Research Interests

I work with archaeobotanical remains to answer questions about how people interacted with plants so that they could eat and drink well, manage their landscapes, restore and maintain health, perform rituals, negotiate trade relationships, and enhance many other economic and social activities.  Much of my research focuses on processes of plant domestication and sequences leading to the development of agricultural systems worldwide, but especially in North America and Mexico.  General concerns and approaches involve cultural, ecological, and biological aspects of subsistence change and continuity.  I have conducted research in the Ozarks and elsewhere in the trans-Mississippi South (on pre- and post-maize agriculture), the Lower Mississippi Valley (transition to farming by complex hunter-fisher-gatherers), the American Bottom region (biologically diverse Cahokian farming systems), and the Greater Southwest (earliest farmers in Chihuahua and Hohokam amaranth use).  Certain plants continue to grab my attention, notably grain amaranth and chenopod, maygrass, tobacco, and hickory nuts.  I was fortunate to collaborate with Cherokee colleagues in eastern Oklahoma in interviewing modern makers of ku-nu-che, the traditional hickory nut soup, gaining ethnoarchaeological insights along with appreciation for the continuing relevance of ancient foods for American Indian people.

Recently I've become interested in foodways resulting from interaction between Native Americans and European colonizers.  I am currently working at the Berry site in western North Carolina as a member of the Exploring Joara archaeological project.  The Berry site was the location of the native town of Joara, where Juan Pardo built Fort San Juan in January, 1567, and left it occupied by a contingent of Spanish soldiers until the early summer of 1568, when native people burned down the fort and killed the colonizers.  Washington University students and I are completing analysis of the flotation samples in order to understand relationships between the Spaniards and the Joarans, especially native women who grew and prepared the corn that dominates the assemblage.  This is a rare opportunity to supplement the meager written protohistorical record with information about foods that played a major role in decision making, negotiation, and ultimately resistance.

Selected Publications

2011 The Role of  “Tropical” Crops in Early North America.  In The Subsistence  Economies of Indigenous North American Societies, edited by Bruce D. Smith, pp. 503-516.  Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, Washington, D.C. (Published in cooperation with Roman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.)

2010 (Michael D. Frachetti, Robert N. Spengler, Gayle J. Fritz, and Alexi N. Mar’yashev ) Earliest Direct Evidence for Broomcorn Millet and Wheat in the Central Eurasian Steppe Region. Antiquity 84:993-1010.

2009 (W. L. Merrill, R. J. Hard, J. B. Mabry, G. F. Fritz, K. R. Adams, J. R. Roney, and A. C. MacWilliams) The Diffusion of Maize to the Southwestern United States and its Impact.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106(50):21019-21026.

2009 (G. J. Fritz, K. R. Adams, G. E. Rice, and J. L. Czarzasty)  Evidence for Domesticated Amaranth (Amaranthus) from a Sedentary Period Hohokam House Floor at Las Canopas.  Kiva 75(3):393-418.

2008 Paleoethnobotanical Information and Issues Relevant to the I-69 Overview Process, Northwest Mississippi.  In Times River: Archaeological Syntheses from the Lower Mississippi River Valley, edited by Janet Rafferty and Evan Peacock, pp. 299-343.  University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

2008 The Transition to Agriculture in the Desert Borderlands: An Introduction.  In Archaeology Without Borders: Contact, Commerce, and Change in the U.S. Southwest and Northwestern Mexico, edited by L. D. Webster and M. E. McBrinn, pp. 25-33  University Press of Colorado, Boulder.

2007 Keepers of Louisiana’s Levees: Early Moundbuilders and Forest Managers.  In Rethinking Agriculture: Archaeological and Ethnoarchaeological Perspectives, edited by T.P. Denham, José Iriarte, and Luc Vrydags, pp. 338-368.  Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek.

2007 Pigweeds for the Ancestors: Cultural Identities and Archaeological Identification Methods.  In The Archaeology of Food and Identity, edited by K.C. Twiss, pp. 288-307. Center for Archaeological Investigations, Occasional Paper No. 34.  Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.

2007 (G. J. Fritz and N. H. Lopinot) Native Crops at Early Cahokia: Comparing Domestic and Ceremonial Contexts. In People, Plants, and Animals: Archaeological Studies of Hunan-Environment Interactions in the Midcontinent, Essays in Honor of Leonard W. Blake, edited by R. E. Warren.Illinois Archaeology 15 & 16 (for 2003-2004):90-111.

2006 Introduction and Spread of Mexican Crops.  In Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 3, edited by D. Ubelaker and B. D. Smith, pp. 437-446.  Government Printing Office, Washington D.C.

2005 (D. L. Browman, G. J. Fritz, and P. J. Watson) Origins of Food-Producing Economies in the Americas. In The Human Past, edited by Christopher Scarre, pp. 306-349. Thames and Hudson, London.

2005 Paleoethnobotanical Methods and Applications. In Handbook of Archaeological Methods, edited by Herbert D.G. Maschner and Christopher Chippindale, pp. 771-832. Altamira Press, Walnut Creek, CA.

2001 (G. J. Fritz, V. D. Whitekiller, and J. W. McIntosh) Ethnobotany of Ku-Nu-Che: Cherokee Hickory Nut Soup. Journal of Ethnobiology 21(2):1-27.

2000 Levels of biodiversity in eastern North America. In Biodiversity and Native America, edited by P. E. Minnis and W. Elisens, pp. 223-247. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.

2000 Native farming systems and ecosystems in the Mississippi River Valley. In Imperfect Balance: Landscape Transformations in the Pre-columbian Americas, edited by D. Lentz, pp. 225-250.

1999 Gender and the Early Cultivation of Gourds in Eastern North America. American Antiquity 64(3):417-429.

Courses

Advanced Paleoethnobotany (L48 4212)
Experimental Paleoethnobotany
Pathways to Domestication (team-taught with colleagues)
Selected Issues in North American Archaeology