I find it important for universities to have archaeology as a major.Learning archaeology helps the students develop various skills across many disciplines including critical thinking. Archaeology can be included in a comprehensive curriculum for social science, history, mathematics,environmental studies,and art. It also touches on the entire spectrum of human behavior and a series of questions. Archaeology helps students appreciate history from different points of references, and also teaches students about other cultures. Hands on experience is very important when it comes to Archaeology. It’s a great experience for students to have, and they get to learn to do field work at the same time. There’s not many schools that offer Archaeology, and it makes it very difficult for students that what to major in that. It was amazing that UTRGV offers a hands on experience. Fields schools are very expensive, and theirs not many of them either. In conclusion there should be more universities that offer archaeology as a major, as well as more field work so students can have the opportunity to experience hands on experiences.
Blog
Communities and Stakeholders
In the HCPC project I think that the stakeholders is the Hidalgo county and the community. In the valley there are many communities and there are too many to list or even keep track of. If this deals with the cemetery itself then I would probably say the Hispanic and the Mexican communities but there could be more people who I don’t know about. I would say that it depends on the person and how well they connect with the people but I would say that we aren’t entirely part of the community because we haven’t been there long enough or have enough connections to be considered a true member of the community. I don’t have a clear opinion on whether investigations should be conducted without a cultural affiliation. I am mostly leaning towards no and that is mainly because the project or whatever it is part of their community and culture so they should have some say over it. When conducting an investigation someone will always be forgotten or neglected but there isn’t a certain structure on communities so we can’t exactly be sure that if we work with this certain community some other community won’t be payed attention to. One power dynamic that I think is part of this cemetery would probably be between the people of the community that actually have family in the cemetery and a personal connection to it and the people that don’t have a personal connection and just see it as a way to learn more about history without seeing that it is important to someone.
Ongoing data collection
The data collection for this public archaeology fieldwork course has to be one of the best parts for me. The first day had some nice weather for the spring semester as I arrived at the cemetery. It’s a fairly filled cemetery so I did get lost until I found that we would all be at a corner end of the cemetery. Richardson Rd is actually about eight minutes away from my home so it has been a friendly commute every Friday.
It was great to start off the semester with in class meetings as an introduction to the course, project and all the things necessary for the rest of the school year. I knew what to expect but also thought there would be more to collect once at the cemetery. What made it easy is that all I needed was a charged phone, a ruler, and a sheet with grave descriptions to start the day. Many details of a cemetery that I did not previously know were very interesting to me. The stone type, material, carvings, and even that most graves face to the east side.
I paid close attention to each individual buried and what family had left to remember them by. Even those that really didn’t have anything or was badly damaged has a story. At first it was difficult to walk around and not feel rude or disturbing of the area. I didn’t want to walk over anything so delicate and important. Being there really made me think of the life each person had and really what I have too, that is valuable and irreplaceable. It doesn’t matter what age or gender, there was a variety to see and reflect on. Rather than leave things on a sad note, the important thing is that data collection itself is for a much bigger picture. We are being respectful of the graves and ethical that nothing nor anyone is being harmed in the process.
The public cemetery lost records, has missing graves or are destroyed and the best thing we could do is restore it. Each grave has a number, a name, and other valuable information. It helps the county’s cemetery and the community of people who share family’s there. It’s not forgotten, but rather fragile that simply needs some restoration to improve it. The data collection process is thorough and I can imagine the time it took to flag and number each one. Over 1,000 graves and all different. Each time I collected, I became more familiar with the marker type and material and saw/learned something new. It feels good knowing that every day we added more into the project to help it grow and build with the community. Not a day felt wasted, including the short rainy days or the very hot long ones. It was important to take the time on each grave and input everything the best we would. What comes next is organizing the long extensive excel sheet and finally placing a name to a number and then mapping each one.
Great data collection experience!
