THE HUMAN ASPECT OF TECHNOLOGY: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Cooking Ware from Jordan

Several ethnoarchaeological studies have emphasized the socio-cultural aspects that might be encoded in material culture. Such studies taught us that artifacts such as pottery can provide us with data not merely on technological aspects but the technology itself can convey social and symbolic information (Dobres 2010; Hegmon 2000; Lemonnier 1986; London 1989; Stark 1998, 2003). This approach in material culture studies goes beyond the "adaptive" face of technology (Binford 1965), or the identification of the performance characteristics of artifacts, or the artifacts' behavioral capabilities (Schiffer and Skibo 1987: 599; Schiffer et al. 1994: 199). Instead, the "cultural reason" interpretation of technology is the focal point of the new approach. This approach is more interested in the people who used or applied the technology (Dobres 2010: 105). Artifact production techniques, therefore, have been studied to interpret the social aspects embedded in these techniques. For example, there were studies that focused on analyzing clay body composition as a signifier of social groups or political alliances (Neupert 2000; Stark et al. 2000) and studies that showed that pottery forming techniques can also be correlated with cultural or social boundaries (Gosselain 2000). © 2015, American Schools of Oriental Research 1. All rights reserved.