Learning from experience: A brief review of the historiography of technology in Mexico and Latin America

The history of technology in Mexico and Latin America has received little attention from historians. In this paper, a brief review of previous studies on some aspects of the history of technology in the region, carried out by engineers and other professionals, is undertaken. It is argued that it is necessary to establish a new research agenda that recognizes both cognitive content and the non-epistemological context of the history of local technological activity in its various epochs. A contribution to the intellectual development of this new perspective is also presented.

Dr. Saldaña obtained his Ph.D. in the History and Philosophy of Science at the Université de París I (Panthéon-Sorbonne) in 1980, earning "Honorable Mention"; the first Mexican to specialize in this discipline. He is a tenured, full-time Professor in the Graduate Program in History at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the UNAM (formally ascribed to the College of Philosophy), a Level "D" member of PRIDE (2012-2016), and a Level III Scholar in Mexico's National System of Researchers since 1997 (SNI; latest designation, 2005-2016).
Author of over 200 publications, his most recent books are: Las revoluciones políticas y la ciencia en México, vols. I and II (Mexico, CONACYT, 2010), and Ciudad de México, Metrópoli científica. Una historia de la ciencia en situación (Mexico, ICyTDF, 2012). Dr. Saldaña has directed 70 graduate and undergraduate theses in the History of Science and Technology, and participated in almost one hundred degree examinations. He has received numerous national and international awards for his scientific trajectory, including: the National University Prize (1994) and the Academic Gold Medal from the Mexican Society for the History of Science and Technology (2004). He is a Corresponding Member of the International Academy of the History of Science (2001) and the Argentine Scientific Society (2004), has belonged to the Mexican Academy of Sciences since 1987, and has been a member of numerous national and foreign scientific societies, several of which have elected him to their Boards of Directors.

Persistent Technology, Changing Social Relations: Urban Architecture at Teotihuacan

Architecture provides a significant medium through which people negotiate their social relations. Construction quality is determined on the basis of series of technical choices from the procurement of resources, combining of materials, and techniques of production. The architectural structure is the cumulative aesthetic and practical product of complex interactions between material condition, technical choices, skills, and knowledge of producers, and social relations in which construction process is embedded. Using cases from Teotihuacan including the ceremonial precinct and surrounding apartment compounds, I will identify temporal and spatial variability in architectural technology and explore social implications of technological persistence and change.

Tatsuya Murakami received his Ph.D. from Arizona State University and is currently an assistant professor at the Department of Anthropology of Tulane University. His research focuses on the materiality of power relations among different social segments as expressed in labor and material resources in Central Mexico. His research is especially concerned with developing a set of concepts and methodologies to discern the complex social landscapes of power based on practice-based and multidisciplinary approaches, including the application of archaeometric methods. He has conducted construction experiments, materials analysis of lime plaster and cut stone blocks, and an analysis of lapidary objects (especially greenstone) at Teotihuacan. He is currently directing an archaeological project at the Formative site of Tlalancaleca, Puebla, Mexico, which is investigating sociopolitical dynamics in a pre-state society and broader regional processes leading to state formation at Teotihuacan.

Continuity and Change in Lithic Technology: On the Construction of Formal Inference Patterns

This paper addresses the study of continuity and change in lithic technology as a way to improve understanding of the evolutionary dynamics in human societies. In this sense, lithic technology is a potentially valuable means by which to study long-term technological variation, since such technology is extensively documented in the archaeological record and has a high preservation potential. Moreover, due to the ubiquitous spatial distribution of lithic technology and the fact that it is shared among other members of the primate evolutionary lineage, such as chimpanzees (see, for example, Lycett et al. 2011), lithic technologies allow for extensive comparative studies. Nonetheless, it is clear that in our species there are many social, ecological (environmental), and demographic processes—individually or collaboratively—may constitute agents of technological change (Oswalt 1975, Collard et al., 2005, 2011). Such a number of dimensions (and their interrelationships) can be difficult, if not impossible, to model as a whole; hence, models such as those derived from Darwinian Theory pose different levels of reductionism (Smith 2000). A step subsequent to the definition of potential agents of change is the exploration of links between these and the observed variation in lithic technology. This allows for the production of patterns through which technological variability can be explained by the factors chosen. Finally, the identification of an operating mechanism can be explained on the basis of a theoretical model, employing various methods of inference.

The primary interest of this paper is to outline some of the possible analytical trajectories in the study of lithic artifacts, to define likely units of analysis, to select statistical tools appropriate to the research, and to interpret the resulting patterns in terms of processes. Focusing on methodological aspects, emphasis is placed on the Darwinian concept of diversity, its manifestation in distinct spatial and temporal scales, and statistical analysis. To this end descriptive, exploratory, and inferential techniques are applied to differing case studies from Argentinean Patagonia. Finally, the relevance—in evolutionary terms—of change in lithic technology among gatherer societies is discussed, in relation to spatial, temporal, and environmental variables.