Reflection
This is the first semester that I have taken ANTH 4385 and I really enjoyed this class if I had space in my schedule I would have taken this course again. One of the things that I liked best in this class was that we were outside of the classroom and doing work with our own hands. When I had first signed up for the class I wasn’t exactly certain what we were going to do but I did know that I needed it for my major. I did think that we would be working instead of just reading and classwork. When we had our first class meeting it was a little intimidating because there wasn’t much information on what we were going to be doing. One of the things that I can still remember is that someone said that we would get the hang of it and I must agree with that. The first time that we went to the cemetery was kind of intimidating, but it was a lot easier because we had ended up splitting into pairs and if we were both new we could talk to each other and figure things out and know that we weren’t alone in feeling lost. By the end of the semester it was easy to fall into an easy-going rhythm. This class was interesting because I’ve never really taken another course like this or another project like it. It was also very informative and educational especially with the reading that we had to read each week. The reading were kind of hard to understand but after reading them it was interesting to see how they connected back to the work that we were doing at the cemetery and to the readings before and after it. Another thing that I found interesting was the actual work that we were doing in the cemetery. I had never really thought that archaeology could be anywhere even in a cemetery. One thing that don’t really understand would be why we recorded the material that the headstone was made of. Was it to help identify the grave or was it to learn more about the person? Like I imagine that a person with a wooden marker might not have had as much money as someone with a limestone one but that’s just a guess. This class did have problems, but they weren’t that big of a deal or a huge inconvenience. One of them was the technology but I’m mostly talking about the website and app. Kobo toolbox wasn’t really the easiest to work with but I’m not sure if that has to do with my phone or the actual website. It sometimes didn’t let you upload picture and when it did that you would have to reload the grave that you were working on. Something else that was kind of an inconvenience was the weather but that’s just mainly because I never check the weather before going to the cemetery, so I end up getting surprised if it ends up drizzling or being too sunny.
The way that I think this class should change in the future would be to maybe do more to let the students of UTRGV know that we have this class. Before signing up for this class I never knew that we classes like it. When I told my sister what this class was about they didn’t know about it either, but they were interested in it. So, I think that if more students were aware of this class and classes like it they would be excited to register. Something else that I think should change with this class is the way that we connect with the community. The way the class is right now feels like we aren’t really connecting with the community and letting them know what we are doing and getting them involved or interested in the project. So, I think something about that should also change. Overall this class was amazing, and it taught me a lot about archaeology and archaeologists that I didn’t know about and it did it in a fun and interesting way.
Digital Techniques
As time inevitably progresses so does the technology that governs most of our lives. Technology can be seen as a new organism introduced to our human environment, when introduced people must adapt to it or perish by it, however in doing so astonishing things can be accomplished if technology can be used in the correct manner. on the other hand when it comes to introducing new forms of technology into archaeology. “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 criticised as exploiting free labour and contributing to neo-liberalist economies (Perry and Beale 2015). The outcomes of heritage crowdsourcing practices (see case study 5.1) have also been critiqued for affirming ‘truths’ constructed by majorities, and often excluding the alternative views of minorities (e.g. Harrison 2010). Furthermore, open geographic information can pose ethical challenges related to its potential use by looters to feed illicit trades of antiquities (Bevan 2012), and citizens taking part in heritage monitoring via web or mobile crowdsourcing (e.g. Cultural Heritage Monitor) may incur risks to their personal security.” meaning that a lot of work requires time and vast amount of people that can and are able to help in a certain project, but as archaeologist we do not want to follow or seem like neo-liberals who will exploit volunteers or privatize the archaeological project. As far as crowdsourcing goes it is a great way to connect with people without even meeting them in person, and it is an excellent way of recruiting paid or unpaid volunteers, however there are ethical issues involved in which the volunteers personal information may be violated. it seems with new technology comes new and more strict responsibilities, responsibilities to protect he people and to protect the archaeological project.
