How did public involvement in the African Burial Ground project influence the project's research design?
a. It had very little influence; the local African-American community had doubts that any of the interred individuals were actually their ancestors, and so consequently had little desire to be involved in the project.
b. The local community, refusing to let their ancestors be further exploited, called for the immediate reburial of any human skeletal remains and associated grave goods without analysis or documentation; the project's research design was therefore never realized.
c. The archaeologists worked with the local community, incorporating their concerns and questions into the project's research design, resulting in community empowerment as well as a more meaningful research project.
d. In order to reduce the controversy associated with the project, the federal government allowed the local community to take complete control of the research design; the result was a lack of rigorous scientific methodology and a more humanistic and ideological approach to the project.
e. It did not influence the design; too much argument prevents a design from being accepted.
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