Reed A Celebration of the Career of Dr. Marti Latta 3

A Celebration of the Career of Dr. Marti Latta

Patricia Reed

As one of the first women who were professional archaeologists in , Marti Latta has been a role model and inspiration to subsequent generations of students. Her efforts, through teaching at the and her work on behalf of the OAS, have left their mark on the discipline of and on hun- dreds of the people who have been involved in it.

The conference “Journey to the Land of the at that time but, fortunately, the University of Huron” took place November 4-7, 2004 in Kansas allowed her to take courses in New Haven Midland, Ontario. This combined conference was that she then transferred back to the University of the 31st annual conference for the Ontario Kansas to finish her degree. At that time Yale Archaeological Society (OAS) and the 71st annu- University was strictly male except at the graduate al conference for the Eastern States Archaeological level. The only way that women could take Federation (ESAF). Sessions on Friday morning undergraduate courses was through the local and Saturday were reserved for papers honouring teachers’ college, where Yale professors would the career of Dr. Marti Latta. Marti does not retire moonlight, so that’s what Marti did. She studied until 2006. The organizers felt, however, that this under prominent social anthropologists such as would be the most appropriate conference at Leo Pospisil, who was well known for his work in which to honour Marti—in Midland, close to New Guinea. Marti received her Bachelor of Arts where much of her work has been done. from the University of Kansas in 1966. Martha Graves was born in St. Louis, Marti worked at the computer centre at Yale Missouri, on March 12, 1941. Her parents were for the four years they lived in New Haven. She both from Independence, Kansas, but her father started off as the programme librarian. At that was working for IBM in St. Louis at that time. time, the mainframe computer at Yale had 64K The family moved back to Kansas during the war memory, which puts it well below a pocket cal- and she grew up in Independence, a very small culator today! It ran with punched paper cards or town in the southeastern part of the state. When a magnetic tape. The computer centre had huge asked how she got interested in archaeology, decks of punched cards and it was Marti’s job to Marti says that her mother had always wanted to keep track of them. Whenever anyone wanted to be an archaeologist but never got the opportuni- run a programme, they had to make a copy of the ty. When Marti went to the University of Kansas, deck of cards. Marti then graduated to doing a she started off in the wrong programme, as many certain amount of programming. On her first students do. She was going to go into mathemat- computer, she actually wired the board. She ics but that only lasted one year, when she found compares this to comic routines of telephone that “math wasn’t that much fun.” Then she took operators in the 1920s. She would plug one end introductory . That first course led into the board and then the other end, and then to an undergraduate double major in anthropol- run the programme through it. Sometimes very ogy and sociology. surprising things happened if she put the plug Marti married Alan Latta in 1961 and they into the wrong hole! spent a year in Germany, where Alan was on a In the last year that Marti and Alan were at Fulbright scholarship. When they returned to the Yale (1966-1967), Margaret Mead was hired as a United States, he entered the PhD programme at visiting scholar. She and the students from Yale in New Haven, Connecticut. did not get along very well, to put it mildly! She Marti hadn’t finished her undergraduate degree was not amused by their attitude and they were 4Ontario Archaeology No. 77/78, 2004 certainly not amused by her attitude. In January Anthropology” would her world have been very she gave a public lecture simply entitled “The different! Future.” Marti and Alan went to the lecture and Marti took out Canadian citizenship as soon as heard her say that there was a revolution coming she could, around 1972, and Alan did likewise in women’s rights: “You’re going to have women three or four years later. Marti had Canadian among you and you’d better get used to it.” This roots: her