Gayle J. Fritz
Gayle J. Fritz is an American paleoethnobotanist working out of Washington University in St. Louis. She is a world expert on ancient crops.[1] Fritz runs the Paleoethnobotany Lab at Washington University in St. Louis under the auspices of the Anthropology Department.
Biography
[edit]Fritz received her M.A at the University of Texas at Austin, 1975. She received her Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1986.[2]
Her work focuses on crops other than maize, such as chenopodium and amaranth, and emphasizes the importance of direct radiocarbon dating when establishing the models of early agriculture.[3] She also proposes a diversity of pathways from hunting-gathering to agriculture, highly dependent on regional variations and the intricacies of local cultures, and explores the role of women in early societies, often challenging a "Big Chief" model of hierarchical dominance. Her research interests include grain amaranth, chenopod, maygrass, tobacco, and hickory nuts.[2]
Selected works
[edit]- Browman, D. L., Fritz, G. J., and Watson, P. J.: "Origins of Food-Producing Economies in the Americas." In The Human Past, edited by Christopher Scarre (2005), pp. 306–349. Thames and Hudson, London.
- Fritz, G. J.: "Paleoethnobotanical Methods and Applications." In Handbook of Archaeological Methods, edited by Herbert D. G. Maschner and Christopher Chippindale (2005), pp. 771–832. Altamira Press, Walnut Creek, California.
- Fritz, G. J. and Lopinot, N. H.: "Native Crops at Early Cahokia: Comparing Domestic and Ceremonial Contexts". Illinois Archaeology 14, in press.
References
[edit]- ^ McGinn, Susan Killenberg (20 November 2013). "McMillan Hall Addition Enhances Anthropology Teaching, Research". Washington University in Saint Lous.
- ^ a b "Gayle Fritz - Department of Anthropology". anthropology.artsci.wustl.edu. Archived from the original on 2017-04-07. Retrieved 2018-05-02.
- ^ Fritz, Gayle J. (1994). "Are the First American Farmers Getting Younger?". Current Anthropology. 35 (3): 305–309. doi:10.1086/204280. JSTOR 2744208. S2CID 145706166.