For one I personally believe that technology when used correctly can be of great help to the field of archaeology, instead of using ground penetrating radar, heat sensing cameras, or drones for military purposes. we can use them to better understand our selves in the past. Instead of using artificial intelligence to turn on our lights and regulate our air conditioning system, archaeologist can be using artificial intelligence to reconstruct decaying historical monumental building that may never be seems again, but with the use of technology can be saved into a hard drive or USB. Technology can be our savior when it comes to preserving human history, but it can also be our peril as it is much more evident to this day. then comes the funding for these technologies, who will be interested it digitally resurrecting a 5,000 year old building? Money should be set aside from the federal government for the sciences and social sciences such as anthropology, archaeology and sociology alike. 3D technology should be implemented into our cemetery project as long as there is a budget for the technology because. this cemetery may seize to exist in the near future, furthermore there are many graves without headstones, in digitally creating a headstone for the individual that was to humble to afford a headstone we are commemorating and and righteously honoring the dead.
Bibliography
“Key Concepts in Public Archaeology.” UCLPRESS,
Final Reflection Spring 2018
Being able to be a part of the Hidalgo Count Public Cemetery Project was more than what I expected. I first heard about the project through Dr. Rowe as I had her for Introduction to Archaeology in the Fall semester of 2017. That semester was also my first at the Edinburg campus since the merging of UTB and UTPA. Even though the merge has made it harder for me to take the classes I need here in Brownsville, I am also very grateful for it. Without the merge I would not have had the oppurtunity to be able to have a diverse selection of professors and courses. When I first decided I wanted to major in Anthropology I was leaning onto more of a linguistic, and cultural aspect of it. Being introduced to Archaeology definitely made me want to lean towards that path as well. I believe many do not have a clear view of anthropology or archaeology and with this project, it allows us to engage with the community and be able to give back.
When I first started the course I was not sure what to expect exactly. However, on the first day at the cemetery I knew it was a class I could actually look forward to going to every Friday morning. The first day, many of the new students to the project (including myself) were getting the gist of how everything works such as; what information exactly we needed to collect, how to record it, how the equipment works, and how to interpret what we see.
The cemetery is not just our ‘workspace’ or ‘just a course’, because it is so much more than that. It allows us as students to engage with our own community and be able to learn from it as well. We have used equipment archaeologists use on the field thanks to UTRGV. The equipment we use are; tablets, structure scanner, total station, drones, and cellphones. Other sources for our project have been human remains detection dogs, information from family members who loved ones are buried at the cemetery, and in the future we hope to be able to use a ground-penetrating radar. I personally have been able to access the total station which maps graves. The total station scans fixed points in the cemetery, and records image data points at individual grave markers. The only issue we have faced using the total station is when trees or branches are in the way, but luckily we are able to adjust heights, and sometimes we are able to move the branches slightly out of the way. We take turns using the total station as there are so many of us involved in the course, and the rest partake in data collection. For the data collecting aspect, we use a site known as KoboToolBox. This file allows us to insert information regarding the grave such as; images of the grave, describing offerings placed, measurements of the head stones, the information regarding the individuals name, birthday, death date, direction of the grave, and indicating whether there have been repairs to the head stone. Even though we are not connected to wifi, the file still saves to the folder on the app, and once we are connected to wifi we can manually upload each file. After this semester most of the graves have been recorded, there might be a few left to record.
I have registered for the class next semester, and I hope to further help the project along with my colleagues. We hope to make the data we collected accessible to the public by arranging it accordingly. We also hope to be able to use the drone more to get arial photos of the cemetery, and the ground-penetrating radar. With the ground-penetrating radar we hope to be able to discover more unmarked graves if any left. Something Dr. Rowe brought to our attention was we could possibly have a Día de los Muertos, also known as the Day of the Dead, event at the cemetery. Día de los Muertos is a famous holiday particularly throughout Mexico, and anywhere there are individuals of Mexican descent. It is where family members gather by their loved ones grave and honor their deceased loved ones and ancestors. I believe this is an amazing idea for the community, and hopefully we will be able to hear first hand the history of the individuals buried there through their families. Families will be able to understand what we are doing with the project as well!