great-grandfather, John Anderson, was was not, on the whole, well received by the born near Brantford, Ontario. He was one of the young men in the audience who argued with her youngest of a very large family that lived in a quite vehemently. Margaret Mead maintained one-room log cabin, which the census at the time that in order for women to take part, they would described as “unimproved.” Marti’s great-grand- have to expand their horizons and learn some- father decided there was no future for him there thing about the science and technology that and ran away from home to the United States. would be part of the world in the future. She He got as far as Ohio before his money ran out, pointed out the difference in the way that boys and he took a job in a dry goods store. He mar- and girls in our society learn about science. For ried the daughter of the store’s owner, who gave example, she said that science fiction is the soft them money to go to the newly opened Kansas medium whereby scientific concepts are commu- territory and set up a dry goods store. So, in a nicated. She asked how many men in the audi- sense, Marti can say that she came back home to ence read science fiction and all the men’s hands Canada! Her mother told her that every year her went up. She then asked how many women in great-grandfather would send to Ontario for a the audience read science fiction. Marti put her barrel of Macintosh apples, which he felt were hand up and looked around and found that she the only apples worth eating. was one of about three women with their hands Marti was happy to move to Canada. She felt up. Mead said, “There’s your problem. You have it was much closer, culturally, to Kansas than to to get girls reading science fiction and learning Connecticut. Coming from a small town in scientific skills so that they are comfortable with Kansas, she was used to people being polite and the terms and concepts so that they can go into she found Canadians much more polite than the the sciences and take an equal role in the future.” people in Connecticut! Although she found the Because of that lecture, Marti has always given exclusionary atmosphere at Yale difficult, it also Margaret Mead credit for having inspired her to occurred in Toronto and it took a while after she go on in a scientific discipline, although she arrived for that to start to change. For example, never actually met her. the signs on the doors of the male professors’ When Marti’s husband, Alan, got a job in the offices at Scarborough College said “Professor…” German Department at the University of whereas the signs on the doors of the female pro- Toronto in 1967, they moved to Toronto and fessors’ offices said “Mrs….” The female profes- Marti applied to do graduate studies in anthro- sors scratched out the “Mrs.” and put “Professor” pology. The department assumed from her back- on their doors! Marti did find the atmosphere in ground that she would be going into social Toronto more welcoming for women than at anthropology. When she arrived in Toronto in Yale. Everything at the University of Toronto, the summer of 1967, she visited the department other than Hart House, was open to women. to find out about the programme. There weren’t Hart House sent her a great pamphlet full of all any professors around so she was referred to John of the wonderful things she could do there and Reid and he was her introduction to the depart- written on the bottom in little letters was “Men ment. She was asked what branch of anthropolo- Only!” This did change very soon after she gy she wanted to go into, but that wasn’t an issue arrived. Things changed very quickly at Yale as that had occurred to her before, so more or less well. About four years after Marti left, women off the top of her head, she said “Archaeology.” were allowed into the undergraduate pro- She’s always wondered if she had said “Social grammes and were housed in the same dorms as Reed A Celebration of the Career of Dr. Marti Latta 5 the men. The Yale alumni put up a tremendous Marti also participated in directing the OAS’s fight against women being housed in the same major excavation projects of 1972 at the dorms but, to their credit, the undergraduates MacLeod, Draper and Boys sites, and served as stood up for their female colleagues and support- the president of the OAS in 1980 and 1981. ed equality of education. Marti’s first dig was a weekend excavation at Marti received an MA in 1968 and a PhD in the Warminster site with Dr. Norman Emerson. 