American anthropologist
Kristen Johnson Gremillion (born November 17, 1958) is an American anthropologist whose areas of specialization include paleoethnobotany, origins of agriculture, the prehistory of eastern North America, human paleoecology and paleodiet, and the evolutionary theory. Currently a professor in the Department of Anthropology at the Ohio State University and editor of the "Journal of Ethnobiology", she has published many journal articles on these subjects.
Personal life.
Gremillion was born in Detroit, Michigan, but her family moved to New Orleans when she was still very young. She grew up in New Orleans and only left in 1982 when she went to attend graduate school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Education.
Gremillion began her college education at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1976, majoring in anthropology. In 1979, she transferred to the University of New Orleans in Louisiana, where she graduated cum laude in 1980, receiving a B.A. in anthropology. In 1985, Gremillion received an M.A. in anthropology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, writing her thesis on Aboriginal Use of Plant Foods and European Contact in the North Carolina Piedmont. In 1989, she received her Ph.D. in anthropology, also from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; her dissertation title was "Late Prehistoric and Historic Period Paleoethnobotany of the North Carolina Piedmont".
While in the process of completing her M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology, Gremillion was self-employed as an archaeobotanical consultant. After completing her degrees, in 1990 she became a visiting lecturer for East Carolina University's Department of Sociology and Anthropology. From 1991 till 1997, Gremillion was an assistant professor at the Ohio State University in the Department of Anthropology. Then in 1997, she shifted from assistant professor to associate professor in the Department of Anthropology, where she continued to work. In 1999, Gremillion was granted an adjunct appointment in the Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology at the same university.
Research.
Gremillion has worked on research surrounding when and where the domestication of plants may have taken place in Eastern North America, focusing on the forager-farmers of the eastern Kentucky uplands. Her research suggests that experimentation in plant domestication may have started in the uplands, instead of the rich soiled flood plains as former theories have suggested. Gremillion suggests that domesticating plants in the uplands would have been more cost-effective than the flood plains because these people lived in the uplands and would be able to experiment with domestication without having to travel great distances to get to the fertile flood plains.
Field work.
In 1992 she was the project director and field supervisor for excavations at Rock Bridge shelter in Wolfe Co., KY.
Her other field work after this includes:
Publications.
Gremillion's publications have centered on food production, crops, and dietary analysis of societies in the archaeological record.
Notes.
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