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Reflection Essay

Posted on by firenzza

In the Fall 2017 semester, I participated in the Hidalgo County Public Cemetery Project through a Public Archaeology course taught by Dr. Rowe at UTRGV. Through this project, our goal was not only to collect information for a comprehensive database, but to restore dignity to a pauper cemetery that has only recently been detangled from the grasps of nature. Through these measures, we aimed to establish a connection with the community. Our hope was that the community would become interested and involved with the project.

We began the course by reading about public archaeology and its parameters as a practice. We learned about the purpose of public archaeology, which is to engage the community and to work on a project that will benefit them. There are different levels of community engagement, from data being presented by archaeologists to community members actively participating in projects themselves. Of course, there are disagreements on the degree of involvement that should be enacted by community members, with some deeming them too inexperienced to properly participate in an archaeological project. I am of the belief that so long as the community wishes to actively participate, they should be allowed to do so. Working on a project that can affect, or is part of a community’s life should include the community. Often, community members can offer insight that would otherwise be unattainable by archaeologists unless they themselves are from the same community.

After doing some preliminary reading, as well as learning how to use the totally station, and everything was properly set up with the county, we were able to finally begin work onsite. We began by numbering a modest amount of flags (about 200), which we quickly realized were not nearly enough to mark all the graves of the pauper cemetery. Nonetheless, a few of us began placing them while the rest of the class dove into data collection. The county provided us with a porch, a table, water and a fully functional restroom, which genuinely facilitated our work. The biggest obstacle had to be the weather, especially since we were at the cemetery during the hottest period of the day. Having an area to take breaks from the sun (as the cemetery does not have a lot of shade) was of great assistance. Other obstacles included a general lack of knowledge in regards to gravestone materials, a lack of consensus on the units of measurement and a lack of a stable internet connection, which often caused the loss of input data. The first can be easily corrected through a brief lesson on the different materials used for gravestones. The second was an inconsistency on our part as students, which we can easily rectify in the continuation of this project. The third, however, is a problem that rests out of our hands. An issue that developed once all the flags had been placed (more than one thousand), was that they were not placed in a very cohesive pattern which resulted in a lot of confusion when searching for specific grave numbers to recollect lost data.

During the time that we were working at the cemetery, a few community members did contact us in search of information on lost relatives that had been buried at the pauper cemetery years ago. What is interesting to note about the Hidalgo County Pauper Cemetery is that while most pauper cemeteries fell out of use in the mid-1900s, the Hidalgo County Pauper Cemetery was in use almost into the 21st century. For this reason, the cemetery still receives many visitors which is all the more sad when considering the state of ruin it has fallen into. Unfortunately, due to the significant amount of graves still left to work on, we were unable to help most of the people who reached out to us. However, other community members did communicate with us in person while we were at the cemetery. Many were curious as to our objective, and when we explained the purpose of our project, they seemed pleased. A few even offered more in depth conversation.

At the cemetery, there were many graves that were damaged or illegible which allowed us very little opportunity for data collection. In worse situations, there were hints of a grave but no marker, or completely destroyed gravestones that could simply be overlooked as rubble. Since the county already had a suspicion that bodies had been buried without markers, two cadaver dogs and their trainers were flown in from California to inspect. I expected them to find a couple of bodies, but they found upwards of 20 unmarked graves. However, the implications of these findings are minimal, since it is nearly impossible to figure out who is buried in these unmarked graves.

As a beginning, the Fall 2017 Public Archaeology course has been immensely successful in achieving its goals. We not only collected large amounts of data and set up flags for next semester, but we were also able to establish a connection with the community. Since this has barely been the beginning of an ongoing project, the connection with the community is understandably minimal, but it provides the groundwork for a larger collaboration in the future. Fortunately, the Hidalgo County Public Cemetery Project has been much loved by many of us and most of us intend to continue working on this project in the semesters to come. There has already been talk about plans for next semester, including a Dia de los Muertos event at the cemetery where we could communicate with a larger part of the community. Events are a great way to garner community attention, and a Dia de los Muertos event would fit perfectly with what we are trying to achieve through this project, which is to establish a place that the community can be proud of when visiting and their loved ones. Hopefully in the future, all of our goals will be realized and the community will be able to hold on to something that was nearly lost to them.

