Gayle J. Fritz, Ph.D.
Professor
Anthropology
Biology
Plant Biology Program
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Office Phone: 314-935-8588
Lab Phone: 314-935-6687
Other Phone:
FAX: 314-935-8535
Box: 1114
Lab Address: 126 McMillan Hall
Email: gjfritz@wustl.edu
Keywords: plant biology; ecology; paleoethnobotany; archaeology; agricultural origins
Short Research Description: Analysis of archeological plant remains; evolution of agricultural societies; subsistence and cultural change. |
Research Abstract:
My work explores prehistoric human-plant interrelationships through the excavation and analysis of archaeological plant remains. The cultural, biological, and ecological aspects of subsistence continuity and change are within the scope of this research. I am especially concerned with the processes and sequences leading to the development of agriculture in North America and elsewhere. Early work focused on the Lower Mississippi Valley, where I studied the late transition to farming made by sedentary fisher-gatherer-hunters, and on the Trans-Mississippi South where I examined subsistence change by ancestors of Caddo farmers and their neighbors in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. Recently, I have been drawn into the archaeology and archaeobotany of the great Mississippian site of Cahokia and surrounding villages in the American Bottom area of southwestern Illinois. Students, research assistants, and I have analyzed samples from at least 10 states in eastern North America, as well as from the U.S. Southwest, Mexico, South America, Europe, Japan, and east Africa.
I recently participated in a project in northern Chihuahua, Mexico, as “amaranth specialist” at Cerro Juanaquena, a terraced hill site dating to 3000 b.p., occupied by some of the earliest agricultural people in the Greater Southwest. I am concerned with the role of amaranth, squashes, beans, and other crops that either accompanied maize as it spread northward form central Mexico or were adopted later by early farmers in the desert borderlands. Two new projects deal with impacts of European contact and trade on American Indian people. The first focuses on foodways of Quapaw Indians living in Arkansas during the 17th and 18th centuries and the second on contact between Catawba Indians and Spanish members of the Juan Pardo expedition who built a fort in the western North Carolina piedmont in 1567. I hope to contribute to the study of subsistence change and agricultural systems across North America during many different time periods. |
Selected Publications:
Fritz GJ. Pigweeds for the Ancestors. In: Twiss KC, editor. The Archaeology of Food and Identity. Occasional Paper No. 34, Center for Archaeological Investigations, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale; 2006 (in press).
Fritz GJ. Introduction and Spread of Mexican Crops. In: Ubelaker D, and Smith BD, (editors). Handbook of North American Indians. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office; 2006 Vol. 3, pp. 437-446.
Browman DL, Fritz GJ, and Watson PJ. Origins of Food-Producing Economies in the Americas. In: Scarre C, editor. The Human Past. London: Thames and Hudson; 2005 pp. 306-349.
Fritz GJ. Paleoethnobotanical Methods and Applications. In: Maschner HDG and Chippindale C, editor. Handbook of Archaeological Methods. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press; 2005 pp. 771-832.
Fritz GJ, Whitekiller VD, McIntosh JW. Ethnobotany of Ku-Nu-Che: Cherokee hickory nut soup. J Ethnobiol 2001 21(2):1-27. |