Career: The Architecture of Culture; Understanding the Interrelation of Cultural Processes and Cognitive Dynamics. Building an Interdisciplinary Program in Culture and Cognition.

Intellectual Merit. This career proposal brings together insights from anthropology, psychology, and the computer sciences to explore inter- and intra-group dynamics with respect to the integration, transmission, and change of knowledge. Ethnographic research informs and guides an experimental approach from the cognitive sciences. Resulting agreement patterns (cultural consensus model) will be explored with the help of social network analysis. Resulting theories are then cast in terms of computational models (Agent Based Modeling). The computational models will generate hypotheses, which are then tested in the field. This synergetic effort will provide models of cultural dynamics not as synthetic interpretations of people’s thoughts and behaviors, but as emergent patterns derived statistically from measurements of individual cognitions. Results will inform theories of cultural transformation, cognitive dynamics, and computational modeling.

I propose to compare the folk medical knowledge of three communities in the Highlands of

Chiapas, Mexico. Together these communities provide a unique test case to understand individual conceptual changes and their relation to larger processes of cultural change. I will investigate how conceptual change is conditioned by larger social processes while mediating (constraining and providing support for) these processes at the same time. The data will produce a unique empirical account of emerging cultural processes based on individual cognitions shaped by specific circumstances. Cultural processes will be grounded in individual processes, while individual conceptual change will be explored within the wider context.

Career Aspect. This approach provides a unique interdisciplinary perspective to understand the complex phenomena of conceptual and cultural change. While I have a solid background in both anthropology and the cognitive sciences, the career grant will allow me to work with well-known experts to gain and increase my expertise in areas such as social network analyses and computer modeling. This will add an important dimension to my profile as a researcher, and hence my career. Obviously, the research also provides an ideal project to train future generations of young scientists in relevant theories and methods that come with each of the fields involved.

Education and Science Infrastructure. An integrative part of this proposal is the creation of a

REGIONAL PROGRAM IN CULTURE, LANGUAGE AND COGNITION at Vanderbilt

University. Housed within the Learning Sciences Institute at Vanderbilt University, this program will bring together researchers and students from different universities through workshops, speaker series, and a common website (for information, data, and software exchange). This program will help foster relations between universities and promote inter-disciplinary research and teaching. Students (graduate and undergraduate) will be participating on all aspects of the research, and it is my intention to apply for NSF REU summer school funding during Year 3 of this grant. This will be one of many measures to provide national visibility to the program.

International Collaboration. Finally, another important aspect of this proposal is the close

collaboration with local communities in Chiapas, Mexico. Research includes local assistants (mainly college and high-school students) and active cooperation with local schools. The idea is to support local students throughout their education and identify potential candidates for graduate work in the USA (Vanderbilt Anthropology has a specific program to incorporate native students). The project will also actively engage in community support through workshops provided to the community (arranged by local NGOs). These workshops (with U.S. students from different disciplines participating) also form an integral part of the research design.