Square Holes

I sure it won’t be a shock to regular readers of this blog that I am fascinated by the development of technology. One of the ways humanity is different from every other species on Earth is that tools and their use profoundly shape nearly every aspect of our lives. And not just in recent times: the very first anatomically modern humans already possessed a sophisticated tool kit that helped them acquire and process food, manufacture clothing and adornment, build shelters, and perform all the various tasks of daily life. We are the species that interacts with our environment through technology.

That’s one of the reasons that I find the archaeology of the American West so fascinating. It was a time of very rapid change, in technology as well as in many other aspects of culture. The technology of mining and milling advanced rapidly in the second half of the nineteenth century, with many of the new techniques being invented in Nevada and California. During that same period, developments in transportation and mechanization transformed a society largely made up of independent farmers into one of widespread wage labor.

At the same time, indigenous cultures were also undergoing profound technological changes. American Indians adopted many Euro-American technologies, but did not necessarily employ them in the same ways that white Americans did. At times, old and new technologies were blended as, for example, in the use of glass telegraph insulators as a material for making projectile points.

Both Indians and white Americans at times adopted new technologies without fully understanding their ramifications – both positive and negative. Both Indians and white Americans sometimes made technological choices that were, in hindsight, unwise. And during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, new technologies helped produce profound changes in both Indian and white American cultures.