For me, coming into zooarchaeology from vertebrate paleontology, I have to
say that you-all, especially our British colleagues, have been much more
fortunate to have women early in the field from whom we, a younger
generation, could take inspiration. By contrast there were very few women
in vert. paleo. prior to about 1960, Tilly Edinger being the one
outstanding exception. But though I know her works, she was before my
time.
My first vert. paleo teacher was the venerable Claude W. Hibbard, an old
man who had grown up on a ranch in Meade County, Kansas, during the
Depression. He was real tough in the field and, I assure you, real gruff
in the office. He did not believe that women should be in college at all,
because, in his view, they were all going to get married, and therefore to
teach women would be a waste of time for himself and other faculty. In
particular he did not believe in taking women into the field. However,
because he worked at the University of Michigan he was compelled to take
at least a few, and those few whom he would take he hand-picked as
appearing to be the roughest and the toughest -- women whom he figured
were too unattractive to have a chance at marrying, and therefore worth
his time.
Happily there were younger faculty in the Museum at Michigan in my day,
one of whom was Gerald R. Smith, who became my teacher and mentor. Later,
at Univ. Kansas, I had the privilege of studying under Curt Teichert, then
President of the Paleontological Society; Wake Dort, author of many books
and papers on the Pleistocene history of the American mid-continent; and
Robert S. Hoffmann, President of the Mammal Society and an
internationally-recognized zoogeographer. When in 1982 the Society of
Vertebrate Paleontology awarded me the Romer Prize, given for outstanding
student work, I got many kind letters from members of the judges' panel
and other senior members, encouraging me, as my teachers had, to join the
field. My mentor at Equus Magazine for whom I have been a Consulting
Editor since 1984 was Matthew Mackay-Smith, DVM. Every one of these
individuals was a man, and yet they were forward-seeing and welcoming to a
young woman at the beginning of her professional career. There were
others, of course, besides old Hibbie, bless his soul, who were not; but
they shall go unnamed here. Cheers -- Dr. Deb
> I agree Dorothea Bate - inspirational re. first woman to work as a scholar
> in Natural History Museum London (and much fieldwork), and - although it
> obviously wasn't called zooarchaeology at the time - addressed questions
> of climate change, fauna and humans...
>
> Plus Caroline Grigson and Juliet Clutton-Brock have been, and still are,
> personal inspirations.
>
>
> Louise
>
>
>
> From: Analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jacqui Mulville
> Sent: 06 March 2014 12:39
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [ZOOARCH] Women in Zooarchaeology
>
> Hello,
>
> I am off to a conference to speak on women in archaeology and so I have
> been reflecting on my career path and that of other women in
> zooarchaeology. I would welcome suggestions from the community of
> ZOOARCH women as to their role models, and any reflections as to whether
> zooarchaeology is different to tradtional archaeology in terms of the
> gender balance.
>
> At present I am looking at this from my own British perspective, where
> women such as Barbara Noddle, Caroline Grigson, Juliet Clutton-Brock,
> Jenny Coy, Jennifer Bourdillion and Dale Serjeantson all provided me with
> zooarchaeological role models.
>
> So who inspired you? And is zooarchaeology a good place to pursue a career
> as a woman? Please reply on or off list.
>
> (Also feel free to have a similar conversation about other groups within
> our discipline)
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Dr Jacqui
> Mulville<http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/share/contactsandpeople/academicstaff/K-O/mulville-jacqui-dr-overview_new.html>
> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> 0044 29208 74427
>
> Reader in Bioarchaeology,
> Cardiff Osteoarchaeology Research
> Group<http://www.cf.ac.uk/share/research/archaeology/osteoarchaeology/>
>
> Guerilla Archaeology<http://guerillaarchaeology.wordpress.com/>
>
>
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