Reflection

Posted on by befreebutterfly22

The beginning of the semester was rather confusing in the sense that I was not entirely sure what the class will teach me. While yes, the objectives of the course were taught and for the most part understood, there is always something else that I personally take from the class. As the semester progresses what I think I’m learning constantly changes. For instance, in the very beginning I thought I would simply learn first what exactly Public Archaeology is, as well as, learn some archaeological skills that I feel I would not have learned otherwise. While I did in fact learn these things, it was more of an addendum to what it is that I was to learn from the class. That being said, I learned a lot of different things about the cemetery, the people, archaeological methods, anthropological methods and over culture of both the past and present cemetery. One of the things that I learned, is how intertwined the cemetery and the people are. While personally I know that this is because of the fact that in the culture here in the Rio Grande Valley, family is highly prioritized. This does not mean that they abide by the traditional roles of family, for some family is an accumulation of people that they care about, which can be especially seen in barrio areas of the Valley. These areas consist of very closely-knit communities that are often there to support one another. However, this is not the only way in which the two are very closely intertwined, curing the course of the semester I learned that this is due to the fact that though there is a strong bond between the dead, their loved ones and sometimes the community around them. The fact that there is still an interest in this cemetery says a lot about the people of the Rio Grande Valley. Before I move on and talk about all the other things that I have learned over the course of the semester, it is important to me that I talk about the cemetery itself, as this is where I believe that I learned the most.

In the very beginning of class we learned that the cemetery was built in the early twentieth century, and was closed in the late twentieth century, making it one on the youngest Potters field cemeteries. The cemetery is owned by Hidalgo County and is usually referred to as a Potters field or as a Paupers Cemetery, however, I disagree with the use of those names. While, yes, these name do most accurately describe the purpose of the cemetery, it has negative connotations and associations attached to it and, it does not change the fact that the dead who are buried there are or were a loved one to someone else. For instance, during the semester we saw a few people come to into the cemetery to put flowers on their loved one’s graves and to tidy it up a little, this shows us that though we are working in a cemetery for people who did not have the means to have an elaborate funeral, either for themselves or their loved one(s), it does not make them any less human than anyone else. Which is why I like the idea of changing the name of our project name form Hidalgo County Pauper’s Cemetery Project to Hidalgo County Public Cemetery Project. The only problem that I can see with this is that, because of the fact that the word pauper may be more readily known than what a Public Cemetery is exactly, it may garner more interest in the project than a more neutral name for the project. However, I am still in favor of using Public Cemetery instead of Paupers Cemetery as a whole.

The use of a different name of the project helps to influence the kind of attraction that it will garner not only in the general public, but in the academic spheres as well. For example, during the semester we were reading a few academic articles that were similar to the project that we have started here. In these articles it is interesting to see the direction that people take when they start the project. Though I cannot remember the specific article that has originally started with one named and changed it to another, I can remember there being an article written about a project done at a university. In this project they encountered some problems in dealing with a group of people who were looking to maintain their local history. The way that they dealt with this is by listening to the group and attempting to appease them as well as give as much factual evidence as they could. This is one the articles that stood out most to me because I was able to read a little bit more into the way that the project was affecting the community, as well as, having some historical context to the area. The historical context is extremely helpful to me, because as a reader or general public I have less knowledge as to why this project is important not only to the area, but as a whole. Therefore, I believe that it would be beneficial to have a class period or special project for any given semester that would allow for us to talk to the people who are directly affected by this project. I feel that talking to them would allow for a very open communication system that will help us further shape our project.

