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Michael Brian Schiffer
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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
