Meet the Scientist

Scientists by Department:

Center for Cultural Understanding and Change

The Field Museum’s Center for Cultural Understanding and Change (CCUC) uses the Museum’s various anthropological resources, such as the collections, exhibits, and research expertise, to promote understanding and respect among the peoples of the world.

The Center’s anthropologists direct their efforts locally and internationally to understand how and why cultures change and decipher the relationship between culture and nature. In addition, CCUC scientists also work to communicate the value of cultural diversity through public outreach and education programs.

A major objective of the Center is to deepen relationships between the Museum and the diverse communities of the Chicago area through these efforts. The Center also works with Museum ecologists to foster community conservation efforts that draw on indigenous and traditional environmental knowledge.

To this end, the Center has been developing and implementing a methodology for mapping the social and cultural assets of diverse communities in order to pinpoint existing capacities, strengths, and resources with the objective of making these the building blocks of effective intervention.

Social and cultural assets, as we define them, are 1) the visible indicators of peoples’ capacity to organize, 2) the ways in which they organize, and 3) the attitudes and values that underlie strategies. We have used the methodology in urban settings (i.e. Chicago) as well as in rural settings (i.e. in Peru and Bolivia).

Areas of Study: CCUC has developed a number of initiatives, the most recent of which include the Cultural Connections program, the Urban Research Programs, and Social Asset Mapping that accompanies Rapid Biological Inventories (RBIs).

Alaka Wali—Social Asset Mapping in North and South America

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