Some of the students in the course including myself submitted our project to the Engaged Scholar Symposium 2018 thanks to Dr. Rowe who introduced the event to us and helped us. Together we were able to learn more of the history of the cemetery, and showed an overall view of what the Hidalgo County Public Cemetery consists of. We won first place in the Service-Learning Poster category! It was an awesome experience, and hopefully we can add more results and data next time there is an Engaged Scholar Symposium. Our project was able to be publicized due to this, and we hope to get more people involved with it.
Something I personally learned from being a part of this amazing project is that even in a cemetery, there is still so much life. Being able to see family members visit their loved ones, leaving offerings for them, and seeing nature continue to grow from the wild flowers and beautiful trees. It really is such a peaceful place, and being able to give identification back to those who could have lost it due to time or due to weather feels nice to do for others. We are not just some students doing this because we have to for a course, we are doing this because we want to and we feel a connection with this project. By being able to learn, and to give back to the community make its that much more aspiring for us. We hope to shed more light on this project so that as a community we can come together and take this even further.
Final Reflection
Fall 2018, the first step of this project was full of ideas and unknowns. Meeting the requirement of 15 students was the first hurdle this course endured. While the class was being filled by the first group of student wanting to partake in this project. The university worked hard to acquire the necessary permits to allow the course to do fieldwork. Dr Rowe with her hopes held high, discussed her concerns and goals to us in our first class meeting. The list of unknowns grew within the first hour, we did not know the conditions that the cemetery was in, how many graves were visible, if all the graves had headstones, if there was going to a flat place of land to set up the total station (a machine that is a key part of this project), the list went on and on. A few weeks had pasted before the permits were approved, and we took our first steps on the cemetery grounds. The fall semester was full of trial and error but also success. We left the cemetery with a headstone count of 1,015 and 20 unmarked graves that were found by cadaver dogs.
Spring 2018, picking up right where we left off, we again started gathering data from each marked grave. With the help from the previous semesters technological problems we were able to configure a better Kobo toolbox list. Making the task of gathering data per grave a much faster and easier process. With the new Kobo list we were able to collect the marker design, marker type, marker material, orientation of the grave, over all dimensions of the headstone, if there were carved surfaces, overall condition in other words is the headstone was soiled, or stained, etc…. We also recorded the individual’s information, what grave offerings if any and if was a grave slump. With the large amount of data gathered, others following our findings may conduct further research in to a single individual or the cemetery as a whole. An other added benefit from this semester was we were able to have the total station out on the first outdoor class. This task so far have proven to be tedious. I spent the majority of this semester working with this slow going machine. It seemed as each time we began to step up the total station we would forget a simple step which then caused us to start the process all over again. Thanks to Dr. Rowe the setup of the total station did become a easier process but, still it a task in which we needed her assistance. As the course continued we spent the majority of our time outdoors, we left the cemetery with few graves needing data collection and many graves needed to be mapped with the total station. With the help from Dr. Rowe this project will be a great accomplishment. She has worked hard to proved the community with information of what this project aims to accomplish.
Collecting data and assisting community members who have came in search of lost loves have been top priority from the beginning of this project. As the project continues there are many more goals this course seeks to accomplish, mapping with the total station will resume in hopes that a digital map of cemetery may developed, the map will include information we have gathered via Kobo, a picture of each grave, a exact location per grave, and a drone view image of the cemetery. Giving individuals access to view graves of loved ones while also providing further assistants to other who wish to use the data gathered for research.
Thanks to the hard work of all involved this project will be a great contribution to the not only to the families with relatives within the cemetery, but many others that have interest in this historic cemetery. Within the semester and the last I have learned many skills and am grateful to have taken part in this once in a life time experience. Working side by side with Dr. Rowe has given me a opportunity to experience the world of public archaeology. Moving forward from this course I can use the skills I have learned both the academically and professionally in the next chapter of my life.
