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An Encyclopedia of the History of Technology part 79

An Encyclopedia of the History of Technology part 79. This one of a kind encyclopedia presents the entire field of technology from rudimentary agricultural tools to communication satellites in this first of its kind reference source. Following an introduction that discusses basic tools, devices, and mechanisms, the chapters are grouped into five parts that provide detailed information on materials, power and engineering, transportation, communication and calculation, and technology and society, revealing how different technologies have together evolved to produce enormous changes in the course of history | PART FIVE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY the collection and interpretation of economic data such as the plant and animal remains which sophisticated retrieval techniques have increasingly yielded from excavations. What is perhaps most surprisingly illustrated from the prehistoric evidence is how quickly the basic tool kit was established and how sophisticated it was in terms of the tasks for which it was designed. Huge steps have been taken in the development of machinery in the intervening ten or so millennia but machinery merely allows greater acreages and bigger yields to be handled more easily and more swiftly the basic processes of cultivation and harvest in both crop and animal husbandry have really changed very little. Until very recently the search for agricultural origins was pursued by Europeans who brought their own particular regional bias to the interpretation of the data before them and indeed this bias influenced the type of data they sought in the first place. Since the origins of European religion are to be found in the Middle East it is perhaps not surprising that the origins of civilization were sought here also. Civilization in this context was seen in terms of a socially stratified society believing in the concept of a divine being and with the ability to write of this mythology for the benefit of existing and future generations. To the early nineteenthcentury antiquarian only a sedentary population living in an urban setting was capable of the sophisticated thought needed for such ideas and only an efficient agricultural system was capable of producing sufficient food to allow the priests metal workers or merchants to devote their time and energies to their trades and professions. Within this setting those who produced the food would be totally involved with the process and would have no input into the other activities. These beliefs were held well into this century and it is only since the Second World War that we have achieved a better understanding