper at the Annual Society for Applied Anthropology, Puerto Rico. Political Ecology Society Session Organizer with Pricilla Weeks.
March 1997. Predicting El Nino and Social Change in Chilean Fisheries. Panel paper at the Annual Society for Applied Anthropology, Seattle. Political Ecology Society Session Organizer with Pricilla Weeks.
March 1996. The Political Ecology of El Niño and Fisheries in Chile: Relations of Global Climate Change and Social Change. Panel paper at the Annual Society for Applied Anthropology, Baltimore. Political Ecology Society Session Organizer with Pricilla Weeks.
November 1994. San Carlos Restoration: Ethnic Identity in Key West. Panel paper at the Annual American Anthropological Association, Atlanta.
November 1993. The Politics of Conservation in a Small Spanish Shellfishing Port: The Case of Illa De Arousa, Galicia. Panel Organizer and presenter, Annual American Anthropological Association, Washington D. C.
May 1992. The Rise of Women in Fisheries Management: The Marisquadoras of Illa de Arousa, Galicia, with Kenny Broad. Invited paper for World Fisheries Congress, Athens, Greece.
April 1992. Women in Spanish Fisheries Politics, with Kenny Broad. Southern Anthropological Society, St. Augustine.
November 1991. Nylon nets and National Elites: The Collapse of Traditional Reef Resource Conservation in Port Adam Passage, Small Malaita, Solomon Islands. Annual American Anthropological Association, Chicago.
November 1990. The Social Economy of Shrimp Farming: Implications for Developing Aquaculture. Invited Symposium on Shrimp Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries.
December 1990. Economies, Environments and Social Structures. American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). New Orleans
November 1989. The Cross-currents of Ethnicity and Class: Conservation in the Florida Keys. Identity and Allegiance in the Political Economy Panel. Annual American Anthropological Association, Washington, D.C.
May 1989. Human Aspects of Fisheries Management: The Florida Keys Case. Invited workshop Project Prospero, West Germany.
November 1988. Social Aspects of Aquaculture, an Overview. Invited Symposium on Aquaculture Needs for the Year 2000. USDA, New Delhi, India.
May 1988. The Politics of Conservation in the Florida Keys. Tourism and Development Panel. Marine Resource Utilization Conference on Social Science Issues, Mobile.
April 1988. Tourist Myth and History of the Key West Cubans. Comparative Perspective in Southern Life Panel. Southern Anthropological Society: Tampa
March 1988. Culture and Class in Spanish Ethnology. Invited Anthropology Seminar. Columbia University, New York.
November 1987. Business Ethos and Practices in Ecuador and Spain. Invited Session Europe and the Americas (SAE). American Anthropological Association, Chicago.
May 1987. Class Differentiation and Identity in Spain: Symbolic Appropriation in a Galician Fishing Village. Organizer, Acquisition and Development of Class in Spain Panel. American Ethnological Society, San Antonio.
December 1986. Epistemology of Power: Dance in Papua New Guinea. Epistemology of Fieldwork Panel. Annual American Anthropological Association, Philadelphia.
October 1986. Social and Economic Dimensions of Shrimp Mariculture in Ecuador. Latin American Environmental Issues Panel. Latin American Studies Association, Boston.
FELLOW, BOARD MEMBER, AND NATIONAL JOURNALS AND PANELS
Intercultural Outreach Initiative (IOI) for Conservation, Education and Social Development in Galapagos. www.ioi-galapagos.org
Chair and Co-founder
Journal of Sustainability Science: Practice & Policy
Associate Editor
Political Ecology Society
Board Member
Society for Applied Anthropology Fellow
American Anthropological Association Fellow
Marine Affairs and Policy Association former Board Member
Gulf of Mexico Management Council former Member Scientific Socioeconomic Assessment Panel
FELLOWSHIPS
1986-87 McKnight Foundation Fellowship
1978-80 Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship
1978-80 ICLARM Fellowship
1978 Fulbright-Hays Fellowship (awarded; unable to accept funding)
1976-77 President’s Fellowship, Columbia University 1972-73 Thomas J. Watson Traveling Fellowship
GRANTS
2003-2004 Adaptive Management: A Framework for an Artisanal Fisheries Management System Pilot and Gap Analysis. Carnegie Mellon University Pilot $17,000 PI
2002-2003 NOAA – University of Puerto Rico, National Marine Aquaculture Initiative: Environmental and Social Impact of Sustainable Offshore Cage Culture Production in Puerto Rican Waters $76,838
1999-2001 NOAA, Human Dimensions of Global Change, NA67RJ70149 $224,679 PI.