In terms of the project itself, I believe that we have had a great start in being able to learn how to interact not only with others in our field of study, but with people whose field of study may not outwardly seem to work in conjunction with ours, but ultimately can, as well as learning how this will benefit the community. It will do this by allowing for people to find out who exactly is buried there, for some it may mean being able to finally find their loved ones and for others it will allow for a sort of piece having their loved ones properly documented once again.

Social Justice and Public Archeology

Posted on by leah3050

The Hidalgo Pauper Cemetery is itself a form of marginalization or inequality as the people are separated by social status and economic status. That may have not been the intent or maybe it was but the separation is clear, it is like the separation of the Hidalgo County Pauper Cemetery with the Hillcrest one, there are white post markers that are easy to miss only the color of the grass and the state of the grave markers gives the indication of another cemetery. The Hidalgo County Pauper Cemetery had been neglected over sometime the grass a yellow color unlike the Hillcrest’s green the grave markers easy to identify and neatly placed.
The Hidalgo Pauper Cemetery was overrun by overgrown plants that disrupted the graves but that was not all as the cemetery because a place where people would go do drugs and drink while other people used it as a place to gather energy for their ritual magic. The graves cemetery was seen as a place of self-gain forgetting those buried beneath.
I remember that in Hillcrest there was a retired Border Patrol or Customs agent that was being buried in Hillcrest as men in uniform did the twenty-one-gun salute. This would later shape my thinking about a veteran soldier form World War II who had been buried in the Hidalgo Pauper Cemetery. My classmates and I were curious about when the military had started their own cemeteries for soldiers which seemed to have started in the 1800s. One my classmates asked why hadn’t this veteran been buried among the other veterans? It was a question that we could not answer more research would be needed in order to truly find the reason why. There were several that came to mind though and that was that his family did not have enough money and he was buried there or the military had bypassed him.
There were a lot of children among the individuals that died several of them were still-born, 1-2 years of age or barely going to enter their pre-teen years. Many of them seemed to have died around the same time which made several classmates debate about the environment and socio-economic conditions that occurred during that time that led to so many young deaths.
There is another cemetery along with Hillcrest but this is far out in the corner of the property, the Restlawn Cemetery which is for African American or Blacks who were segregated from the rest. Their cemetery is a prime example of inequality and marginalization. The Hidalgo County Cemetery stopped burying people around the 1990s and individuals who would have been buried there were sent to other private cemeteries but most labeled as John Doe or Jane Doe. The cemetery may have started as a form of marketing burial sites in the new municipal cemetery but it became more than that.
Our project purpose is to make the Hidalgo County Pauper Cemetery be able to have green grass and find the hidden grave markers. During our time in the cemetery we may inadvertently be producing the same inequalities without knowing and meaning to as we forget to some information or we prioritize a section over another. This is however, different from the other inequalities and marginalization as we seek to make all these individuals equal.

 

