Culture and Technology - Tools to Aid in Survival
analytical Essay
1230 words
Culture and Technology - Tools to Aid in Survival
Culture: “the predominating attitudes and behavior that characterize the functioning of a group”.
Technology: “the body of knowledge available to a society that is of use in fashioning implements, practicing manual arts and skills, and extracting or collecting materials”.
Technology aids in the functioning of a group: it is what enables “predominating attitudes and behavior” to be acted upon. Therefore, initially, a culture must provide incentive for the development/adoption of a technology. Once adopted, the technology must then be incorporated into the society, requiring cultural adjustments. Always, usefulness is the key determining factor. Cultural adjustments must be worth the effort, the technology must meet a societal need. The technologies that each society chooses to adopt are the ones that they find the most useful. Societies have not developed different technologies by accident: the criteria for determining “usefulness” is culturally based.
The Near East is not a particularly fertile area. Dry land and large rivers that periodically flood characterize the landscape. Obtaining sufficient food was not easy. “The most vital need of early man in regions of scanty rainfall such as the Near East is water.” (Drower, 520). Because this was the most difficult challenge facing them, from an early stage the people who populated the area must have focused on developing effective farming practices. For them, there was probably little else that was as important as water.
Because of this, the cultures of peoples in the area centered around the water. Everything was defined by the river. The oracle of Amen, for example, defined Egypt to be “The entire tract which th...
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...ct. Everyone wants to survive: culture and technology both are merely tools to aid in survival. Usefulness is the governing factor for both. If part of a culture is no longer useful because of a change in the environment, that culture will change. If technologies may be developed to make an environment more hospitable, thus avoiding cultural change, then those technologies are focused on. What is most important to people is the maintenance of their culture.
Sources
Chant, Colin. Pre-industrial Cities & Technology. London: Routledge. 1999.
Drower, M. S. A History of Technology, from Early Times to the Fall of Ancient Empires, Chapter 19: Water supply, irrigation, and agriculture. Edited by Singer, Holmyard, and Hall. Oxford Clarendon Press, 1958.
Ehrlich, Paul R. Human Natures: Genes, Cultures, and the Human Prospect. Washington D.C.: Island Press. 2000.
In this essay, the author
- Explains that a culture must provide incentives for the development/adoption of technology, and then be incorporated into the society, requiring cultural adjustments.
- Explains that the near east is not a particularly fertile area. dry land and large rivers that periodically flood characterize the landscape. obtaining sufficient food was not easy.
- Explains that the cultures of peoples in the area centered around the water. the religions focused on the river, the way that it gave and took.
- Explains that abundant water became the ultimate luxury because of the scarcity of water. there are many surviving pictures of formal egyptian gardens, and descriptions of "hanging gardens."
- Analyzes how the bleak nature of egypt's landscape led to a strong cultural love of farming practices. this valuing influenced what technologies flourished in egypt.
- Explains that technology aids in the functioning of a group by enabling the continuation of "predominating attitudes and behavior". egyptians valued agriculture above all else.
- Explains that the fertility of babylonia was a source of envy to the greeks, who focused on developing other kinds of technologies because agriculture was not the utmost culturally valued thing.
- Explains that in greece, the culture was more urban than in the near east. most of the technologies that developed were geared towards architecture: especially temple architecture and the design of public buildings.
- Analyzes how the monarchs who sponsored these projects were culturally necessary and appreciated. chant compares greece to sparta, a city founded on very different values and organized very differently.
- Explains that while some cultures developed their own technologies, many cultures borrowed from others. china was the first to develop gunpowder, while the europeans focused on guns, enabling them to dominate many other civilizations.
- Explains that technology and culture are merely tools to aid in survival. usefulness is the governing factor for both.
- Cites chaut, colin, dower, holmyard, and hall's a history of technology, from early times to the fall of ancient empires.
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