Learning Technology

The dynamic relationship between technology, technological practice, and society is the focus of this book, based on the analysis of Neolithic pottery production in Valencia, eastern Spain. Two main questions frame this study: 1) what are the changes in technological practices in the manufacture of pottery during the Neolithic, and 2) how do these changes articulate with shifts in other realms of society? In order to address these questions the author turned to insights and discussions on the role of technology in society in evolutionary theory, agency-based approaches, and behavioral archaeology to frame the study in relevant, anthropological terms. With a set of explicit hypotheses the author then uses standard archaeological methods in the analysis of prehistoric pottery to reconstruct production techniques and evaluate the hypotheses.