Community Stakeholders in Public Archeology

Posted on by leah3050

The public is the general public that is to say the people that are not professionally working but volunteer. They have an interest in the public archaeology or the Hidalgo County Pauper Cemetery Project. As students, we are not part of the public but set apart. We are doing this work for several people those in the county, cemetery, community, families and for the deceased themselves.
Changing our conceptions or that of others on what a community is will change not only those that we work with but also the people that we are identifying. From what I understood some of the people were visiting and happen to die here which led them to be buried in the cemetery. Usually they would not be considered part of the community but now that they are dead and are buried among the people that were connected to the community the relationship changes. We as students may be considered outsiders as we do not have family members in the Hidalgo Pauper Cemetery however we are working for the community making us part of it if only for a moment. The are other communities that could get involved such as those that do the same type of work (recording the information on the graves) or those that have done similar work. On the other side, there could be others from the side of the families who could partake in the project.
The stakeholders for the Hidalgo County Pauper Cemetery Project is anyone that become involved like Hidalgo County, the cemetery workers, the University and its staff and students, the families of the dead and those that decide to join and contribute to the project.
There are several communities in the Valley and taking into consideration that defining what a community is can be somewhat obscure. There are several organizations within the community that specialized in helping promote awareness of topics such as these. There are also multiple people that are involved and are part of multiple communities as they intersect with various others.
The communities that include the cemetery and the individuals as members depends on which perspective one is looking from, if the person is including the HCPCP then the number of communities involved increases.
We are a part of the UTRGV community, part of the student community, although we may not be part of the other communities such as the general public or county related people.
The cemetery has a lot of history behind it but I would not be sure if there would be a need of cultural affiliation. What I mean by that is that is the cemetery has a lot of cultural influences that are plain as day but there are also a lot of thigs to consider when applying a cultural affiliation because we do not just want to assume and make a misinterpretation however is there is culture affiliation we show respect that. Culture is important and burial is usually always a big part of it which means that graves just as important.
There may be certain communities that we are forgetting or neglecting although this is not done with intentional purpose. There are communities that we are not aware of and taking into account that we are not part of all these communities involved there is a limit on the information and background we can accrue in order to involve more communities. Although the other communities that are already involved in the project may be able to close the gap and offer a clearer picture
There are several power dynamics involved that have gained interest in the cemetery like the county and the university who are the ones that made it possible to create the project in the first place.

Ethics and Public Archeology

Posted on by leah3050

The public archaeology described by Jameson differs from the PAR approach described in McGhee, Jameson writes about how to allow equal interpretation, educating people, realizing it is a public resource and what archeology has to offer. The Participatory Action Research or PAR, McGehee writes how it is the community that has all the power and they show be the ones that lead the social change. Although both talk about the individual and the collective whole, what role archeologist play in the community and how all this is organized.
These different approaches suggest that there is an importance placed on ethics that public archeology must follow which create rules that are applied to the projects. There are ethical boundaries that archeologist follow because there is always the debate of who owns it, controls it and its interpretation.
These are some of the question found in the McGhee article that play into the criticisms and what both sides need affecting collaboration and response.
The following questions are from the communities/organizations perspectives:
• Is the researcher willing to follow the community/organization’s lead?
A researcher is not part of the community or organization but both should find common ground to work on because it is important to work together, especially since it is public archeology. However, the researcher depending on the project may not be able to follow the community/organization’s lead just due to the fact that there are so many factors involved one primarily is that the researcher is technically an outsider with an insider’s view.
• How good is the researcher at meeting deadlines?
In our case our project may not be completed because we are working on a semester time’s which means that our time is limited. The deadlines are always important especially when there is a lot of data collection and organization preparation that needs to be done.
• Can the researcher communicate in a community context?
A researcher should be able to communicate within a community context there would be not point if the people involved cannot communicate together. Misunderstanding are bound to happen and could potentially increase the inability to communicate effectively.
• What experience does the researcher have?
In our case, HCPCP, we as students have limited experience however we do have certain skills that allow us to participate in this project in the first place, we have studied and researched, gaining experience as we work.

These questions are from the researcher’s perspective:
• Does the community/organization have the capacity to participate?
The community does have the capacity to participate in this project and contribute in various aspects of it. There are things that we as “outsiders” cannot do which is gather information we as students are not privy to or organizing without the connections.
• What are the established community-based organizations, do they exist?
There are several established community-based organizations that could be of potential help such as LUPE among others that could be interested in the project, who want to understand how this will impact the community.
• What resources can the community organization contribute?
Like I had mentioned above the community can offer information that we do not have access to or did not think of. They can offer what we cannot like the families who are connected to the cemetery, their stories and involvement.
• Does the community/organization have research needs you can fulfill?
This question links to the others above as the community learns about what we are doing in the cemetery, collecting and recording information.
There will always be that debate involving the dead, although we are not digging anyone up we are entering a space (not as family or cemetery workers) that we do not belong. However, we are trying to bring the community together in another way by reidentifying or contacting families so that the history of the people buried there is not forgotten, hidden or ignored. We cannot do this without the help of the community. The community is the one that decides how far we can go with this project and how important it will become in it.

