Gayle J. Fritz is an American paleoethnobotanist

Paleoethnobotany

Paleoethnobotany, also known as archaeobotany in European academic circles, is the archaeological sub-field that studies plant remains from archaeological sites...

 working out
of Washington University in St. Louis

Washington University in St. Louis

Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...

. 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 ("Are the First American Farmers Getting Younger?"). 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.

Selected works by Fritz

• 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, CA.

• Fritz, G. J. and Lopinot, N. H.: "Native Crops at Early Cahokia: Comparing Domestic and Ceremonial Contexts". Illinois Archaeology 14, in press.

External links

• Gayle J. Fritz home page at WUSTL