1. Cait Homrich Sample Lesson Plan Week 3 (2nd sections)
Ancient Civilizations-Practice, complexity and simplicity
 Objectives
 Students will be able to identify specialization, roles, and corresponding social statuses within their own
civilization.
 Students will be able to identify the “complex” social structures in their society as well as the
“simplicity” within specific roles/specializations.
 Students will be able to correlate the complexity, simplicity, and specializations of their own society to
that of an ancient civilization.
 Students will be exposed to perspectives that identify the positives and negatives of the different
theoretical standpoints that lead to the identification of complexity or simplicity.
 Introduction to the topic & questions (written on board) (10)
 Archaeologists ask how humans changed from one classification to the nextreview of the different
social organization categories and the theoretical camps (Scarre & Fagan, 2008)
 Urban Revolution? What is this move to the cities about?
 Bureaucratic Theories: Irrigation & control of material resources (controllers)
 Militaristic Theories: Warfare the resultant two classes in one society (upper & lower, winner &
loser)
 Economic Theories: Long-Distance Trade & access to resources & interaction with different groups
 Coercion vs. Volunteered change: War, hydraulic despotism, security against threats vs. Religion,
Trade, attraction
 Systems Theory, Gendered Archaeology, looking at smaller and smaller scales & criticizing the
cultural evolutionary model
 Activity (20)
 Split class in to 4 groups of 5-6 students (count off by 4s), pass out the scenario of each group: Jean
producers, Tennis shoe producers, Coffee producers, and University producers; and the accompanying
list of instructions (Lesson Plan 2 handout).
 Group Discussion (20)
 Groups report their list, statuses, complexity levels, and initial cultural progress analysis.
 Questions to pose to prompt whole-group discussion:
 Is sending e-mails and having meetings where you try to push university goals all day simple or
complex?
 Is picking cotton simple or complex? Are individuals’ roles complex or simple, in practice?
 What do different statuses say about the averaged “quality of life” of a society? What does this mean
for cultural evolutionism?
 What sort of day-to-day tasks were foragers involved in? Was their life simple or complex?
 Why would people make this shift to cities? To complex interdependence and simple(r) responsibilities?

2. Jean Producers
1. What are all of the individual roles associated with producing jeans (from the cotton, to the transportation, to the
marketing and selling)? Have each person in the group pick one of the roles to imagine being.
2. Discuss:
What do you do each day to fulfill your role in society? What do you have to do physically, mentally, and socially to
complete your duties? What is it like?
Who is your boss? Who are you “in charge” of? Which people in the group are more “respected” in our society?
Is producing jeans a complex process or a simple process? Is each of your roles simple or complex?
What does this mean for the idea of “progress” that is a part of the cultural evolutionary perspective? Is society
better because it has this jean industry? Or is it merely different from foraging clothing production?
3. Write down brief notes about everyone’s role, status, and complexity/simplicity to report to the class.
Additionally, what did your group say about cultural evolution and progress?
Tennis Shoe Producers
1. What are all of the individual roles associated with producing tennis shoes (from the rubber, to the
transportation, to the marketing and selling)? Have each person in the group pick one of the roles to imagine being.
2. Discuss:
What do you do each day to fulfill your role in society? What do you have to do physically, mentally, and socially to
complete your duties? What is it like?
Who is your boss? Who are you “in charge” of? Which people in the group are more “respected” in our society?
Is producing tennis shoes a complex process or a simple process? Is each of your roles simple or complex?
What does this mean for the idea of “progress” that is a part of the cultural evolutionary perspective? Is society
better because it has this tennis shoe industry? Or is it merely different from foraging shoe production?
3. Write down brief notes about everyone’s role, status, and complexity/simplicity to report to the class.
Additionally, what did your group say about cultural evolution and progress?

3. Coffee Producers
1. What are all of the individual roles associated with producing coffee (from the beans, to the transportation, to
the marketing and selling)? Have each person in the group pick one of the roles to imagine being.
2. Discuss:
What do you do each day to fulfill your role in society? What do you have to do physically, mentally, and socially to
complete your duties? What is it like?
Who is your boss? Who are you “in charge” of? Which people in the group are more “respected” in our society?
Is producing coffee a complex process or a simple process? Is each of your roles simple or complex?
What does this mean for the idea of “progress” that is a part of the cultural evolutionary perspective? Is society
better because it has this coffee industry? Or is it merely different from foraging beverages?
3. Write down brief notes about everyone’s role, status, and complexity/simplicity to report to the class.
Additionally, what did your group say about cultural evolution and progress?
University System Producers
1. What are all of the individual roles associated with producing a university student (from the maintenance, to the
students, to the administration)? Have each person in the group pick one of the roles to imagine being.
2. Discuss:
What do you do each day to fulfill your role in the university? What do you have to do physically, mentally, and
socially to complete your duties? What is it like?
Who is your boss? Who are you “in charge” of? Which people in the group are more “respected” in our society?
Is producing a university system a complex process or a simple process? Is each of your roles simple or complex?
What does this mean for the idea of “progress” that is a part of the cultural evolutionary perspective? Is society
better because it has this university system? Or is it merely different from education in past civilizations?
3. Write down brief notes about everyone’s role, status, and complexity/simplicity to report to the class.
Additionally, what did your group say about cultural evolution and progress?