Eric Koenig
I am enrolled in the Applied Anthropology graduate program at the University of South Florida (USF), and work as a research assistant on a NSF funded Partnerships in International Research and Education (PIRE) project titled "Context Sensitive Implementation of Synergistic Water-Energy Systems" (PI - James Mihelcic, PhD) as part of a team of social science researchers.
Currently, I am finishing my thesis toward a MA degree in Applied Anthropology (with a concentration in cultural anthropology and heritage studies) after recently completing my 3rd season of field research for the NSF PIRE project in Belize. My MA thesis investigates variable local, national, and tourist conceptions of fishing and heritage on the Placencia Peninsula and the connections between local fishing culture and sustainable development initiatives.
As an extension of my Master's research, I am working on a community-based cultural heritage conservation project as a co-PI in the predominately Garifuna community of Seine Bight on the Placencia Peninsula. This project seeks to establish a local cultural heritage and history museum in the village that can be used as tourist attraction and a resource for cultural revitalization and education within the community as an avenue of community-driven sustainable development.
Using the project as a basis for my dissertation research, I plan to continue my graduate studies toward a Doctorate degree in anthropology with a focus on heritage tourism studies at USF. Through my coursework and research, I aim to apply my anthropological training and experience to promote indigenous and local self-determination, land and resource rights, and heritage tourism initiatives in Central America.
Upon attaining a Ph.D. in anthropology, I aim to work with indigenous and community-based NGOs in Latin America to promote community-driven development projects and secure land and resource rights, and ultimately teach anthropology and human rights courses at a university.
Supervisors: E. Christian Wells
Currently, I am finishing my thesis toward a MA degree in Applied Anthropology (with a concentration in cultural anthropology and heritage studies) after recently completing my 3rd season of field research for the NSF PIRE project in Belize. My MA thesis investigates variable local, national, and tourist conceptions of fishing and heritage on the Placencia Peninsula and the connections between local fishing culture and sustainable development initiatives.
As an extension of my Master's research, I am working on a community-based cultural heritage conservation project as a co-PI in the predominately Garifuna community of Seine Bight on the Placencia Peninsula. This project seeks to establish a local cultural heritage and history museum in the village that can be used as tourist attraction and a resource for cultural revitalization and education within the community as an avenue of community-driven sustainable development.
Using the project as a basis for my dissertation research, I plan to continue my graduate studies toward a Doctorate degree in anthropology with a focus on heritage tourism studies at USF. Through my coursework and research, I aim to apply my anthropological training and experience to promote indigenous and local self-determination, land and resource rights, and heritage tourism initiatives in Central America.
Upon attaining a Ph.D. in anthropology, I aim to work with indigenous and community-based NGOs in Latin America to promote community-driven development projects and secure land and resource rights, and ultimately teach anthropology and human rights courses at a university.
Supervisors: E. Christian Wells
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Papers by Eric Koenig
Continuing in this vein and as part of ongoing settlement research of the Belize River Valley by the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance (BVAR) Project, this study focuses on analysis of ceramic data from excavations of structure M-184A at Baking Pot, Belize during the spring 2010 field season. Specifically, this research entails household activity area inference from the distribution of ceramic sherds (with regard to vessel form, slip, and temper), other artifacts, ecofacts, and features found within excavation units across the structure which date to Terminal Classic and Early Postclassic occupations at the site.
In order to assess whether a non-random distribution of these ceramics sherd types exists across the structure, the relative proportions of these ceramic characteristics within each excavation unit are tested for statistical significance against an expected value using a series of eight Kolmorogov-Smirnov one sample tests. A non-random distribution of ceramic sherds was determined for seven out of eight of these tests and five to seven domestic activity areas within the household structure were inferred from the distribution patterns of ceramic refuse and associated artifacts, ecofacts, and features uncovered within the excavation units.
Upon further review of its efficacy, this model of ceramic analysis and interpretation may serve as a basis for future micro (within structure) scale archaeological research of ceramic depositional contexts and the characteristic organization of activity areas within Maya domestic structures in the Belize River Valley.