 

Final reflection essay

Posted on by spaiz1995

This Semester our class participated in a public archaeology project that centered around the Hidalgo county pauper cemetery, our goal was to record as much data as possible in order to create a data base for the future classes and in order to reach out into the community in order to connect family member to those who may have been buried there. It was not only enlightening socially but also helped me come to conclusions about my own future career goals.  Actually seeing the differences between the pauper cemetery and the hill crest cemetery which was literally feet away really struck home about the social differences many people faced even at death. This also provided me a chance to not only test if archeology was really something I wished to due after graduation i also provided me with experience I can take with me in my future career pursuits.
During the first two weeks we did not go out to the cemetery but instead stayed on campus and discussed the semantics of the project as well as everyone’s jobs. It was also during this time that we where first introduced to the total station. Professor Rowe explained to us how it worked and how to set it up correctly. On our first day out in the field we stated data collection which turned out to be much more work then I had originally thought it would be This consisted of entering the names , birth/ death dates ,head stone design and material and all other relevant information in to the App KOBO toolbox . The app program did not always work many times the data we collected did not upload correctly and we had to do many graves all over again .The app also  had a habit of not only draining my phones battery very fast but over heating it as well their where a few occasions when my partner or I would have to but our phones in my water pack in order to cool off. But even so data collection continued for the majority of the class.  I averaged about five to six   data entry’s along with my partner sometimes even more if the software was being cooperative that day. When not ding data collection I did other tasks including working the total station. When on the total station I collected the points for various objects including a few graves and the boarder posts. his was a long and sometimes difficult process and if do anything after you set it up such as lean on it you have to do again and possibly all of the points you have taken could be invalid. Setting up the total station is a long process in itself finding the correct position to ensure everything is leveled took quite a bit of time. Once it was set up as long as there where no physical obstructions finding the prism window was relatively easy especially since you on had to move a couple of inches to find the next point . Though there where times that the total station was hard , like when I had to go out into the brush for a boarder post or when a tree was in the way and no matter what we did we could not map the point correctly or when we took some of the points from the wrong position.  There where other jobs that had to be done as well such as labeling and setting out the grave markers I only did this once at the end we ended up having over a 1000 different marked sites. There where others that where unmarked that where found using cadaver dogs on the last week on site.
When we were not out in the field we had outside assignment to keep up with. They were our blog posts  in the beginning we were required to do at least 8 out of the 11 that professor rowe posted but that number has since been reduced to only 6. The posts were based on questions about our reading , for example out first post was what pubic archeology meant to us and how and what  we personally felt our project was set o accomplish with in our local community. I really enjoyed this type of class structure because it allowed us to fully focus on our project during class time. While the out side posting assignments were flexible as long as we got them done correctly. This also allowed me the chance to focus on the work load from other classes as well. But i do understand that it could have gone better , I recommend that not only are students require to do the blog post but to also comment and critique their class mates blog posts using original content and references. This will allow student to see how each other is doing and to off feed back and exchange and debate ideas. There by creating a dialog.
During our last class meeting we  discussed how improve our project next semester, there where many great idea that I believe if incorporated correctly our project will b able to help a lot more people within the community. Some of ideas that I think we should incorporate are that we should try and reach out more to the to the pubic and try and become more involved in gathering information. Some of the ways that this could be done is reaching out to funeral homes , churches , and hospitals in order to try and obtain some of the records that may help us identify who exactly is buried with in the paupers cemetery and to try and get in touch with their families in order to learn more about the situations that led them to being buried in the paupers cemetery. We should also look at the court records for more information. This may help us clear up the confusion about the in properly buried hillcrest caskets . I also hope that we will eventually go forward with the plan of  giving a presentation during the annual Archeological society of America’s  meeting I feel like this will help those of us that wish to peruse a career in archaeology make valuable connections with  leader in the field.