Communicating Archeology
In the “Hidden Audience” by Allen (2002) he speaks of having a “worst nightmare critic”, a monster from with we all may or may not have. With this project I have more chances to explain our work through light conversions with friends, classmates, and family. When speaking about the objective of this project I have always received a positive response. I can say the same for the writing part of this course. We has a class are taking the risk of putting of thoughts out for all to see on our blog. In doing so I believe thanks to all our individual thoughts and creativeness we as a group create a place that the hidden audience from of one classmates response can find themselves creating a connection to an other individual writer.
Given that most of the pieces we have read for this class have been aimed for higher class of reader. The 10 rules Allen’s suggest are present but as student I sometimes feel as an outsider of the audience. Seeing how our class relates to some of the readings does give a closer look to what our blogs responses can become. Reading the advanced pieces gives us great step in the learning experience to know how others contextualizes their own projects.
As we continue this project we should be more expressive by possibly giving the students to express what it is the project means to them. By having one or two response available for this course without an advanced reading peice attached to it. Or maybe finding other readings that are done by students could lessen the gap between our responses and the more advanced Archaeologist. Having these readings have given some insights to Archaeological world but what has it done for the other individuals wanting to learn more about this project? This project is indeed has many components, an yet we have not been fully able to share them with outsiders of the project. Our readers should know how meaningful this project is. How we are giving names to individuals that have lost their identity’s due to possible weather corrosion on headstones. Finding information or locating individuals that had no headstone from the day they were laid to rest. How we have help individuals reconnect to family members graves they thought they would never find again.These are the stories the community understand and speak about with the members of this project.
Final Reflection
Participating in the Hidalgo County Public Cemetery Project (HCPCP), Spring 2018, has taught me how to conduct public archaeology within a cemetery. The great part about this course was that it was in the local area of Edinburg, Texas near the UTRGV campus. It helps us understand better the local history as well as work with the community.
What I learned in the HCPCP semester is how to collect data from each individual grave. With our personal phones, we downloaded an app called KoBo Toolbox that asked to input the recorders name, date and grave number. Each grave had its personal number marked in a flag, which was check-marked when data collection was complete. After that, we added the marker information such as images, descriptive appearance, dimensions, inscriptions, and of course if the name and date of the deceased are still visible. Sadly, some of the grave markers were underground or illegible, making it difficult to get the full name and date. Since we were only allowed to clear the area from weeds, it was not possible to uncover the underground graves. Some graves had only part of their name visible or part of the date whereas others had nothing visible. Yet, a lot of other graves were recorded with full names and dates. Perhaps for those monuments who were impossible to determine the inscriptions can be later found in the list provided by the HCPC owner. This is why it is very important to not miss any graves for later on the data can be analyzed to fill in the blanks.
Not all the graves were recorded because we ran out of time. There are about 90 graves still needing to be recorded in the KoBo Toolbox. Anyone is welcomed to go into the HCPC to collect data. For those who already known Dr. Sarah Row, they are free to go and help finish the recording. If someone else wants to do volunteer work that is possible as well. I am not sure if anyone can sign up through the Engagement Zone website: https://ez.utrgv.edu/ but it would be convenient if they could. Maybe that is something to think about, creating volunteer need or an event at the moment when UTRGV classes are over. But aside from that, anyone can contact the project coordinator, Dr. Row, to volunteer or for personal information upon the HCPCP project through the HCPCP website: https://hcpcp.wordpress.com/contact/.
Within our phones, there were some problems faced with the KoBo Toolbox app. One was that the app would overheat the phones, making the phones die in the field. Perhaps, this was the reason why some marked graves flags did not save the recorded data. To avoid this problem in the future, it would be best to bring portable chargers. Even more, some student’s phones were not able to download the app. For those students, they should be given diverse tasks, like placing new flags to the broken or faded flags, sorting already collected data at the lab room, using the Total Station, working with another student to record the grave monuments, etc. This will help the student feel needed in the course rather than lost since they have a phone that does not comply with the app. Aside from that, it was good that the app was able to save and later submit the recorded graves for some phones received no signal at the HCPC.