Thesis Chapters by Eric Koenig
In particular, I consider how fishing livelihoods, conceptions of local history and heritage, environmental knowledge, tourism development, and fisheries and environmental policies inform the relationships and trajectory for “sustainable” local fisheries management through these collaborations. Many local fishers recognize a complementary relationship between tourism and fishing occupations through the ways that they can impart an ecological conservation ethos, centering coastal environmental knowledge, education, and local “embodied heritage” experiences and skills to sustain local marine livelihoods while preserving coastal ecosystems for visitors and future generations of residents. With the declining prominence of commercial fishing for Caribbean spiny lobster, queen conch, and fin-fish in the village, several Placencia fishers are applying their generationally-inherited and embodied marine knowledge to livelihood diversification strategies such as seasonal, full- or part-time transitions to tour guiding and NGO coastal conservation, monitoring and enforcement, restoration, and outreach positions. Moreover, many fishers in the Placencia producers fishing cooperative have ventured into alternative fisheries and mariculture activities including fishing and marketing of invasive lionfish as well as seaweed farming and value-added product promotion with variable support from the Belize Fisheries Department, SEA, other environmental NGOs, and international conservation and development organizations. Recognizing these livelihood diversification strategies and relationships for sustainable coastal resource management, I discuss the opportunities and challenges of three recent and emerging alternative livelihoods programs directed by the Placencia fishing cooperative including the seaweed farming project, the lionfish eradication and marketing initiative, and the development of a heritage tourism program centering fisher livelihoods in connection with a proposed local fishing history museum.
To explore the possibility for fishing heritage tourism as a pathway to “sustainable tourism development” on the peninsula in the future, I investigate how local conceptions of fishing as heritage in Placencia village converge with or diverge from tourist “imaginaries” of culture and heritage on the peninsula as well as heritage assets and products conceived in national sustainable tourism development policy and commercial tourism markets. Residents of the peninsula, Belizean workers and visitors residing off of the peninsula, and foreign tourists alike recognize fishing and activities, events, and places associated with fishing as aspects of local heritage, although foreign visitors generally ascribe only cursory significance to fishing in the peninsula’s culture(s), heritage, and identities as compared with Belizean nationals. Rather, these visitors often imagine local heritage in terms of beaches and relaxation, the Belize Barrier reef and cayes, and especially the local friendly vibe, “quaintness,” and cultural diversity of people, drawing partly from national and local tourism marketing media portrayals of major attractions on the peninsula (such as on websites and in magazines and guidebooks) and resident and visitor word of mouth. Local and national sustainable tourism policies for the peninsula that recommend cultural tourism as a secondary product for future tourism development on the peninsula align with interview and survey results that suggest widespread resident and visitor interest in seeing the development of cultural heritage attractions on the peninsula such as a local cultural and historical museum. For many residents, conceptions of heritage tourism fit within the scope of local plans and visions for sustainable development that aim to maintain the integrity of the peninsula as a “low impact,” “authentic,” integrated, and primarily overnight tourism destination with a laid-back vibe, beaches, cultural diversity, and access to a variety of inland and marine-based attractions.
Drawing from these results, I conclude by discussing the implications of these alternative fisheries and tourism initiatives and markets to support local livelihoods and coastal environmental conservation, and consider the potential viability of collaborative coastal resource management approaches between fishers, NGOs, and governmental organizations for future sustainable development in Placencia and other coastal Belizean communities. This thesis represents an applied case study of collaborative fisheries management and how heritage is conceived and applied in a coastal Belizean context. It builds on previous coastal environmental resource management, heritage studies, and anthropology of tourism research, and considers the significance of local heritage and livelihoods in crafting locally accountable, relevant, and sustainable development policies and plans in coastal settings.
Continuing in this vein and as part of ongoing settlement research of the Belize River Valley by the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance (BVAR) Project, this study focuses on analysis of ceramic data from excavations of structure M-184A at Baking Pot, Belize during the spring 2010 field season. Specifically, this research entails household activity area inference from the distribution of ceramic sherds (with regard to vessel form, slip, and temper), other artifacts, ecofacts, and features found within excavation units across the structure which date to Terminal Classic and Early Postclassic occupations at the site.
