Exploring the Intersection of Ethnography and Technology: Understanding the Evolution of Human Technologies through Ethnographic Research
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Exploring the Intersection of Ethnography and Technology: Understanding the Evolution of Human Technologies through Ethnographic Research" at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
Ethnographic research plays a significant role within the wider archaeological study of human cultural and technological evolution. Offering a level of detail largely unavailable in archaeological contexts, ethnographic data has yielded invaluable insights into various aspects of diverse cultural materials and technological practices; from raw material acquisition, to manufacture, use and discard. Beyond mere documentation, this research avenue has been instrumental in fueling the formulation of hypotheses and the cultivation of innovative ideas, particularly with regards to the ‘missing majority’ of past organic material culture. The aim of this session is to showcase studies that combine the archaeological study of technology with ethnographic data and perspectives, with a particular emphasis on the role that ethnographic data might play within cultural evolutionary frameworks of past technological change.
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-10 of 10)
- Documents (10)
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Contemporary Pueblo Perspectives on Ancestral Jewelry Production: Views from Santo Domingo/Kewa and Zuni/A:shiwi Pueblos (2025)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Exploring the Intersection of Ethnography and Technology: Understanding the Evolution of Human Technologies through Ethnographic Research" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. With the goal of understanding the deep history of jewelry making in the US Southwest, we are working collaboratively with Indigenous artists from Santo Domingo and Zuni Pueblos. This project involves three phases: 1) collections review of over 500...
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Curation at his 50th, reinterpreted- a suggested novel technological quantification. (2025)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Exploring the Intersection of Ethnography and Technology: Understanding the Evolution of Human Technologies through Ethnographic Research" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Curation, a key concept in lithic analysis rooted in ethnography, was introduced by Binford to illustrate the adaptive strategies of hunter-gatherers and how provisional conditions influence their behavioral choices. Initially perceived as an...
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Drinking & Clubbing: Insights from Comparative Ethnology on “Invisible” Technologies (2025)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Exploring the Intersection of Ethnography and Technology: Understanding the Evolution of Human Technologies through Ethnographic Research" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Human technologies have a long evolutionary history. However, most early technologies have perished over time, especially those made from organic materials. In the absence of archaeological evidence, comparative ethnology can provide valuable...
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Ethnoarchaeology beyond the Ethnographic Details: Observations of Technologies Relevant to the Longer Time-Scale of Archaeological Site Formation (2025)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Exploring the Intersection of Ethnography and Technology: Understanding the Evolution of Human Technologies through Ethnographic Research" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ethnoarchaeological data collected among Savanna Pumé hunter-gatherers of Venezuela across 30 months of fieldwork provide unique views of tool manufacture, use, and discard. Behavior observation quantified the amount of time that women and men spend...
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Evaluating the Impacts of Ethnographic Research among Mobile Populations on Studies of Lithics in Sedentary Societies (2025)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Exploring the Intersection of Ethnography and Technology: Understanding the Evolution of Human Technologies through Ethnographic Research" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Frameworks for the study of lithic technology mainly arose from studies of mobile, hunter-gatherer tool use and discussions of the impact of mobility on tool production and use. Within sedentary societies, however, different constraints on tool form...
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Exploring the Intersection of Ethnography and Technology: Understanding the Evolution of Human Technologies through Ethnographic Research: An Introduction (2025)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Exploring the Intersection of Ethnography and Technology: Understanding the Evolution of Human Technologies through Ethnographic Research" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ethnographic research has profoundly enriched our understanding of the evolution of human material culture and technology. This symposium assembles a series of studies that delve into the intricate interplay between ethnography and the archaeological...
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Infant carrying in early prehistory: an investigation into technological possibilities using ethnographic data (2025)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Exploring the Intersection of Ethnography and Technology: Understanding the Evolution of Human Technologies through Ethnographic Research" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Baby slings and carrier are frequently theorised as the earliest examples of containers and containment technology, with important evolutionary implications for infant care and mobility practices. While the direct data on prehistoric infant carriers...
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Investigating Traditional Maya Salt Production in the Past and Present (2025)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Exploring the Intersection of Ethnography and Technology: Understanding the Evolution of Human Technologies through Ethnographic Research" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Salt is a universally necessary nutrient that is only found in limited contexts, making it in some ways an ideal commodity for archaeological investigation into ancient economies. Unfortunately, sodium chloride is also a highly volatile compound that...
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Living with the Cold: Ethnographic Analogies for Cold Weather Adaptation during the Upper Palaeolithic of Central and Eastern Europe (2025)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Exploring the Intersection of Ethnography and Technology: Understanding the Evolution of Human Technologies through Ethnographic Research" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The human body is not naturally well adapted to the cold. Despite this, we have succeeded in penetrating some of the most extreme environments across the globe. In recent years, discussion of the origins of the ‘human thermal environment’ has gained...
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Use of ethnographic studies to formulate new hypotheses about methods of Paleolithic clothing manufacture: challenging assumptions about technological sophistication (2025)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Exploring the Intersection of Ethnography and Technology: Understanding the Evolution of Human Technologies through Ethnographic Research" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ethnographic studies can be used to question prevailing assumptions about differences in modern human (Homo sapiens) and Neanderthal technology and clothing. As no Palaeolithic clothing survives, research focusses on indirect evidence. Stone blades,...