Another great benefit in participating with the HCPCP is learning how to use a Topcon GTS-753 Electronic Total Station. This equipment maps the top surface of the cemetery. The main task was to take four points of each grave to give a sized image of the monument. In this part of the project, we did not get very far because it is very time-consuming and only have one Total Station. I know that the team was thinking of getting an additional Total Station but it might make the mapping more difficult in the end run. There would have to be two stable points and then to add both information to the end result map can be overwhelming. I am not sure if other archaeologists have used multiple Total Stations, but if they have and it is not difficult to collect both datasets into one then two machines would be best. Hopefully, this can help the grave mapping pick up a faster pace. For the next HCPCP semester, it would be nice on the first day of class to go over how the Total Station works. Maybe even bring the Total Station to class and set it up so students can understand how both tripods work. Also, with the class projector, show the students how to use the portable device. Show them where we have left off and how to input the information. This will help the ones working with the Total Station have some background knowledge before using the technical device.
Aside from all the outside fieldwork, the course provided various readings that helped us the students understand how public archaeology works, data collection, benefits for the community project participants, and others, as well as how mapping can show historical markers. What was missing was actually reading about local history within the area. If readings about the region were included, the students can further connect their fieldwork with the region’s culture. With this, one can further appreciate the work that is being done.
An intriguing factor that stood out at the HCPC is how some graves were so old. I saw a grave dated from the U.S. and Mexico revolution period. How did they get there? Was that location their original burial? Or were they moved? Also, we saw that mainly towards the back of the cemetery there was voodoo dolls and other voodoo ritual practices going on. Maybe providing more feedback about such culture can help us understand more of their religious practices. I would like to know what they mean, especially the wax ball covered with thread that at times was found hanging from trees.
I did not mind the assigned reading responses, but I do think it might get old for some students that have already taken the course. If there are other projects that are more time to consume, like making a poster, perhaps that can replace a grade from the needing to do all writing assignments. Moreover, as discussed in class, having the students choose a certain grave to do research on would be productive. The student findings can be published on the website in case a family member of the deceased comes across the extra information or a scholar is doing research on a specific monument. For this project the students can be extra descriptive about the monument, find out information about the types of offerings that were left, research the deceased time period of life, research time period within the location, and if possible research about who that person was during his lifetime. The last part might be more difficult but unable to find free information about the person, one can describe the life roles during their time period.
It was unfortunate that the 3D iPad scanner did not work because of lack of good signal. For next class, ask the UTRGV if they can order a mobile hotspot or ask the class if anyone has one. If the internet hotspot helps the iPad function within the HCPCP then there is another task that the students can work on.
In class, you had mentioned that half the class will go to the field and other half be in lab fixing the records. I think in both places there has to be someone that has already taken the class. Previously, there has been little lab work so it is best to place someone in charge on the field to help you be more focused at the lab. Once the students at the lab get to know you and you get to know them, you can, later on, move from lab to field. I do think it would be a waste of time having all the students on the field since there are little students needed for the Total Station. Moreover, having someone that has already worked in the Total Station on the field would work best because they already did that type work. Maybe refresh with the student one on one so they can know exactly how to guide the students going to the field. Also at times, the tree branch would make it difficult for the students at the Total Station to be able to see the tripod triangle. If possible, provide gloves for the students to move branches or maybe even a branch cutting tool to cut small amounts. Finally, another thing discussed was to provide walkie-talkies so the students do not need to walk across the fieldwork in order to communicate. it was easier to use walkie-talkies than phones because of the lack of signal to some phone services and windy days. These possible resources will save time and make the field work be more trouble-free.
I really look forward keeping up to date with the progress that the HCPCP will make next Fall semester. It would be nice if pictures were added to the website about the students participating. If the work material does change, perhaps make students provide short journals to be blogged so we can read what will occur next semester. In all, I recommend other students to participate because it was a great class.
