Elizabeth Jean Reitz

Elizabeth Reitz has contributed to understanding the ecology, diet, and nutrition of peoples in the Americas from 10,000 years ago to AD 1900. In more than 100 publications, she has analyzed animal remains from archaeological sites located in Peru, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Jamaica, Montserrat, Barbuda, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and the Southeastern U.S. (Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina). Her research showed that the diet of early Holocene foragers on the coast of Peru was among the most protein-rich on earth: 60% of consumed fish were anchovies and 69% of shellfish were mussels. Their early conversion of tiny fish into highly nutritious fish meal was an unexpected discovery. For later periods, she documented animal use by Spanish, British, and French colonists and later by slaves from Africa. She also has demonstrated the impact Native Americans had on environments and on colonial economies. Her analysis synthesizes ecological, technological and cultural variables, as well as ethnic preferences to develop insights into human-environmental interactions.