1977 from the University of Toronto. She was She had only been in the graduate programme at the first woman to receive a PhD in archaeology the University of Toronto for about a month from the University. In 1972 she was hired as a when she was drafted to help with the lecturer by Scarborough College, University of Warminster excavation. Four busloads of under- Toronto. She was appointed a visiting assistant graduate students came up to the site to excavate. professor in 1977 and given a tenure-track posi- Marti learned how to excavate by doing it and tion in 1979. She then proceeded to gain tenure also learned a lot from the members of the OAS, and the title of associate professor. including people like the Kenyons, Charlie Marti was the second woman archaeologist to Garrad, Frank Mee and Bill Donaldson. be hired in a tenure-track position in the Helen Devereux remembers first meeting Marti Department of Anthropology at the University in the late 1960s in the basement of Sidney Smith of Toronto, after Maxine Kleindienst, who was Hall at the University of Toronto. Marti was then hired in 1973. She credits Maxine Kleindienst as known as the “snail lady” as she was studying snails a mentor. Marti feels that Maxine’s support of from the Maurice Village and other sites at the her female colleagues and students has been an time. This was just before the birth of Marti’s outstanding contribution to the whole profes- daughter, Ellie. Ellie is now the third Dr. Latta in sion. She feels that it if it were not for Maxine, the family—a medical doctor this time (Marti’s she would not be in her present position. Maxine husband, Alan, was a professor in the German was supportive in every way. Her door was always Department at the University of Toronto until his open if Marti needed to talk; she encouraged the recent retirement). And Marti has recently made development of new ideas; she was constantly the rite of passage into grandmotherhood with the coming up with new methods of teaching and birth of her granddaughter, Elizabeth Helen Anne, carrying out research; and she strongly went to in December 2002 and her grandson, Richard bat for hiring and tenure for her colleagues. Sydney James, in July 2006. Marti’s was among the first generation of Marti has focused on a number of areas in women archaeologists in Canada to be hired to Ontario archaeology during her career. She has tenure-track positions, along with women such excavated sites in Huronia, undertaking eight years as Ruth Gruhn at the University of Alberta, Jane of excavation at the Auger site. She is particularly Kelley at the University of Calgary, Fumiko interested in women’s roles in Huron society, as Ikawa-Smith at McGill University, Helen shown in the production, exchange and use of Devereux at Laurentian University and Urve ceramic vessels for food preparation and presenta- Linnamae at the University of Saskatchewan. tion. She has explored this interest with her stu- Marti’s association with the Ontario dents, most notably Holly Martelle, whose paper is Archaeological Society began in 1968 when she found later in this volume (see Table 1 for a list of was introduced to the society by her supervisor, Dr. graduate students supervised by Marti Latta). Norman Emerson, the person who, in the large Marti also addressed this issue in her publication part, created the OAS. She gave her first talk to the entitled “The captive bride syndrome: Iroquoian OAS in the spring of 1971 on the excavations at behaviour or archaeological myth?” (Latta 1991). the Robitaille site. She has given many subsequent Marti has also studied the process of accept- talks, most recently in September 2004, when she ance and enculturation of European trade told the Toronto chapter of her excavations at the objects— brass kettles, iron tools and glass beads. Ashbridge’s house, the new home of the OAS. And with her students—Lisa Anselmi, whose 6Ontario Archaeology No. 77/78, 2004 paper is also included in this volume, and Paul Table 1. Graduate students supervised by Dr. Marti Latta. Thibaudeau—she has studied the use of Completed: MA/MSc European metal by the Huron. 1991 Charlton Carscallen Marti’s interests include historic archaeology. 