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'Technological' capabilities are one of the distinguishing be ingenious. Techniques form a bridge, sometimes only
The author is reader in features of our species, and have been since a very early a simple one, sometimes a very complicated one, be-
anthropology at the tween a set of 'given' elements (the body, some raw ma-
stage in evolution, if not from the very beginning. It is
London School of
no longer possible to claim 'tool using' as an uniquely terials, some environmental features) and a goal-state
Economics and has done
fieldwork in both Papua 'human' characteristic, because there are distinct tool- which is to be realized making use of these givens. The
New Guinea and central use traditions among apes, especially chimpanzees, and given elements are rearranged in an intelligent way so
India. This paper was rather more rudimentary examples of tool-use among that their causal properties are exploited to bring about a
given on 6 January last some other species as well. Human beings, however, result which is improbable except in the light of this par-
at a seminar in London
have elaborated 'technological' means of realizing their ticular intervention.
on Tool Use in Man and
Animals organized by
intentions to an unprecedented degree. But what is 'tech- Technical means are roundabout means of securing
W.C.McGrew for the nology'? and how does it articulate to the other species some desired result. The degree of technicality is pro-
RAI's Committee on characteristics we possess? portional to the number and complexity of the steps
Biological and Social The answers which have been suggested to this ques- which link the initial givens to the final goal which is to
Anthropology, a report
tion have suffered from a bias arising from the miscon- be achieved. Tools, as extensions of the body which
on the seminar will
ceived notion that the obtaining of subsistence have to be prepared before they can be used, are an im-
appear shortly in A.T.
necessities from the environment is the basic problem portant category of elements which 'intervene' between
which technology enables us to surmount. Technology is a goal and its realization. But not less 'technical' are
identified with 'tools' and 'tools' with artefacts, like those bodily skills which have to be acquired before a
axes and scrapers, which are presumed to have been im- tool can be used to good effect. Some tools, such as a
ported in the 'food quest'. This 'food quest' has been baseball bat, are exceptionally rudimentary, but require a
imagined as a serious, life-or-death, business, and the prolonged (i.e. circuitous) learning-process, in appropri-
employment of technology as an equally 'serious' affair. ate learning settings, before,they can be deployed to
Homo technologicus is a rational, sensible, creature, not much purpose. Highly 'technical' processes combine
a mythopoeic or religious one, which he only becomes many elements, artefacts, skills, rules of procedure, in an
once he abandons the search for 'technical' solutions to elaborate sequence of purposes or sub-goals, each of
his problems and takes off into the realms of fantasy and which must be attained in due order before the final re-
empty speculation. sult can be achieved. It is this elaborate structure of in-
But this opposition between the technical and the tervening steps, the steps which enable one to obtain re-
magical is without foundation. Technology is inadequ- sult X, in order to obtain Y, in order to (finally) obtain
ately understood if it is simply identified with tool-use, Z, which constitute technology as a 'system'.
and tool-use is inadequately understood if it is identified The pursuit of intrinsically difficult-to-obtain results
with subsistence activity. by roundabout, or clever, means, is the peculiar aptitude
Although it may be useful for certain classification of the technological animal, Homo sapiens. But it is not
purposes-especially in prehistory-to identify 'technol- at all true that this propensity is displayed exclusively, or
ogy' with 'tools', from any explanatory point of view even mainly, in the context of subsistence production, or
technology is much more than this. At the very mini- that this aptitude is unconnected with the playful and im-
mum, technology not only consists of the artefacts aginative side of human nature. Indeed, to state the prob-
which are employed as tools, but also includes the sum lem in these terms is to see immediately that there can be
total of the kinds of knowledge which make possible the no possible distinction, from the standpoint of 'degree of
invention, making and use of tools. But this is not all. technicality', between the pursuit of material rewards
'Knowledge' does not exist except in a certain social through technical activity, and the equally 'technical'
context. Technology is coterminous with the various pursuit of a wide variety of other goals, which are not
networks of social relationships which allow for the material but symbolic or expressive. From the palaeoli-
transmission of technical knowledge, and provide the thic period on, human technical ability has been
necessary conditions for cooperation between individ- devoted, not just to making 'tools' such as axes and har-
uals in technical activity. But one cannot stop even at poons, but equally to the making of flutes, beads,
this point, because the objectives of technical production statues, and much else besides, for diversion, adornment,
are themselves shaped by the social context. Technol- pleasure. These objects had, without any doubt, their
ogy, in the widest sense, is those forms of social rela- place in a 'sequence of purposes' which went beyond
tionships which make it socially necessary to produce, the elementary delight they afforded their makers. A
distribute and consume goods and services using 'tech- flute, no less than an axe, is a tool, an element in a tech-
nical' processes. nical sequence; but its purpose is to control and modify
But what does the adjective 'technical' mean? 'Tech- human psychological responses in social settings, rather
nical' does not, I think, indicate an either/or distinction than to dismember the bodies of animals.
between production processes which do, or do not, make If a flute is properly to be seen as a tool, a psychologi-
use of artefacts called 'tools'. There can be 'tech- cal weapon, what is the technical system of which it
niques'-for instance, the 'techniques of the body' listed forms a part? At this point I would like to offer a classi-
by Mauss-which do not make use of tools that are arte- ficatory scheme of human technological capabilities in
facts. What distinguishes 'technique' from non-tech- general, which can be seen as falling under three main
nique is a certain degree of circuitousness in the headings.
achievement of any given objective. It is not so much The first of these technical systems, which can be
that technique has to be learned, as that technique has to called the 'Technology of Production', comprises tech-
6 ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY Vol 4, No 2, April 1988
ANTHROPOLOGICAL INDEX
ANTHROPOLOGICAL INDEX, the Royal Anthropological Institute's bibliographical quarterly, entered its 26th year of publi-
cation in 1988. It covers nearly all the article in the periodical literature received by the Museum of Mankind Library in Lon-
don, which incorporates the former RAI Library. It is an official organ of the International Union of Anthropological and Eth-
nological Sciences, which recommends that all institutions where anthropology is taught should subscribe to ANTHROPOLOGI-
CAL INDEX. Periodicals from all countries and in all major institutions are indexed. The INDEX is arranged geographically
with sub-divisions by broad subject, the easiest method of access for the area specialist. At the beginning is a General section,
also broken down by sub-division. Within the divisions (General, Physical Anthropology, Archaeology, Cultural Anthropology
and Ethnography, Linguistics) entry is alphabetical by author. An annual author index also contains brief subject entries for obi-
tuaries and anonymous articles. Photocopies of articles may be ordered from the Museum of Mankind. The subscription for
1988 is ?48 (US$77), from the RAI Distribution Centre (same address as A.T.), or from the usual subscription agencies. Most
back volumes are available.