When is a secondary artifact born?
No, really. Don't blow this one off. You might be elated.
One could choose a modern artifact like 'the fast fourier transform' and
look up references to it in technological journals and probably, pretty
quickly, narrow down when it emerged. Of course the conception would not
have been possible without a cultural protoplasm, which is far more
nebulous, and far less suited to quick explication.
But take a harder example that suits the holiday spirit. When did
'fermentation' or 'distillation' emerge as a secondary artifact? They must
have been around for eons, before someone wrote 'how to do it'. Were
these processes born when put in the oral tradition then, consuming it by
listening to how it was done? Or did one learn it by watching, by
peripheral participation, taking in sips, by apprenticeship?
Do you define the birth of a secondary artifact as when it is culturally
transmitted? How so?
Bill Barowy,
Technology in Education
Lesley College, 29 Everett Street, Cambridge, MA 02138-2790
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"The scientist is elated by being confused." Dudley Herschbach.