1992 Suzanne Needs-Howarth 1993 David Reader Earlier in her career, she excavated two log cabin 1995 Lisa Anselmi sites in the Ottawa Valley, and more recently, she 1997 Carolyn Walker excavated the Guild Log Cabin in Scarborough. 1997 Jenneth Curtis She also spent three seasons at the Ashbridge’s 1998 Heidi Ritscher 2001 Lisa Merritt house on Queen Street in Toronto on a joint proj- 2001 Claire Friesenhausen ect with Dena Doroszenko of the Ontario 2002 Eva MacDonald Heritage Trust. She has continued to explore this Natasha Snyder, Visiting Fulbright Scholar (1998-99) interest in historic archaeology by supervising stu- Completed: PhD 1991 Margaret Newman dents, including Eva MacDonald and Katie Hull. 1999 Elke Weinstein (acting supervisor) Marti has also studied the role of women in 2002 Holly Martelle Ontario archaeology and has published an article 2002 Paul Thibaudeau on this history with me and Holly Martelle. She 2003 Lisa Anselmi 2004 Jenneth Curtis spoke on women in Canadian archaeology at the 2004 Katherine Hull Women in Archaeology conference in Sydney, Australia, in 1999—a fascinating trip on which I Table 2. Archaeological field schools directed by Dr. Marti joined her. For a number of years, Marti was Latta. involved with the Museum Studies programme Year Site at the University of Toronto. And she has taught 1971 MacLeod a Cultural Resource Management course which, 1972 MacLeod 1973 Draper (summer) in her opinion, has produced a number of inter- 1973 Draper (fall) esting student papers. Recently she has put her 1973 Scarborough campus energy into digitizing her extensive slide collec- 1976 Beeton (summer) tion and taking digital photographs of significant 1976 Beeton (fall) artifacts from her collections to improve accessi- 1979 Fort Malden – Latta/Snow 1980 Fort Malden – Latta/Snow bility for her teaching and research. 1981 Log Tavern And, of course, over the years Marti has put 1982 Auger – Latta/Crawford much energy into the training of students at her 1983 Auger – Latta/Crawford field schools (see Table 2, Reid 1993:28-29). 1985 Auger Marti directed or co-directed 24 field schools 1986 Auger 1987 Auger between 1971 and 2000 and trained an astound- 1989 Auger ing 510 students during that time. For many of 1990 Auger the field schools, she was ably assisted by John 1992 Auger Reid. These fields schools include eight years at 1993 Thomson-Walker the Auger site, two years at the Thompson 1995 Thomson-Walker 1996 Guild – Latta/Avdichuk Walker site (both in Huronia), a year at the 1998 Ashbridges – Latta/Doroszenko Guild in Scarborough and three years at the 1999 Ashbridges – Latta/Doroszenko Ashbridge’s site in Toronto. 2000 Ashbridges – Latta/Doroszenko Marti believes that she began running the University of Toronto archaeological field school MacLeod site in Oshawa and Marti was a TA for by default. Bruce Schroeder had decided that a that field school. Bruce approach Marti in the lab field school was needed at the Scarborough cam- one day and said that they needed someone to pus. Marti was a teaching assistant (TA) for a teach the field school the next year. He asked if class at the Scarborough campus. Bruce Drewitt she would be interested, and she said, “Yes, of and Bruce Schroeder ran a field school at the course.” She started out teaching a half course Reed A Celebration of the Career of Dr. Marti Latta 7 that became a full course and then two courses. up the field school excavations. A ministry report Then, thanks mostly to Maxine Kleindienst, the could be quickly written each year but in-depth position became a full contractual job for a cou- analysis of field school excavations had to be ple of years and then a tenure-track position, postponed until recent years, when Marti was which Marti got. She has been at Scarborough finished teaching field schools. Marti is now ever since. working on the long process of reassessing the Marti’s husband, Alan, has been very supportive data from many years of excavations. of her career. In 1970, she directed her first field Her passion and enthusiasm for her work have programme, which was six weeks at the Robitaille inspired many students, some of whom have gone site in Simcoe County, and Alan stayed home with on to pursue careers in archaeology. Some gave their one-and-a-half year old baby while Marti was papers in