Technological Choices
Transformation in Material Cultures Since the Neolithic
Material Cultures Series

Technological Choices applies the critical tools of archaeology to the subject of technology and its impact on humankind throughout the ages. An examination of the challenges technological innovations present to various cultures, Technological Choices asserts that in any society, such choices are made on the basis of cultural values and social relations, rather than on the inherent benefits in technology itself. Of course, this revolutionary viewpoint has critical implications for contemporary Western societies. Based on case studies covering a wide range of chronologies and geographies, Technological Choices moves rapidly from Neolithic Europe to the modern industrial age, stopping on the way to examine the tribes of Papua, New Guinea, rural Indian and North African societies as well as several European peasant communities. The techniques studied range from the manufacture of stone implements to the development of high-tech transportation devices. With its breadth of subject matter and multidisciplinary approach, Technological Choices offers new insight into the interrelationship between technology and society. Also unprecedented is the book's emphasis on the functional aspects of material culture.

Introduction: Pierre Lemonnier Chapter 1. North Wind, South Wind. Neolithic technical choices in the Jura Mountains, 3700-2400 BC, Pierre Petrequin Chapter 2. The Watch and the Waterclock. Technological choices/social choices, Genevieve Bedoucha Chapter 3. The Reindeerman's lasso, Tim Ingold Chapter 4. Pigs as Ordinary Wealth. Technical logic, exchange and leadership in New Guinea, Pierre Lemonnier Chapter 5. Pottery Techniques in India. Technical variants and social choice, Marie-Claude Mahias Chapter 6. Of Mills and Waterwheels. The hidden parameters of technological choices, Robert Cresswell Chapter 7. Technical Innovation and Cultural Resistance. The social weight of plowing in the vineyards of les Corbieres (Languedoc), Georges Guille-Escuret Chapter 8. The Hunter and his Gun in Haute-Provence, Nicolas Govoroff

Postgraduate and Undergraduate

Pierre Lemonnier

lI>Technological Choicesl/I> deals with the adoption or rejection by society of technological technique s and processes. Contribtors demonstrate that such choices result largely from cultural factors rath er than benefits inherent in the technology.