Northern Arizona University

George Gumerman IV is currently researching prehistoric food and culture on the north coast of Peru. The Moche Foodways Archaeological Project aims to understand Moche culture through the study of food. Moche culture is consumed by death, warfare, and human sacrifice. Gumerman’s discovery of a large funerary feasting complex at the extraordinary site of El Brujo indicates that feasting also revolved around death. 

Gumerman also has a broad interest in public archaeology including the development of an interactive educational CD-ROM: The Interactive Archaeology of the Grand Canyon and Colorado Plateau. Students create a virtual museum exhibit by exploring who lived in the Grand Canyon and how they existed. In addition, Gumerman is collaborating with the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office, educators, elders, and archaeologists, to develop a Hopi culture curriculum for Hopi schools. The Hopi Footprints project is an incredible opportunity to improve teacher quality that uses archaeology and elder oral history as a foundation to build a standards-based cultural curriculum.

Contact Information:

Dr. George Gumerman, IV, PhD
Office: Bldg 98D, Rm 101B
Phone: (928) 523-3498
Email: George.Gumerman[at]nau.edu

Current Research and Applied Projects

The Hopi Footprints Project

Dr. Gumerman and Ms. Joelle Clark recently completed their three-year professional development program for Hopi educators. Across the Colorado Plateau, abundant archaeological sites provide a stimulating arena for cultivating an understanding of past cultural traditions that are linked to today’s Hopi people. Hopi oral history discusses these archaeological sites telling the story of Hopi migrations across much of the Colorado Plateau. Referred to as their footprints, the archaeological sites and the oral history surrounding them connect the past to the present. Interaction of elders and archaeologists provide a powerful force for teachers to bring together knowledge that surprisingly corroborate each other. Our culturally appropriate professional development and curriculum will enable Hopi youth to connect to their cultural history and thereby facilitate student learning.

The goal of this project is to improve classroom teaching practice while creating a standards-based Hopi culture curriculum in CD-ROM and web site formats. The project is a collaboration among  the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office, educators, elders, tribal cultural professionals, anthropologists, and archaeologists, who worked together to develop a curriculum focusing on culture education, technology integration, and action research in classrooms. The key components of the project include summer institutes, intensive school site visits throughout the academic year, and follow-up Saturday sessions for project participants. The CD-ROM and web site provide resources for teachers and students, including digital video, audio, maps, and lesson plans.

The project recently was awarded a three year National Endowment for the Humanities Grant to expand the project to Hopi high school students.

The Moche Foodways Archaeological Project

This multi-year project in northern coastal Peru is funded by NSF and the National Geographic Society, and directed by Dr. George Gumerman IV. The primary research objective of this multi-phase project is to understand the role of food in the development and organization of the Moche in particu­lar and complex societies in general.    

A focus on the food system—the manner in which food is prepared, distributed, consumed, and discarded—provides an innovative avenue that leads to a detailed understanding of Moche culture. Food and cooking are intrinsically social and the study of foodways provides valuable insights into a culture.

Student research (both undergraduate and graduate) has been integral to the project. Eight MA theses and one internship have resulted from the project. In addition several undergraduate students have received funding to conduct analyses and fieldwork.

The Interactive Archaeology of the Grand Canyon: Multicultural Perspectives

George Gumerman IV, Joelle Clark, Linda Neff, and Geraldine Hongeva have designed an educational CD-ROM that uses the archaeology of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado Plateau to educate a variety of learners, including 4-6th grade students, undergraduate students, and life long learners.

For thousands of years Native Americans have lived in and traversed across the Colorado Plateau and Grand Canyon. Today, many Native American nations hold the Grand Canyon as a sacred place for various religious and historical reasons.  These Native American groups and abundant archaeological sites provide a stimulating arena for teaching scientific principles and cultivating an appreciation of diverse cultural perspectives.

The project, with the assistance of Hopi, Zuni, and Hualapai partners, utilizes the Grand Canyon’s magnificent archaeological and cultural resources as the basis for the development of a technology-based teaching tool. The primary goal of the Interactive Archaeology of the Colorado Plateau and Grand Canyon project is to develop educational, interactive, multimedia CD-ROM and web site that focus on the archaeology of the Grand Canyon and Colorado Plateau.

Learners will use the hands on, problem-based CD-ROM and accompanying web site to explore archaeology as a science, while conducting virtual archaeological research and learning Hopi, Zuni, and Hualapai views of their ancestral sites. Their mission is to create a virtual museum exhibit by exploring who lived in the Grand Canyon and how they existed. The student-centered, interactive, multimedia lessons allow students to interpret and quantify data from real sites and develop an understanding of the culture history of the Colorado Plateau and Grand Canyon. Digital video taped interviews with archaeologists and Native Americans provide multicultural voices that create an environment that is receptive to the needs of a diverse student population that learn in different ways.

The project exposes students to different knowledge systems while also developing their respect for cultural diversity, values, and a sense of stewardship for archaeological resources. Learners become competent at understanding the prehistory of the Colorado Plateau and Grand Canyon. In the process, they develop important, lifelong science, mathematics, technology, and cultural diversity skills necessary for students of the new millennium.