her honour at the conference and wrote just home on weekends. All through her career, papers that are included in this volume. Marti has Alan ran the house when she had to be in the field served as a mentor and role model for many stu- and he never discouraged her. They felt it helped dents, especially for women, and has helped her that they both worked in academia for the same students (including this author!) find positions in institution so they shared the same basic concerns. archaeology. The papers in this collection have They had always had an understanding that Marti been written by Marti’s colleagues and former stu- would work while Alan was getting his PhD and dents as a tribute to her distinguished career. when he was finished she would go back to school to get her PhD, and that’s what happened. Marti Acknowledgements. I thank Marti Latta for decided to do local archaeology so that she could sharing her thoughts about her career, and for return home on weekends because she had a small her support throughout the years. I also thank child at the time. It became a given that a local field Helen Devereux for her input and support. school was something that Marti would do within These two women have been constant inspira- the department because the other archaeology pro- tions for me in my career. I thank Holly Martelle fessors worked in other parts of the world and were for her assistance with the history of women in not available to do local field schools. Canadian archaeology. Sandra Black has provid- Marti can remember her students from the field ed invaluable editorial assistance with both this schools quite well and she can recall exactly where paper and the conference paper. Thanks to Eva they dug. But she didn’t have that same contact MacDonald for co-chairing the session for Marti with the students at Ashbridge’s because it wasn’t a at the 2004 conference. Finally, thanks to Dena camping field school. She never saw them except Doroszenko and Jennie Fiddes for their proof- when they were in the field digging and she didn’t reading assistance. have a chance to sit down and get to know them as people. Marti has always felt that a camping field References Cited school is a much better learning experience. Marti realized that, as much work as the field school was each year, it also represented free Latta, M.A. labour. In order to do a major research project in 1991 The Captive Bride Syndrome: Iroquoian Behaviour or Archaeological Myth? In The archaeology, one has to have labour. Without the Archaeology of Gender, edited by D. Walde field schools, she would never have been able to and N. D. Willows, pp. 375-382. do the quantity of field research that she has done Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Chacmool as there would not have been the resources to Conference, Department of Archaeology, support it. On the other hand, if she had not University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta. done all of this excavating, she says she would be Reid, J. much further along at writing it up! Between run- 1993 Fifty Years of University of Toronto ning a field school each summer and teaching in Archaeological Field Schools. Arch Notes 93(6):26-30. the winter, there was not much time for writing 8Ontario Archaeology No. 77/78, 2004

Select Bibliography: Dr. Martha A. Latta 1985 A 17th Century Attigneenongnahac Village: Settlement Patterns at the Auger site Anselmi, L.M., M.A. Latta, and R.G.V. Hancock (BdGw-3). Ontario Archaeology 44:41-54. 1997 Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis of 1987 Iroquoian Stemware. American Antiquity Copper and Brass from the Auger Site 52:717-724. (BdGw-3), Simcoe County, Ontario. 1987 Archaeoethnic Research and the Ontario Northeast Anthropology 53:47-59. Iroquoians. In Ethnicity and Culture, edited by Betts, M.W., and M.A. Latta R. Auger, M.F. Glass, S. MacEachern, and 2000 Rock Surface Hardness as an Indication of P. H. McCartney, pp. 181-189. Proceedings of Exposure Age: An Archaeological Application the 18th Annual Chacmool Conference. of the Schmidt Hammer. Archaeometry Department of Archaeology, University of 42:209-223. Calgary, Calgary. Curtis, J., and M.A. Latta 1988 The Search for St-Ignace II. Ontario 2000 Ceramics as Reflectors of Social Relationships: Archaeology 48:3-16. The Auger Site and Ball Site Castellations. 