Spring 2018 semester reflection
I would like to start of by expressing my joy and knowledge of the closing of this semester as another door opens post graduation. I was not aware of the the experience I was walking into when I first signed up for this course. Before this semester, I did not know that the university offered service learning classes that collaborated with the community, or I would have signed up much sooner! As an anthropology minor, it had been a while since I last took a course relative to the field so this was a great way to remind myself why I had chose it in the first place. It seems though, that the days flew by too fast for data collection than I would have liked.
Overall, the way the project stands and how it was introduced at the beginning of the semester, reflects a very promising growth. It was interesting to see the work that other students and Dr. Rowe had started before and everything that is to be accomplished. This course is a wonderful opportunity for students to be actively engaged in their work instead of being stuck in a classroom. A hands on experience really helps provide a different and fulfilling environment for those involved, that you wouldn’t necessarily get from a regular class schedule. Also, it being in the spring semester really gave us a variety of weather to work with. It made the semester interesting and informative, while also sparing some days to gather and meet in a familiar setting of a white board class.
I typically found myself more inclined to do data collection, than the mapping. Though I did see a little bit of the mapping process that took more time and focus. It was fairly easier and much quicker to do data collection of the graves for the roughly 2.5 hours at the cemetery. Everything was inputted via mobile, which made the need for pen and paper that much more convenient. At times, the ordering of the graves and the faded numbers made it some what difficult to find but once you found one, the process was smoother to continue. I was not always familiar with the stone types and materials, so having a sheet with the descriptions was very helpful. ( Access to it online would have been nice as well )
Also, the rulers with a clip were better for carrying, or at least a bag to carry everything would give a more manageable way to hold and input data on your phone. And even though it did not use mobile data to upload, my battery went by quickly so I had to make sure to have it completely charged before arriving.
One thing I wish I had or had access to for everyone, would be some brushes to clear dirt away from carvings or sunken graves. At most, I cleared what I could to have the most data for each grave number. The ones with little to no marker or information were the simplest but also an assortment of unique and interesting finds. From metal to all different stone materials and special trinkets. Common last names in the hidalgo county, and some I never heard before. There are people buried from the 1800’s and 1900’s of all ages, each with their own story.
With death there is also life, and I felt that our work really helped care and fill in missing gaps.
When you first come into the cemetery, there is a distinction between sections of the cemetery. Others you can see are very well managed and in better condition. So I always felt that what we did each day was very important. Especially when we have gotten the chance to receive attention and help spread the history and purpose of the project. In return, being able to help family members find loved ones who could be located somewhere in the cemetery was also rewarding. What was lost could be organized and readily accessible with the on going work of the HCPCP. That’s really what made each day worthwhile and exciting to go. Each small detail was equally important to create something better. Everyone before, during and after as the semesters continue will each add on their work and gain something in return.
Ultimately with this course I have been able to know a part of a history so close to home, do work in an outdoor setting that provides experience and working together with the community to make a difference.
Being a part of the Engaged scholar symposium for the service learning poster was also a gratifying opportunity to work with a group of students eager to share the project. For what is being done should not be left unnoticed but shared with the rest of the community. These blogs especially, are an open door for us to share that experience and to connect others with the project. There is a lot to see when viewing the page but also much to fill in the process and I can’t wait to see what it looks like in the end!
The flexibility of this course allowed me to balance my focus on other classes and learn new things every Friday for class at the cemetery. Each day by filling in more information and being able to organize a rather large spread sheet of data. Its flexibility encouraged me to write these very blogs and learn new/different perspectives on articles. I think it added an extra and important touch to the hands on work, being able to read information and other students views.
With the Hidalgo County Public Cemetery project I have gained insight and knowledge of different forms of public archaeology, how to communicate archaeology, ethics, the importance of technology and community, to working together for a greater benefit. Both at home readings and blogs with the work done at the cemetery blended well to help better my knowledge. Hopefully there is more to learn and gain from this partnership as each student and community partners share their service.