Stakeholders and Communities in HCPCP

Posted on by spaiz1995

Within our project there are two groups of stakeholders us and the those who are interested within the community. We as students have dedicated time and effort to the HCPCP , during both class time and individual research . We students are invested in the project but not due to personal reasons unlike those on the community . People with in the community are interested in our project for various reasons comes to connections to the community and with each other in the Rio Grande Valley . Many people here can trace their ancestry back to the firsincluding helping find loved ones and deciphering family histories or even researchers that are  interested in the history of the Rio Grande Valley. There are several different communities that exist with the RGV including religious groups , family groups , and ethic groups . Family is a very important definer when it t RGV families that came from Mexico , it is not uncommon for one to consider themselves related to over half of a school in some places. If one person is not is not connected by family religion and ethic background are next. There are also sub communities like what school you graduated from or those who are veterans. The communities that are involved with the cemetery  are the people of hidalgo county  , specifically those of Mexican -American descendant due to the fact that the majority of people who are in the Hidalgo County Pauper Cemetery or of this ethnicity . I do believe that many people with in our project can claim to be part of the community we wish to work with some more than others . I am part of hidalgo county and am of Mexican American descent , but have no personal stake in the project outside of academics , but another student has told me that she and her family hope to find a relative that is buried with in the cemetery , so she more apart of the community than I am.
Ideally we should be of the cultural affiliation of those we are conducting research on but in case where that is not possible we must remember to be aware of the cultural practices and beliefs of the community and be sure to respect them when ever possible. And to not draw conclusions about the what was found with out background research from the community unlike the African Burial Ground Project “The potential for stereotype, sterile and  denigrating interpretations of the site ….became increasingly apparent to the African American community”(La Roche , pg 88).
If we choose to work exclusively with the Mexican American community of hidalgo county we are excluding all the other ethnic groups , because while the majority of those who are buried with in the cemetery are those of the Mexican American communities there are those who of different ethicizes as well who have just as much right to be involved. Focusing too much on the family can also hurt our project by us neglecting those who have no familial ties but wish to be involved anyway like community leaders and researchers. Possible power dynamics that can arise  include between and within us  students and the different community groups .We as student wish to focus on research gathering and data collection while those of the community may wish to locating specific graves for family members. There is also the issue that we have in across of community members not wanting us to conduct our research or not understanding exactly what we are doing. A women cam by too clean a family members grave because she though we would bulldozing any forgotten graves. We must be respectful of the wishes of the community while also pursuing our research  , and to also keep the community informed and deny any rumors of destruction of the cemetery while explaining exactly what we are doing.

 

La Roche, Cheryl J. and Michael L. Blakey (1997) Seizing Intellectual Power: The Dialogue at the New York African Burial Ground. Historical Archaeology 31(3):84-106. http://www.jstor.org.ezhost.utrgv.edu:2048/stable/25616551

Final Thoughts

Posted on by silver9tails

My thoughts on this class (Public Archaeology) is that the class is definitely worth taking for any student to take, regardless if their major is an Anthropology or any other major, students should definitely take this class. This class is definitely a nice change of pace as instead of simply being in a classroom and focusing on a bunch of lectures, we got to go out on the field and do some actual field work, something that I feel needs to more integrated for both juniors and seniors (regardless if they’re going for their Bachelors degree or Masters). This class was a breath of fresh air as we the students were allowed to get our hands dirty and do genuine field work, all at our own steady pace. This is especially great for me since I prefer to actually do physical work rather than sit and read (especially since I’ve become more of a Kinesthetic learner), as a result this class was just what I both needed and liked. The class is only once a week, for two in a half hours though if you want or if you have extra time you can put the extra effort on either that day or when you have a day to do it, provided you at least let Dr. Rowe know, so I feel anyone who takes this class (especially since it’s on a Friday) should be able to make it to this class.

