Fetishised Objects and Humanised Nature: Towards an Anthropology of Technology

The concept of technology becomes useful only when its tacit preconceptions are unpacked. Linked with the term in Western discourse are two poles of mythic thinking: technological determinism and technological sommambulism. The former depicts technology as the cause of social formations; the latter...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Man (London) 1988-06, Vol.23 (2), p.236-252
Main Author: Pfaffenberger, Bryan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropology
Cultural anthropology
Determinism
Environmental technology
Ethnology
Fetishism
History of technology
Irrigation
Irrigation systems
Nature
Sleepwalking
Social interaction
Sources and methods
Specific concepts
Technology
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Summary:The concept of technology becomes useful only when its tacit preconceptions are unpacked. Linked with the term in Western discourse are two poles of mythic thinking: technological determinism and technological sommambulism. The former depicts technology as the cause of social formations; the latter denies a causal link. Both, however, disguise the social choices and social relations that figure in any technological system. To counter such notions, technology is redefined here as a total social phenomenon in the sense used by Mauss; it is simultaneously material, social and symbolic. To create and use a technology, then, is to humanise nature; it is to express a social vision, create a powerful symbol and engage ouselves in a form of life. The study of technology, therefore, is well suited to the interpretive tools of symbolic anthropology. This point is illustrated in a brief analysis of Sri Lanka's irrigation-based colonisation schemes.
ISSN:0025-1496
1359-0987
DOI:10.2307/2802804