The Relationship Between Technology and Human Culture

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The Relationship Between Technology and Human Culture

Human culture and technology are continually co-evolving in a dynamic relationship. All technologies (See Note 1) develop in a particular cultural context as the result of changing needs or constraints. But once developed, a technology changes the culture that gave it birth. When a technology spreads to another culture, the cultural context affects the speed or way in which the technology is adopted and how it is used. The diffusion of technologies to other cultures changes those other cultures as well. The changes in culture that one technology creates may then influence the development of another or different technology.

Culture is a broad term. The dictionary definition of culture is "the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group." (2) Any of the social forms or beliefs of a group may influence or in turn be influenced by a new technology. One important aspect of a society's culture is the relationship between human and environment. (3) In this essay, I shall concentrate on how technology interacts with this element of culture, analyzing how particular societies' relationships with their environment gave rise to particular technologies and how those technologies in turn influenced these societies' relationships with their environments.

All technologies are shaped by their particular cultural context. Different physical environments and geographies create different needs that require solutions. A number of examples can be found in the Levant of the Middle East, where the first Mesopotamian civilizations developed. About 10,000 years ago, sedentary populations in this area started domesticating the native cereal p...

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... the Collapse of Great Civilizations. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991. pp. 1-7.

12. Paul Ehrlich argues that human beings evolved to focus on the short term Chapter 9 and 10 of Human Natures: Genes Cultures, and the Human Prospect. Island Press, 2000, pp. 203-25, and in an NPR interview from October 27, 2000.

13. Ehrlich 234-236

14. Southwick pp. 130-131. He lists "deforestation, overgrazing, intensive burning, over-cropping, land scarring, and extravagant use of irrigation" which had consequences such as "increased erosion, soil loss, declining water tables, salination…reduced atmospheric humidity and cloud cover, increased heat reflectivity, and lower amounts of rainfall."

15. Carlo M. Cipolla. The Economic History of World Population. The Harvester Press, 1978, p. 46

16. Ehrlich NPR interview

17. Ponting 1-7

18. Ehrlich NPR interview

19. Ehrlich p. 124

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