 

The tools we used for this class was sadly short, besides the standard measuring tapes and a website we used for our data collection we also used the total station which was fun to use and once you got the hang of it (as well as go through the pain staking long set up) it was quite easy. Of course, considering the fact that this was an experimental class and was its first term its acceptable that there wasn’t going to be a lot of equipment for this class so it’s understandable and hopefully as the class gets to stay in the school’s curriculum it gets more funded to allow more tools to be used whether it be for the data collection or for the fieldwork. The dogs that showed up on the last day were also fun to have around sniffing for any hidden graves as well as making sure some of the graves we marked were actual graves, though sadly we didn’t get to spend too much time with them seeing as how they were well trained and focused on finding said hidden graves.

 

The only major complaint regarding this class is the readings and writing assignments that this class will have you do, I myself found these as strange since the class focused so much on field work and research and you’d end up getting so into this you’d end up quite possibly forgetting about the readings and writing assignments, this has happened to most of the class myself included. In fact, while I mostly enjoyed this classes field work I had to focus on my other classes own reading and writing assignments I completely forgot about this classes own assignments till Dr. Rowe reminded us, unfortunately due to my other classes and their own readings I had to put my focus on those instead of putting it on this class especially for the final projects my other classes had for the end of the semester, as a result there simply wasn’t  any time for me to actually do this classes assignments. While I’m not sure exactly what would have been a good substitute for this, I think not only showing up for the class, especially since we only went to the graveyard for what’s essentially a week, but also doing as much research for the graves would have been enough as well as this final paper, which is also fine as it help to push this class more for those who are interested. The readings should have been more along the lines of a recommendation rather than a requirement, and if it was an absolute requirement it should have been for a mid-term/final exam rather than smaller writing assignments.

 

My advice is to take this class when you don’t have other classes that makes you do a lot of reading and writing assignments, or even classes that will make you do a lot of work in general nor should you take classes that are more important to you such as classes for your major, as those will only get in the way of doing this classes own reading assignments. If you take this class while either simultaneously taking other classes that will have you do a lot of work or by taking a lot of classes than the average four is very stressful and it will ultimately force you to either drop this class or one of the other classes your currently taking, and no one wants to do that especially for such a good hardworking class such as this one or one of the major classes that you need for your major.

 

Despite this, the class itself is still fun and definitely worth taking or even volunteering as it helps the community by both expanding on their history that they might not have known about (I certainly didn’t know about this cemetery when my family and I moved here) as well as giving people some measure of closure  for locating old or even lost/forgotten family members that they might not have known too much about. This  class is a step in the right direction for hopefully future classes that both want and will have a more hands on approach, which I feel is definitely great for students as they can get the hands on experience that students would normally read in books or hear about through lectures, which I feel is way more important (though readings and lectures are still important) as it is required for the students to actually use and demonstrate their experience in their future jobs and careers.

