The WAC Origins of the New York African Burial Ground Project

Summary

This paper concerns the development of an interdisciplinary Project which studied 419 human remains at the 18th century cemetery for Africans enslaved in New York. The first World Archaeological Congress (1986) and Inter-Congress (1989) facilitated conversations among archaeologists and Indigenous peoples that would inspire change in archaeological practice. The African Burial Ground Project carried forward specific ideas of that encounter, joined with the activist scholarship and interdisciplinary habits of anthropologists from the African diaspora. The African Burial Ground Project (1992-2009) followed the first ethical bioarchaeology in the United States (enforced by NAGPRA in 1990) but concerned populations worthy of ethical treatment which were left uncovered by the law. By force of public pressure and scholarly cooperation, it became the first large and most visible example of publicly engaged archaeology. The results were affection between its scientists and "descendant community," an international conversation about slavery, national linguistic transformation, sophisticated bioarchaeological reports, new methods, and a National Monument.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21292