Difference between revisions of "325--2011--Week 5 Questions/Comments"
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I found fault with his argument though that technology becomes the barometer for civilization, because the colonial powers used technology in earlier periods to describe superiority as well. For example, the use of crude guns, gunpowder, metallurgy, and other trades were seen as far superior to the Native technologies and therefore showed their culture’s lower place in the natural order. If anything, the type of technology and the amount of technology used as a barometer for civilization expands, but it did not begin here. ~~Kyle Allwine | I found fault with his argument though that technology becomes the barometer for civilization, because the colonial powers used technology in earlier periods to describe superiority as well. For example, the use of crude guns, gunpowder, metallurgy, and other trades were seen as far superior to the Native technologies and therefore showed their culture’s lower place in the natural order. If anything, the type of technology and the amount of technology used as a barometer for civilization expands, but it did not begin here. ~~Kyle Allwine | ||
| − | + | "Machines and equations, or their absence, were themselves indicators of the level of development a given society had attained" (7). Adas claims in his account that technology was the largest factor in measuring how civilized a society was or if they were civilized at all. Adas gave an example of a quote by Mary Kingsley when making his claim that read, "Well, that is just how I feel about the first bit of magnificent machinery I come across; it is the manifestation of the superiority of my race" (5). I think Adas made a valid argument. I would agree. This excerpt was in reference to the British, French, and German being technologically advanced and superior to Africans and Asians, however we can look at the founding of America and the thoughts about indigeneous populations, as well, to understand that technology was a large factor in distinguishing between "civilized" and "savage, primitive" cultures. Other factors were taken into account as well, such as lack of social organization, conception of private property, and the ways in which the people utilized the resources and space they inhabited. If we consider that in addition to machinery and the like that we typically classify as "technology," technology is considered to be "the usage and knowledge of tools, techniques, crafts, systems, or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or create an artistic perspective" (wikipedia). In this way, technological innovation really did measure the advancement of a civilization. -Sheri Foster | |
== Overall comments on primary source readings in Scientific Management, ~1900-1940 == | == Overall comments on primary source readings in Scientific Management, ~1900-1940 == | ||
