The Contributions of Community Engagement, Faculty Networks, and STEM Student Collaboration to Noninvasively Identifying and Documenting Unmarked Burial Sites

无标记墓葬项目是科学家和社区成员合作保护和重建墓地及其地区文化历史的一个很好的例子。该项目的目标是：a)确定埋葬在那里的人的未标记墓地，以纪念埋葬在那里的人；b)确定未来埋葬的空间；c)记录埋葬在哪里的人，以及已知的人的未标记埋葬地点。为实现这些目标，需要社区和死者家属、学生和受过应用文化和法医人类学以及历史考古学培训的人类学家参与研究。学生通过学习如何将社区记忆和科学事实联系起来，同时接受不会干扰或暴露人类遗骸的文化、民族历史、考古和非侵入性法医方法的培训和应用，获得在人类学中发展未来职业和获得相关职业工作的实践经验。该项目还开发了档案视听文件，以保存社区的当地和历史知识以及家庭成员的生活故事。关于这种新颖的多方法方法的研究结果对于类似的疑似无标记埋葬项目具有重要的相关性，这些项目部分或根本不存在文件。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The unmarked burial project is an excellent example of scientists and community members collaborating to preserve and reconstruct cemeteries and their regional cultural history. The project objectives are to a) identify unmarked burials for placing markers to commemorate those buried there, b) identify space for future burials, and c) document who is buried at which unmarked burial for those that are known. Research for fulfilling these objectives engages community and family members of the deceased, students, and anthropologists trained in applied cultural and forensic anthropology, as well as historical archaeology. Students gain hands-on field experience for developing future careers and obtaining related occupational jobs in anthropology through learning how to connect community memory and scientific facts while being trained in and learning the applications of cultural, ethnohistorical, archaeological, and non-invasive forensic methods that do not physically disturb or expose human remains. The project also develops archival audiovisual documentation to preserve the local and historical knowledge of the community and the stories of family members’ lives. The findings regarding this novel multi-method approach have significant relevance for similar suspected unmarked burial projects with partial or non-existent documentation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.