S.87-36
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
MEMORANDUM
TO: ?
Senate ?
FROM: ?
J.W.G. Ivany,
Chair, SCAP
SUBJECT: Faculty of Arts
?
DATE: ?
Nov.19, 1987
Department of Archaeology
Reference: SCUS 87-20; SCAP 87-9
Action undertaken by the Senate Committee on Academic Planning/Senate
Committee on Undergraduate Studies gives rise to the following motion:
MOTION:
?
"That Senate approve and recommend approval to
the Board of Governors, as set forth in S.87-36
the following new course:
ARCH 105-3 The Evolution of Technology"
•
?
SENATE COMMITTEE ON UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES
NEW COURSE PROPOSAL FORM
1.
Calendar Information
?
Department
Archaeology
Abbreviation Code:
.1ic ?
Course Number: 105
?
Credit Hours:
?
Vector: 2-1-0
Title of Course:
The Evolution of Technology
Calendar Description of Course:
A history of technology from earliest times to
the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The course will discuss the
causes and effects of technological change, as illustrated by specific
technological developments including stone tools, metallurgy, agriculture, etc
Nature of Course
Lecture'/'Tutorial
Prerequisites (or
'
special instructions):
None
What course (courses), if any, is being dropped from the calendar if this course is
approved:
None
2. Scheduling
How frequently will the course be offered?
Semester in which the course will first be offered? 88-3
Which of your present faculty would be available to make the proposed offering
possible?
HAYDEN, NELSON
3.
Objectives of the Course
To provide a history of technology, to analyse the causes and consequences
of technological change.
4.
Budgetary and Space Requirements (for information only)
What additional resources will be required in the following areas:
Faculty
None
Staff
None
Library
None
Audio Visual
None
Space
None
Equipment
None
5. Approval
Date:
______________
Department Chairman Dean Chairman, SC
US
SCUS 73-34b:- (When completing this form, for instructions see Memorandum SCUS 73-34a.
•ch course outline).
Arts 78-3
Archaeology 105 The Evolution of Technology
Rationale:
0
Archaeology encompasses more than two million years of human
technological development, and is the discipline most concerned with
relating technology and human behaviour. Archaeology can provide a view of
the long-term effects of technological change and of the reasons for the
emergence of new technologies.
No course currently offered in the Department of Archaelogy examines
the evolution of technology, yet this is clearly a topic of interest to a range
of students outside the archaeology programme.
A course of this nature would also be a useful addition to the Certificate
in Liberal Arts.
Course content:
The course would provide a theoretical overview of the interrelationship
of technology and culture, emphasising technology as a major aspect of
human adaptation. Examples of the interrelationship would be drawn from a
range of cultures and time periods. The following list of topics exemplifies
the scope of the course:
Theory
Archaeology as the study of material culture
Technology as an adaptive system
Causes and consequences of technological change
Evolution of modes of production (craft specialisation etc.)
ExamDles
Early technology - flaked stone and fire
Advanced lithics - blades, microblades and ground stone
Pottery
Agricultural techniques
Transportation
Storage
Metallurgy and other chemistry
Warfare
Machines
Buildings
Text:
B. Cotterell and J. Kamminga, Engineering PrinciDlesm Archaeology
,
Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Sp
ecimen course outline: Archaeology 105
Part I: Foundation Concerts
1.
The archaeological view of the world; definitions of culture.
Read: Gould 1978; Binford 1962; Flannery 1967; Wilson 1978 Ch. 1-3
2. Adaptation;
cultural ecology
Read: Harris 1975 Ch. 12-14
3.
units of analysis: individual choice vs. cultural selection; subsystems of
culture: subsistence & economy, social structure, ideology.
Read: Fried 1960
Part 2: D
y
namics of Chanqe
4.
Causes of technological change
Read: Hayden 1981
5.
Resistance to change: long term adaptations
Reed: Isaac 1978; Harris 1975 Ch. 14
6.
Material displays in non-egalitarian societies
•
?
Read: Sanders and Price 1968:37-57; Peebles and Kus 1977; Oilman 1981.
7.
Demography and technological change
Read: Beulding 1959; Cowgill 1975
8.
SpecIal Isation of tools; stone vs. metal; resharpening
Read: Hayden in press
9. Housing
Read: McGuire and Schiffer 1983; relevant chapter in Cotterell and Kamminge
10.
Metallurgy
Read: relevant chapter in Cotterell and Kemminga
11. Early machines
Read: relevant chapter in Cotterell and Kainminga
12. Military technology
Reed: relevant chapter in Cotterell and Kamminga
13. Transportation
Read: relevant chapter in Cotterell and Kemminga
14.
Implications for the present and future.
Grading
Midterm 30
Final ?
30
Paper ?
30
tote-home exercises 1
Reading List
Binford, Lewis
1962 "Archaeology as anthropology". American Antiquity. 28:217-225.
Boulding, Kenneth
1959 "Foreward". in Thomas Malthus, PoDulation: the first essay.
?
University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor. Pp. v-xii.
Cotterell, B. and J. Kamminga
1987 Engineering PrinciDles in Archaeology. Cambridge University
Press.
Cowgill, George
1975 'On causes and consequences of ancient and modern population
changes." American Anthro
p
ologist 77:505-525.
Flannery, Kent
1967 "Review: 'An introduction to American archaeology, vol. 1: North
and Middle America, by Gorden Willey." Scientific American
217(2):119-22.
?
0
Fried, Morton
1960 "On the evolution of social stratification and the state." In S.
Diamond (ed.), Culture in History. Columbia University Press: N.Y.
Gilman, Antonio
1981 ?
"The development of social stratification in Bronze Age Europe."
In Current Anthr000logy 22:1-24.
Gould, Richard A.
1978 'From Tasmania to Tucson: new directions in ethnoarchaeology."
In Gould, R.A. (ed.), 1978: 1 -10, Ex
p
lorations in Ethno-archaeology.
University of New Mexico Press: Albuquerque.
Harris, Marvin
1975 Culture, Peo
p
le. and Nature, Crowell: New York.
Hayden, Brian
1981 ?
"Research and development in the stone age: technological
transitions among hunter-gatherers." Current Anthropology
22:519-548.
ZI
2
. ?
McGuire, Randall, and Michael Schiffer
1983 "A theory of architectural design". In Journal of Anthropological
Archaeology 2:277-303.
Peebles, Christopher, and Susan Kus
1
.
977 "Some archaeological correlates of ranked societies." American
Anti q
uity 42:421-448.
Sanders, W.T., and Barbara Price
1968 Mesoamerica: the evolution of a civilization Random House: N.Y
Wilson, Edward
1978 On Human Nature. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Mass.
0
