Margaret Scarry’s fascination with Native American cultures began in high school, when she participated in an archaeological field school on Summer Island, Michigan. She pursued her interest through undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Michigan, where she earned her Ph.D. in 1986. Though her first archaeological experience was in the Midwest, she soon shifted her interest to the Southeast, where she investigates Native American foodways—the activities and ideas by which people acquire, distribute, prepare, present, consume, and think about food. Much of her research has focused on the Moundville chiefdom, which flourished in Alabama from about A.D. 1100 to 1500. After a number of years in Florida and Kentucky, Scarry joined the anthropology faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1995. Among other things, she teaches courses on archaeology, food and culture, and archaeobotany.