in 1951, dussán began working as a research assistant to the colombian institute of anthropology and history until 1956. she and her husband undertook work at a site known as "aritama", a pseudonym for atánquez, where they could study the villagers of the kankuamo people. the mestizo town offered an opportunity to study the transitions between cultures, as to those in nearby valledupar, the village was known as an indigenous town, but to those living in traditional native communities, atánquez was viewed as a "spanish" town. the couple's findings, which included dussán's analysis of the social changes, documented how the society had been reshaped by contact would be published as "the people of aritama" (1961), which quickly became a classic of the studies of early society in colombia. her work was funded in part by a research grant from the wenner gren foundation in new york city. between 1954 and 1958, the couple lived in cartagena and worked in a collaborative program sponsored by the university of cartagena and their new department focusing on public health and preventative medicine. the program allowed them to participate in archaeological digs along the caribbean coast of colombia, and conduct medical anthropological studies, which were insightful for their findings on atánquez.