1990 The Stem of the Matter: A Reply to Ontario Archaeology 70:1-15. Ramsden and Fitzgerald. American Antiquity Hancock, R.G.V., S. Aufreiter, I. Kenyon, and M. Latta 55:162-165. 1999 White Glass Beads from the Auger Site, 1991 The Captive Bride Syndrome: Iroquoian Southern Ontario, Canada. Journal of Behaviour or Archaeological Myth? In The Archaeological Science 26:907-912. Archaeology of Gender, edited by D. Walde and Hancock, R.G., L.A. Pavlish, W.A. Fox, and M.A. Latta N.D. Willows, pp. 375-382. Proceedings of 1995 Chemical Analysis of Copper Alloy Trade the 22nd Annual Chacmool Conference. Metal from a Post-contact Huron Site in Department of Archaeology, University of Ontario, Canada. Archaeometry 37:339-350. Calgary, Calgary. Latta, M.A. 1994 The Thomson-Walker Site (BeGv-3). Annual 1969 Archaeomalacology in Southern Ontario. In Archaeological Report, Ontario (New Series) Palaeoecology and Ontario Prehistory: Vol. 1, 5:92-96. edited by W.M. Hurley and C.E. Heidenreich, 1996 Historic Huron Occupations of the Coldwater pp. 104-112. Research Report 1. Department Valley, South-Central Ontario. Annual of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Archaeological Report, Ontario (New Series) Toronto. 6:133-140. 1971 Snails from Four Ontario Sites. In 1998 The Guild Log Cabin—AkGt-51. Annual Palaeoecology and Ontario Prehistory: Vol. 2, Archaeological Report, Ontario (New Series) edited by W.M. Hurley and C.E. Heidenreich, 8:65-68. pp. 116-131. Research Report 2. Department 1999 The Way We Were: Sixty Years of Paradigm of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Shifts in the Great Lakes Region. In Taming Toronto. the Taxonomy: Toward a New Understanding 1973 Archaeology of the Penetang Peninsula. of Great Lakes Archaeology, edited by R.F. Ontario Archaeology 20:3-24. Williamson and C.M. Watts, pp. 11-23. eas- 1980 Controlling the Heights: The Prehistoric tendbooks, Toronto. Occupations of the Oak Ridges Moraine, 2000 Summer at the Beach: 1998 Excavations at Ontario. Archaeology of Eastern North the Ashbridges Estate, AjGt-1, Toronto. Annual America 8:71-77. Archaeological Report, Ontario (New Series) 1980 A Decorative Paradigm: The Late Ontario 11:90-93. Iroquois Ceramic Tradition. In Proceedings 2006 Bruce Trigger and the Children of Aataentsic. of the 1979 Iroquois Pottery Conference, edit- In The Archaeology of Bruce Trigger: Theoretical ed by Charles F. Hayes III, pp. 159-177. Empiricism, edited by R.F. Williamson and Research Records 13. Rochester Museum M.S. Bisson, pp. 135-141. McGill-Queen’s and Science Center, Rochester. University Press, and Kingston. 1985 Identification of 17th century French mis- Latta, M.A., H. Martelle-Hayter, and P. Reed sions in Eastern Huronia. Canadian Journal 1998 Women in Early Ontario Archaeology: of Archaeology, 9:147-171. Reclaiming Voices. In Bringing Back the Past: Reed A Celebration of the Career of Dr. Marti Latta 9

Historical Perspectives on Canadian Latta, M., P. Thibaudeau, L. Anselmi, and C. Walker Archaeology, edited by P.J. Smith and D. 2002 Brass and Copper: The Enculturation of Mitchell, pp. 25-38. Archaeological Survey Metal Technology in the Early Post-contact of Canada, Mercury Series Paper 158. Great Lakes Region. In EUREKA! The Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull. Archaeology of Innovation and Science, edited Latta, M.A., P. Thibaudeau, and L. Anselmi by R. Harrison, M. Gillespie, and M. 1998 Expediency and Curation: The Use and Peuramaki-Brown, pp. 449-456. Proceedings Distribution of “Scrap” Trade Metal by Huron of the 29th Annual Chacmool Conference. Native Peoples in Sixteenth Century Southern Department of Archaeology, University of Ontario. The Wisconsin Archaeologist 79(1): Calgary, Calgary. 175-184.

À titre de l’une des premières femmes à devenir archéologue professionnelle au Canada, Marti Latta est devenue un modèle à émuler et une inspiration aux générations subséquentes d’ étudiants et étudiantes. Ses efforts, par l’enseignement à l’université de Toronto et son travail au nom de la OAS, ont laissé leurs marques sur la discipline en archéologie en Ontario et sur des centaines de gens qui y ont été impliqués.

Patricia Reed Department of Anthropology University of Toronto 100 St. George St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3G3 [email protected]