1996-2000 National Science Foundation , NMIA $169,984 PI 1995-2001 NOAA, Human Dimensions of Global Change, NA37RJ0200 &NA67RJ0149$128,645 Co-PI
1992 National Science Foundation DUE-9251825 $58,502 PI 1992 Saltonstall-Kennedy Grant, National Marine Fisheries Service 1989-1991 National Science Foundation, BNS-8817995 $58,814 PI 1988-90 Florida Sea Grant, NA89AA-D-SG053 $36,900 PI
1987-88 Florida Sea Grant, NA86AA-D-SG068 $36, 886 PI
1987 University of Miami Research Council Faculty Grant PI
1986 World Wildlife Fund Grant $5,000 Co-PI
1985-86 National Science Foundation, BNS-8506782 $48,000 PI 1985 University of Miami Research Council Faculty Grant PI
MAJOR FIELDWORK
Galapagos National Park, Ecuador. Political ecology field research.
Isabela, Galapagos National Park, Ecuador.
Intercultural Outreach Initiative (IOI) for Conservation, Education and Social Development in Galapagos. Co-founded with Johann Besserer.
Isabela, Galapagos National Park, Ecuador. Understanding participatory management alternatives to fisheries and starting Isabela Oceanographic Institute (IOI).
Social aspects for community cage mariculture in Ecuador. (Stratega and Fisheries Department, Ecuadorean Government)
Phang Nga, Thailand and Palawan, Philippines. Adaptive Management Gap Analysis Pilot. (Carnegie Mellon Grant)
Isabela, Galapagos National Park, Ecuador. Adaptive Management Gap Analysis Pilot and Creation of MOU with Universidad de San Francisco de Quito. (Carnegie Mellon Grant)
Galapagos National Park, Ecuador. Adaptive Management Pilot and Establishing linkages with Universidad de San Francisco de Quito
Culebra, Puerto Rico. Offshore cage culture’s potential for social change and community development. (NOAA Grant)
Phang Nga Bay, Thailand and Ulugan Bay, Palawan, Philippines. Adaptive Management Pilot Study. (NCORE)
Paracas, Peru. Social-political change in given El Nino Events and the push for aquaculture development in Peru. (NOAA Grant)
Paracas, Peru. Social-political change given El Nino Events and the push for aquaculture development in Peru. (NOAA Grant)
Chile. Socio-political change in Chilean Fisheries in Relation to ENSO Events. (NSF Grant)
Chile. Socio-political change in Chilean Fisheries in Relation to ENSO Events. (NSF Grant)
Chile. El Niño and social change in the fishing industry (NOAA Grant)
Atlantic Coast, Nicaragua. Miskito and Creole ethnic conflict in the lobster fisheries.
Sulawesi, Indonesia. Co-management of coral reefs in Bunaken National Marine Park. With Suraya Affif, US AID fellow.
North Chile. El Niño and social change in the fishing industry. (NOAA Grant)
Yucatan. Women in tournament sportfishing.
Ponaphei. Socio-economics of sponge mariculture. (Saltonstall- Kennedy Grant)
Spain and Brussels. Socio-economics of Mariculture in Illa de
Spain and Brussels. Development of an alternative theory of the relationship between culture and class, focusing on the transformation of Galician fishing communities. (National Science Foundation)
Florida Keys. Inquiry into the ethnic and class relations structuring land development and tourism. (Florida Sea Grant)
Solomon Islands. Collection of data on political and economic development, and the birth of a Solomon Island national identity in the decade since independence.
Brussels and Spain. Study of the transformation of Common Fisheries Policy given Spain’s impact. (McKnight Foundation and University of Miami Research Council).
Florida Keys. Inquiry into the ethnic and class relations structuring land development and tourism. (Florida Sea Grant).
Florida Keys. Examination of the connection between class, ethnicity, occupation, and the underlying social dimensions of conservation and fisheries management. (McKnight Foundation).
Spain and Canary Islands. Study of the impact of industrialization, focusing on the social economy of Spain’s fishing sector. (National Science Foundation).
Ecuador. Social and economic analysis of hatchery development and restructuring of the shrimp industry due to the seed crisis of 1985. (Artemia Ecuador – PI Contract to RSMAS)
Ecuador. Social and economic analysis of shrimp mariculture and deforestation. (University of Miami Research Council).
Sri Lanka. Review of the 1981 Coast Conservation Act and the political organization of coastal resource management (RSMAS).
Spain and Morocco. Investigation of Law of the Sea’s import on Spanish fishing Communities utilizing Moroccan waters. (BIPED)
Indo-Pacific. Analysis of the impact of a Japanese fisheries
Arousa, Galicia, Spain. (National Science Foundation)
multinational on Solomon Islands national and local level development multi-level two year study. (Rockefeller Foundation and ICLARM)
Bismark Mts., Highlands, Papua New Guinea. Analysis of exchange system and warfare. (Thomas J. Watson Foundation)
Sa’a and Fanalei, Small Malaita, Solomons. Village analysis of socialization and social change. (Thomas J. Watson Foundation)
Totonicapan, Western Highlands, Guatemala. Analysis of Mayan market behavior.(Instituto Nacional de Historia y Antropología)
Tula Chica Mexico. Analysis of archeological data and comparative field trip to classic Mayan sites. (Instituto Nacional de Historia y Antropología)
Ribe and Drengsted, Denmark. Late Iron Age excavations. (University of Copenhagen)