In order to assess whether a non-random distribution of these ceramics sherd types exists across the structure, the relative proportions of these ceramic characteristics within each excavation unit are tested for statistical significance against an expected value using a series of eight Kolmorogov-Smirnov one sample tests. A non-random distribution of ceramic sherds was determined for seven out of eight of these tests and five to seven domestic activity areas within the household structure were inferred from the distribution patterns of ceramic refuse and associated artifacts, ecofacts, and features uncovered within the excavation units.
Upon further review of its efficacy, this model of ceramic analysis and interpretation may serve as a basis for future micro (within structure) scale archaeological research of ceramic depositional contexts and the characteristic organization of activity areas within Maya domestic structures in the Belize River Valley.
In particular, I consider how fishing livelihoods, conceptions of local history and heritage, environmental knowledge, tourism development, and fisheries and environmental policies inform the relationships and trajectory for “sustainable” local fisheries management through these collaborations. Many local fishers recognize a complementary relationship between tourism and fishing occupations through the ways that they can impart an ecological conservation ethos, centering coastal environmental knowledge, education, and local “embodied heritage” experiences and skills to sustain local marine livelihoods while preserving coastal ecosystems for visitors and future generations of residents. With the declining prominence of commercial fishing for Caribbean spiny lobster, queen conch, and fin-fish in the village, several Placencia fishers are applying their generationally-inherited and embodied marine knowledge to livelihood diversification strategies such as seasonal, full- or part-time transitions to tour guiding and NGO coastal conservation, monitoring and enforcement, restoration, and outreach positions. Moreover, many fishers in the Placencia producers fishing cooperative have ventured into alternative fisheries and mariculture activities including fishing and marketing of invasive lionfish as well as seaweed farming and value-added product promotion with variable support from the Belize Fisheries Department, SEA, other environmental NGOs, and international conservation and development organizations. Recognizing these livelihood diversification strategies and relationships for sustainable coastal resource management, I discuss the opportunities and challenges of three recent and emerging alternative livelihoods programs directed by the Placencia fishing cooperative including the seaweed farming project, the lionfish eradication and marketing initiative, and the development of a heritage tourism program centering fisher livelihoods in connection with a proposed local fishing history museum.
To explore the possibility for fishing heritage tourism as a pathway to “sustainable tourism development” on the peninsula in the future, I investigate how local conceptions of fishing as heritage in Placencia village converge with or diverge from tourist “imaginaries” of culture and heritage on the peninsula as well as heritage assets and products conceived in national sustainable tourism development policy and commercial tourism markets. Residents of the peninsula, Belizean workers and visitors residing off of the peninsula, and foreign tourists alike recognize fishing and activities, events, and places associated with fishing as aspects of local heritage, although foreign visitors generally ascribe only cursory significance to fishing in the peninsula’s culture(s), heritage, and identities as compared with Belizean nationals. Rather, these visitors often imagine local heritage in terms of beaches and relaxation, the Belize Barrier reef and cayes, and especially the local friendly vibe, “quaintness,” and cultural diversity of people, drawing partly from national and local tourism marketing media portrayals of major attractions on the peninsula (such as on websites and in magazines and guidebooks) and resident and visitor word of mouth. Local and national sustainable tourism policies for the peninsula that recommend cultural tourism as a secondary product for future tourism development on the peninsula align with interview and survey results that suggest widespread resident and visitor interest in seeing the development of cultural heritage attractions on the peninsula such as a local cultural and historical museum. For many residents, conceptions of heritage tourism fit within the scope of local plans and visions for sustainable development that aim to maintain the integrity of the peninsula as a “low impact,” “authentic,” integrated, and primarily overnight tourism destination with a laid-back vibe, beaches, cultural diversity, and access to a variety of inland and marine-based attractions.
Drawing from these results, I conclude by discussing the implications of these alternative fisheries and tourism initiatives and markets to support local livelihoods and coastal environmental conservation, and consider the potential viability of collaborative coastal resource management approaches between fishers, NGOs, and governmental organizations for future sustainable development in Placencia and other coastal Belizean communities. This thesis represents an applied case study of collaborative fisheries management and how heritage is conceived and applied in a coastal Belizean context. It builds on previous coastal environmental resource management, heritage studies, and anthropology of tourism research, and considers the significance of local heritage and livelihoods in crafting locally accountable, relevant, and sustainable development policies and plans in coastal settings.