Studying Technological Change: A Behavioral Approach PDF
Preview Studying Technological Change: A Behavioral Approach
Studying techn ological y r i u q n change i • l a c i g a Behavioral approach o l o e a h c r a • f o • s n o i t a d n u o f Michael Brian Schiffer fai Studying Technological Change http://avaxhome.ws/blogs/ChrisRedfield STUDYInG TeChnoLoGICAL ChAnGe A BehAVIoRAL APPRoACh Michael Brian Schiffer The University of Utah Press Salt Lake City Foundations of Archaeological Inquiry James M. Skibo, series editor Copyright © 2011 by The University of Utah Press. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. The Defiance House Man colophon is a registered trademark of the University of Utah Press. It is based on a 4-ft-tall, Ancient Puebloan pictograph (late PIII) near Glen Canyon, Utah. 15 14 13 12 11 1 2 3 4 5 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Schiffer, Michael B. Studying technological change : a behavioral approach / Michael Brian Schiffer. p. cm. — (Foundations of archaeological inquiry) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-1-60781-136-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) isbn 978-1-60781-989-9 (ebook) 1. Technological innovations — Social aspects. 2. Archaeology — Methodology. 3. Human behavior — History. I. Title. HM846.S35 2011 303.48'3—dc22 2010052940 Printed and bound by Sheridan Books, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan. If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. Henry David Thoreau, Walden Contents List of Figures xi Categories of Technology 29 List of Tables xiii Life History Models 30 Preface xv Behavioral Chain 30 Flow Models 34 ParT 1 A Life Cycle Model 34 Invention 36 1. Introduction 3 Commercialization 37 About Technology 4 Adoption 37 Two Perspectives: Scientific and Senescence 37 Humanistic 5 Discussion 38 Decision-Making Processes and Decision Making and Life Cycles 38 Technological Change 6 Summary 40 A Preview 7 Notes 40 Notes 8 4. Social Needs and Technological 2. Building a “Crap Detector” 10 Change 43 Technology and Mass Media 10 Peer Competitions 43 Aggrandizers 44 Media Themes and Plots 11 Companies and Individuals 44 Creative Anachronism 12 Cities and Countries 45 Progress Narratives 14 Social Constraints on Competition 47 Technological Revolution 15 Social Role Expectations 48 Cryptohistory 16 New Social Groups, Social Roles, Diffusion Theory 17 and Activities 49 Folk Theories 18 Maintaining a System of Status Differentiation 50 Summary 20 Discussion 52 Notes 20 Summary 52 3. a Conceptual Scheme 22 Notes 53 Fundamental Constructs 23 Life History 23 ParT 2 Activities and Artifact Functions 23 Interaction Modes 25 5. Some Basic Invention Processes 57 Performances and Performance Project-Stimulated Invention: Characteristics 26 The Cascade Model 57 Social Competence 28 Creating Prototypes 60 Technological Display 60 vii Contents Demonstrating Practicality 61 7. Development and resource Manufacture (Replication) 61 acquisition 86 Marketing and Sales 61 Developmental Distance 86 Installation 61 Convergence 89 Use/Operation 61 Maintenance 62 Distributed Development 91 Discussion 62 Social Differentiation and Social Technological Disequilibrium 63 Integration 92 Remedial Projects and Compensatory Technological Traditions and Technologies 64 the Knowledge in Technology 95 Recipes 95 Continuous Change and Adaptive Teaching Frameworks 95 Response 64 Engineering Science 96 Cultural Imperatives 65 Summary 96 The Shirt-Pocket Radio 66 Medical Technologies 66 Notes 96 Mine Drainage 67 Discussion 67 8. Development and the Design Process 98 Accident or Unexpected Performance 67 Technical Choices, Formal Properties, The Leyden Jar 68 and Performance Characteristics 98 Discussion 68 Technical Constraints 100 Independent Invention 69 Creating Engineering Science 102 Summary 70 Varieties of Engineering Science 103 Notes 71 Technoscience 103 Socioscience 104 6. Technology-Stimulated Invention 73 Ideoscience 105 Emotive Science 105 Material-Stimulated Invention 74 Performance Deficiencies: Flawed Engineering Science 106 Ceramic Superconductors 74 Design as a Social Process 108 Luxury Material: Aluminum 74 Heterogeneous Cadenas 109 Comparisons 75 Technical and Social Constraints Contact Situations 76 Require Design Compromises 110 Discussion 76 Consumers Often Lack Social Power 112 Component-Stimulated Invention 77 Some Groups Can Acquire Design Tweaking 77 Social Power 113 New Product Ideas 77 The Performance Preference Matrix 115 Product-Stimulated Invention 78 A Research Strategy 117 Knockoffs 78 Accessories 79 Studying Design Change 117 Consumer Experiments 80 Pithouse to Pueblo in the American Southwest 117 Process-Stimulated Invention 81 Electrometallurgy 81 Summary 118 Invention Stimulated by Complex Notes 119 Technological Systems 82 9. Manufacture 121 Metapatterns 83 Seeking Evidence on Product Summary 84 Manufacture 122 Notes 84 Pathways to the Present 122 viii Contents In Search of Pocket Radios with Seasonal Ceremonies 150 Subminiature Tubes 123 Gifting 150 Evaluating Biases: Artifact Replacement 150 An Evidence Chart 125 Commissioned Technologies 151 Collector Data and Temporal Competing Technologies 151 Patterns of Production 128 Case Study 1: Electric versus Portable Radios 128 Gasoline Automobiles 151 Patterns in Collector Data 128 Case Study 2: Electric versus Explaining the Portable Radio Oil Lamps in Lighthouses 154 Boom of 1938–1939 130 Discussion 158 Early Electric Automobiles 131 Functional Equivalents 158 Changes in Manufacture Processes 133 “Lag in Adoption” or Differential Changes in Consumer Behavior 133 Adoption? 159 Peer Competitions 134 The Researcher’s Judgment and Shortage of Raw Materials 135 Creativity 159 Copycat Producers and Differential Adoption Without Competition 160 Adoption 135 Case Study: Franklin’s Lightning Discussion 136 Conductor 160 The Manufacture Process and the Summary 162 Archaeological Record 136 Considerations of Method 136 Notes 162 Anticipations of Consumer Behavior 137 ParT 3 Case Study: Cooking Pots in Eastern U.S. Prehistory 138 11. Large-Scale Processes of Identifying Knockoffs 139 aggregate Technologies 167 Summary 139 Long-Term Competitions 167 Building the Model 168 Notes 139 Functions, Functional Field, and Application Spaces 168 10. adoption 141 Performance Characteristics Sources of Evidence 141 of Aggregate Technologies 169 Groups and Subgroups 142 Case Study: Three Electric General Patterns of Household Power Systems 171 Adoption 143 Electrostatic Technology 171 Electrochemical Technology 171 The Activity-Enhancement Process 144 Electromagnetic Technology 172 Ensemble Adoption 145 Discussion 173 The Diderot Effect 145 Technology Transfer and Enabling Technologies 146 Technological Differentiation 175 Accessories 146 A Behavioral Framework 175 Activity-Entailed Adoption 146 Processes of Technology Transfer 176 Sequential Adoption 147 Information Transfer 177 Coerced and Imposed Adoption 148 Experimentation 178 Redesign 178 Additional Social Processes 149 Manufacture or Replication 178 Peer Competition and Defensive Adoption 178 Adoption 149 Use 178 Rites of Passage 149 Discussion 179 ix
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