Anthropology Of Technology (Anthropology)

Recensión crítica de "Tim Ingold: The Perception of the Environment: Essays in livelihood, dwelling and skill"

by Tomás Sánchez Criado

2009. AIBR. Revista de Antropología Iberoamericana, 4(1), 142-158

Recensión crítica de "Tim Ingold: The Perception of the Environment: Essays in livelihood, dwelling and skill"

by Tomás Sánchez Criado

2009. AIBR. Revista de Antropología Iberoamericana, 4(1), 142-158

African Pottery Roulettes Past and Present: Techniques, Identification, and Distribution

by Alexandre Livingstone Smith

Edited by A. Haour, K. Manning, N. Arazi, O. Gosselain, S. Guèye, D. Keita, A. Livingstone Smith, K. MacDonald, A. Mayor, S. McIntosh and R. Vernet

African Pottery Roulettes Past and Present considers ethnographic, museological and archaeological approaches to... more African Pottery Roulettes Past and Present considers ethnographic, museological and archaeological approaches to pottery-decorating tools called roulettes, that is to say, short lengths of fibre or wood that are rolled over the surface of a vessel for decoration.

This book sets out, for the first time, a solid typology for the classification of African pottery decorated with such tools, and forges a consensus on common methodology and standards. It gives an overview of history of research into roulette decoration in Africa and elsewhere Jomon Japan, Neolithic Europe, Siberia, and New York among others; outlines the contemporary distribution of roulette usage in sub-Saharan African today, a 'success story' from Senegal to Tanzania; and proposes methodologies for the identification of selected roulette decoration types in the archaeological record.

By achieving standardisation in pottery analysis, this book will help researchers make meaningful comparisons between different sites of West Africa, and thus guide further research on the West African past. As roulette decoration has been such a global phenomenon in the past, the book will also be of interest to all researchers with an interest in ceramics from different parts of the world. 180p, b/w and col illus, English and French text (Oxbow Books 2010).

The Social Anthropology of Technological Development

by Bryan Anthony Alvarez

The development of human learning abilities has been changed over the past 60 years of technological innovation... more The development of human learning abilities has been changed over the past 60 years of technological innovation starting from the widespread use of the radio, through television, and finally to the mass implementation of computers and information and communication technologies (ICT).  This seems to be partially due to the growing functionality of digital technology and the inability to pass on culturally skills from generation to generation.  In this paper, I intend on tracing the changing pattern of technological variation through the lens of anthropology, how this is reflected in schools, the changing role of education and how this is changing the way we learn and experience the world around us.  The development of technology not only affects the scientific world but also every aspect of social life as well. 

The past is tomorrow. Towards an archaeology of the vanishing present

by Alfredo González-Ruibal

Norwegian Archaeological Review 39(2): 110-125 (2006)

This paper arises from a dissatisfaction with the 'Great Divides' created between past and present, self and others,... more This paper arises from a dissatisfaction with the 'Great Divides' created between past and present, self and others, people and material culture in the context of ethnoarchaeology. While conducting ethnoarchaeological research in Spain, Ethiopia and Brazil, I have been faced with the theoretical and practical shortcomings of this field, which is too deeply rooted in modernist concerns and prejudices. I propose a reconsideration of ethnoarchaeology as archaeology tout court - an archaeology of the present - which has to be symmetrical in character. This means that present and past must not be hierarchically conceived - the former in the service of the latter or vice versa - nor strictly separated ontologically, and the relations between humans and things have to be properly problematized.