CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION
Time required: 2-3 hours
A. Overview: This module introduces the students to cultural transformation processes. Throughout the course, students have studied how cultures have developed, their characteristics and how these are reflected in the archaeological record. In this module, students examine how cultures change. They learn to differentiate between what is traditionally considered "collapse" versus "transformation." At the beginning of class, a current events article is discussed: if a student has brought in the article, they introduce it to the class; the instructor then encourages discussion of what has been learned by this article and what information may be lacking. The instructor introduces the topic of transformation through current events, having the students look at their own cultures and that of others—and how they have changed. They also look at societies that have "collapsed" and discuss what components have collapsed and what have survived. There is an activity associated with this module.
B. Lesson Objectives:
1. Describe the effects of contact between indigenous peoples and Europeans. What causes change?
2. Differentiate between the collapse of a city or state and the transformation of a culture.
3. Identify principles of stewardship, social relevance, and communication.
C. Matrix Principles:
1. Social relevance: discussion of recent transformations of political structure of societies—causes and effects; compare to those in the past.
2. Communication: current events, reflections, class activities, Internet.
3. Stewardship: what information is lost when sites are destroyed, resource management and benefits to society.
D. Instructional Procedures: This module is a combination of student discussion and instructor lecture. The current events portion is introduced to tie in archaeological concepts to today's world. Throughout this module, students are asked to provide examples and asked questions to ensure they are grasping the concepts introduced. It is important to tie in real-world experiences to the content, so the questions ask the students to think of some of the concepts in the context of today's world. PowerPoint may be used to help identify concepts, but the lecture can be taught with traditional technology (whiteboard, etc.). There is an activity associated with this lecture.
E. Assessment: Students are assessed on this topic through completion of reflections and activities.
F. Lecture Outline:
1. Current events: discuss recent news article on anthropology or archaeology; what did you learn from this article? What information do you still want to know? Are there any biases in the reporting?
2. What is cultural transformation? Can one part of a society change and another stay the same (or not change in the same manner)?
3. Activity: Class discussion identifying modern/recent historical societies/governments that have collapsed or undergone major transformations. What happened to the culture? Consider whether it was the structure of the society that changed. Compare these issues to those of ancient civilizations studied in class.
4. Video/Slides: Copan, Out of the Past (Polloch et al. 1992) segment on impact of water usage in California and Copan section.
5. Examples of cultural transformation: Maya, Inca, Aztec, Teotihuacan, Chaco Canyon—what changed in these societies?
6. Activity: Review the reasons for societal change in each of the societies included in the following Web site. What commonalities do you find? Collapse: Why Do Civilizations Fail? (Annenberg/CPB 2001) (see handout).
G. Activity: What would make your own city become an archaeological site, and what changes can be observed in your own society right now that might appear to archaeologists to be a symptom of collapse?
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