Bøker av Michael Brian Schiffer

This text sets forth a theory of behavioral archaeology for understanding the relationship between people and things. Six case studies form the core of the book, and provide examples of how the theory can be applied to a range of artifacts and people.

Most of us know-at least we've heard-that Benjamin Franklin conducted some kind of electrical experiment with a kite. What few of us realize-and what this book makes powerfully clear-is that Franklin played a major role in laying the foundations of modern electrical science and technology. This fast-paced book, rich with historical details and anecdotes, brings to life Franklin, the large international network of scientists and inventors in which he played a key role, and their amazing inventions. We learn what these early electrical devices-from lights and motors to musical and medical instruments-looked like, how they worked, and what their utilitarian and symbolic meanings were for those who invented and used them. Against the fascinating panorama of life in the eighteenth century, Michael Brian Schiffer tells the story of the very beginnings of our modern electrical world. The earliest electrical technologies were conceived in the laboratory apparatus of physicists; because of their surprising and diverse effects, however, these technologies rapidly made their way into many other communities and activities. Schiffer conducts us from community to community, showing how these technologies worked as they were put to use in public lectures, revolutionary experiments in chemistry and biology, and medical therapy. This story brings to light the arcane and long-forgotten inventions that made way for many modern technologies-including lightning rods (Franklin's invention), cardiac stimulation, xerography, and the internal combustion engine-and richly conveys the complex relationships among science, technology, and culture.

This book presents a sample of twelve spectacular flops encompassing the past three centuries-ranging from the world's first automobile to the nuclear-powered bomber. 49 illustrations.

In this fascinating history of the portable radio, Michael Schiffer shows how this invention is as American as apple pie. Along the way, he tells how technology has responded to consumer preference, how corporate 'cryptohistory' has made us believe the Japanese invented the radio, and how the spread of the portable radio mirrors that of other technologies. More than four hundred photographs make this book both a definitive resource and a delightful browse.

Human societies have always been characterized by a dependence on artifacts, from prehistoric stone tools to modern electronic devices. Technology responds to and affects virtually all human behavior; yet the interdependence of behavior and artifacts has never been studied intensively. Archaeologist Schiffer now draws on his discipline's familiarity with artifacts--and the processes of change they reveal--to offer new insight into the study of behavioral change. Drawing on case studies that deal with changes in architecture, ceramics and electronic technology, he emphasizes the central idea that the explanations of change must focus on the nexus of behavior and artifacts in the context of activities.

Formation Processes of the Archaeological Record synthesizes the most important principles of cultural and environmental formation processes. It is intended as both introduction and guide in method and theory, fieldwork and analysis. Practicing archaeologists will find it a valuable checklist for sources of variability when observations on the archaeological record are used to justify inferences. Formation Processes embodies a vision that the cultural past is knowable, but only when the nature of the evidence is thoroughly understood. It shows how one can make the past accessible in practice by identifying the variability introduced by the diverse processes of people and nature that form the archaeological record.

Through a broad range of examples, the author demonstrates how theories of behaviour and communication have too often ignored the fundamental importance of objects in human life.

Originally published by Academic Press in 1976, this book has become a foundational statement in archaeological methodology and has had a lasting impact on the discipline. As Michael Schiffer writes in his new prologue, the work "played a vital role in establishing as fundamental the behavioral perspective in archaeology."