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mcc-bc1-018
The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 4
Archaeological Consultants (AAC) was contracted by the Army. A research design was constructed. A model was developed that encompassed a number of components: ethnography, archaeology, archival history, and cultural resource management. Through this work, classifications of historic sites would be developed. While AAC steadily worked to develop components of the model, the ethnographic interviewing that would be conducted by the Staff Archaeologist came to a standstill because of other priorities in cultural resource management at the arsenal, which included new construction and undertakings relating to security measures that were mandated after the terrorist bombings. The interviewing again went to the “back burner.” January 2005: The Staff Archaeologist Resumed Interviewing In January of 2005, the Staff Archaeologist was tasked with conducting interviewing as a priority. This meant she would spend at least 50 percent of her time working on the project. Her first task was to find the notebooks and materials she had packed away a few years before when the Directorate of Environmental Management had been moved from Building 112 to Building 4488. The Focus of the Study. When the initial interviews were conducted, the focus had been on identifying where the subject lived and identifying structures that could be associated with historic archaeological sites. The focus of the study was broadened to learning about the residents, their families, and their lives, in the context of the broader community. Open-Ended Interview Questions. No formal questionnaire was used. Broad questions were asked to permit the subjects to give a full range of responses. Basically, a series of open-ended questions was asked, using probes to focus the attention of the subject when necessary or to elicit details. The free flow of the conversation elicited voluntary comments about people, places, and customs about which one would not know to ask, so questions were added as the interviews progressed, and this is reflected in the interviews that are presented. The following questions were asked, some of which were added as the interviewing progressed. The question regarding social interaction between Blacks and Whites was added after voluntary comments had been made on that topic. Of course, specific additional questions were asked all subjects, based on some of their responses to the open-ended questions. • Who were your parents? Grandparents? What else can you tell me about your family history? • Was there a particular cemetery where family members were buried? • Where did you live? Who owned the property? • Can you describe your house? Where was the (various out buildings)? • Did your family have Delco lights? (Note: A question about using and making candles was quickly discarded when a woman indignantly asked just how old the researcher thought she was. By the same token, the question about having electricity was discarded because no one had it then. The question about Delco lights was added.) 4 - (4037)