Includes bibliographical references (pages 248-292) and index
Contents:
Of black boxes and matters material: the state of things -- Deconstructing the black box: some philosophical and historical reflections on the Logos of Tekhnē -- Prying open the black box: philosophical insights on technology and being -- A synoptic approach to technology: the social contours of a practice framework -- Social agency and practice: the heart and soul of technology -- Engendering the Chaîne Opératoire: methodological considerations -- The future for technology's pasts
Summary:
"This book presents a new conceptual framework and a set of research principles with which to study and interpret technology from a phenomenological perspective. The author is explicitly concerned with studying ancient technological practices, but technology as a general concept forms the centerpiece of discussion and is defined as an explicitly social, symbolic, and embodied endeavour that simultaneously brings into being both human agents and their material world." "Dobres argues that for ancient technologies and products to be fully understood, we need to appreciate the historically constituted ways in which social agency, technical knowledge, and the gestural acts of artifact production and use were socially meaningful and, thus, politically charged."--Jacket