Final Reflection

Posted on by leah3050

The Hidalgo County Public Cemetery Project (or formally known as the Hidalgo County Pauper Cemetery Project) may not seem like something grand to some people but to others it does not only tell history of the community but holds the memories of their loved ones. The project taught me many things such as: how important all the people we identify are, the ethics applied, different types of technology used and how this impacts the community.
The people located in the cemetery were strangers to me when I first arrived and the cemetery but as I worked with my classmates I got to meet several of them, some I do not know much about but the fact that they are there was clear. The cemetery was not in good shape and that was partly the reason for us being there but people still cared and visited the cemetery that had been overcome by time and nature. It seemed like a lonely place compared to Hillcrest cemetery at its side but it was just as important.
I learned that the people buried in the cemetery were either those whose families could not afford to pay or people who died while visiting the Rio Grande Valley. There is a variety of people buried in the cemetery from children to adults, those that lived long and those that did not get to start it, all these people who have their own individual histories that connect to this one place. When the project began and that first day out there I felt overwhelm with several feelings and emotions because I did not know what direction this project would take us. Would the families be angry at us as we intruded upon this sacred place? Is it insensitive to record the data, as we take measurements of the grave markers or we read the inscriptions upon them? Is what we are doing truly going to benefit the community? I had all these other questions swirling around in my mind but the answers were not those I had expected and changed the questions entirely. The families were not angry, in fact they were happy as we helped identify their loved ones and sometimes learn more about them. Collecting the data caused a misinterpretation with visitors as they believed we were inspecting the cemetery but fear was something I felt too. I was afraid because I did not want to offend any of them as we measured, took pictures, set down flags trying our best not to disturb the graves around us as we walked among the them. The last question about the project benefiting the community, changed. At first it was how would this benefit the community but after we got approval form not only the county but several of the families it was: How to we keep the project going and improve it? I realized that the work we were doing was more important because yes this was for the living but it was also for the dead, giving them back their identities that had been obscured by time and nature.
I was usually in charge of measuring the grave markers, but it did not matter if you were the one taking the picture of the marker and offerings, taking measurements, converting those measurements, recording the names, date of death and birth and any other information. All of these required us to get close to the graves and made sure that we did our best to collect any information we could in order to identify who was buried there. I did not get to use all the technology that was present for the project but based on the experiences of my classmates and Dr. Rowe it was a time-consuming process that will be worth it in the end because it will allow us to create a map of not only the cemetery but of each individual grave. There were times that there was nothing other than a homemade grave marker that indicated there was someone buried there but there was no name, dates or anything but the maker and sometimes some offerings. This meant we had to do more research and find the peoples’ records. As the class came to an end we discussed how to improve the project using different resources to broaden our pools of information and connect it back to the community.
After the Day of the Dead everyone noticed the cleaned graves and the new offerings making the place seem brighter, making us happy and excited as we revisited the graves. This showed that the people we were working to identify were still being celebrated but also reminded us that there were some graves that still needed to be recorded and by the end hopefully have enough to find family members that have been searching form them or do not know about them because of the passage of time. I think that those involved wanted the cemetery to look like those around it (like Hillcrest), with vibrant green grass to match the brightly colored flower offerings.
There are many questions surrounding the relationship between the different cemeteries given their proximity to one another and whether boundaries were crossed. The Hidalgo County Pauper Cemetery is supposed to be free but there are some people that say otherwise, all these things tie back into the history of the place and the communities that lived during those times. As we uncover more than just identities of the people buried there but the history of the cemeteries as well as they intertwine with the lives and death of different people.
The Hidalgo County Public Cemetery project still has a lot of room to improve and is still growing. My class was the first to experience this project but it will not be the last and it was just the beginning as more of the community gets involved and information is uncovered. The cemetery is slowly changing as graves are rediscovered, identities reestablished and families are reconnected.

Digital Techniques for Public Archaeology

Posted on by rowdy21

“Digital engagement with archaeology may bring along new and particular ethical issues that should be adequately pondered and weighed up front in so far as this is possible. By means of example, some forms of digital engagement that rely strongly on voluntarism and on the donation of time, skills and knowledge in support of activities proposed by archaeological organisations have been criticized as exploiting free labour and contributing to neo-liberalist economies (Perry and Beale 2015).” I found this part of the article very interesting because it shows me that digital techniques can engage in the public archaeology life. From the experience I got at the cemetery we used a lot of devices, special our phones to collect the data. Its very interesting how we can use our own devices in archaeology. Its crazy because when i was younger i though archaeology was really just excavating and finding lost treasure, but in reality its so many different things. To me i believe public archaeology is trying to keep the culture alive and the forgotten restored.