My first work in anthropology was in museology and Native North American archaeology and ethnohistory, with fieldwork in the Great Lakes region. I continue to expand a critique of hierarchy as a means of calling attention to the existence of viable social structural alternatives, which have the advantage of being more responsive to environmental constraints.
Current fieldwork explores the role of gardens in the transmission of cultural knowledge.
There are many rationales for making gardens, ranging from practical utility to cosmic meanings. If pleasure gardens are theaters, then vernacular gardens are schools. Vernacular gardens are defined as plots in which plants are tended by hand, and which form part of the domestic economy. Gardens play a critical role in reducing risks associated with inclement weather all over the world. Unlike field crops, gardens shelter numerous species in special soils and under controlled microclimatic conditions.