Dr. Cardillo earned his Ph.D. in Archaeology at the University of Buenos Aires. Since 2010 he has been a researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET). His current work centers on the study of the evolution of lithic technology in Patagonia, Argentina, and its spatial and temporal manifestations. He has served as Adjunct Professor of Quantitative Methods in Archaeology in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters since 2010, and conducted post-graduate seminars on statistical methods and their application to studies of technological diversity in archaeology (2011, 2012). Also, he has directed undergraduate seminars on Evolution and Archaeology and Introduction to the Study of Lithic Technology. He has coordinated symposiums and edited two books on these topics, as well as publishing articles in various scientific journals and books in Argentina and international journals. At present, he is co-directing doctoral students and a research Project on the use of space by the hunter-gatherer-fishers of the northern coast of Patagonia, while also participating in survey and research projects on morphological variations in projectile points in Patagonia using geometric morphometrics.

Keeping What Works: The Continued Use of Stone Tools in the Eastern Mediterranean over Time

Stone tools have served a major role in human survival since their initial introduction over 2.5 million years ago. In part because of their lack of plasticity (compared to ceramics, for example), lithics exhibited relatively little change over long periods of time. This rigidity of form also conferred great benefits on lithics. With some modification, various stones could make extremely useful implements for cutting, scraping, drilling, incising, and abrading, grinding, or crushing various materials, even when compared to tools provided by new technologies. Indeed, both flaked and ground stone tools persisted over long periods even as new materials and technologies were introduced because their relatively low cost and high durability provided on-going value for people. Specifically, I have looked at the continuation of lithic technology from the end of the prehistoric period (Bronze Age) into subsequent historical phases (Archaic, Classical, Roman, Byzantine) in the eastern Mediterranean region. In some instances, such as with threshing sledges and the use of millstones to grind grains, the technology persisted well into the 20th century, and I also present examples of this phenomenon. The concepts that underlie this technological persistence are strategic thinking and economizing behavior on the part of people in cultures past and present.

P. Nick Kardulias is Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology, and also Chair of the Program in Archaeology at the College of Wooster. His research interests include the analysis of stone tools (examination involving macroscopic and microscopic techniques), specifically as they relate to the study of agriculture and their role in craft specialization in ancient cultures, and the use of world-systems analysis and evolutionary theory in archaeological contexts. He has participated in and directed survey, excavation, and ethnoarchaeological projects in Greece, Cyprus, and the United States. Among his publications are six edited volumes, a monograph (From Classical to Byzantine: Social Evolution in Late Antiquity and the Fortress at Isthmia, Greece, 2005, Archaeopress), and over sixty articles and chapters in books. In 2002, he received the National Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from the Archaeological Institute of America. In 2012 he was President of the Central States Anthropological Society. He is a life member of the American Anthropological Association, Archaeological Institute of America, Society for American Archaeology, Society for Historical Archaeology, and Sigma Xi.

Ana Cyphers earned her Ph.D. at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in 1987 and is today a tenured Researcher at the Institute for Anthropological Research there. She has conducted archaeological research at the Chalcatzingo, Xochicalco, San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán and Laguna de los Cerros sites with a specific focus on the Pre-Classic period and Olmec culture.

Production and Circulation of Iron Oxides by Hunter-Gatherer-Fisher Societies of the Archaic Period in Northern Chile

Iron oxides have been intensively used by groups of hunter-gatherers in prehistory for at least 300 ka. However, little is known of the methods of mining, processing, and distributing this raw material.
The San Ramón 15 Mine (Taltal, Antofagasta Region) on the arid northern coast of Chile provides outstanding evidence of the extraction of iron oxides by groups of archaic hunter-gatherer-fishers. There is direct evidence of two extraction phases: The first occurred during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition (12,000-10k BP) and the second around 4500-4000 BP. A high amount of percussion instruments and stone hammers were found in situ in the clearings of the operation.

Current research at San Ramón 15 is aimed at understanding the systems of production (technology, extraction techniques, chaîne opératoire, spatial organization), distribution, and consumption (use-function) of the pigments within the coastal hunting-fishing and collection economies. To this end, the research attempts to determine the characteristics of the exploited iron oxides and the subsequent stages of processing and use.

To address these issues, a robust understanding of the lithology of reefs and other surrounding geological formations rich in iron oxides has been essential. Remains of iron oxides were sampled in both the mine and surrounding house sites (middens) to be compared using physicochemical techniques (SEM-EDS, XRD, PIXE) and petrographic characterization. Additionally, a technological study of all stone hammers at the SR-15 mine was conducted, considering variation in dimension, raw materials, active functional ends, and traces of use of the instruments. To support this last goal, the research project has begun the development of an experimental program aimed at determining function and a program of biomechanical studies to recognize osteological indicators of mining activities.

Hernán Salinas Williams received his B.A. in Anthropology with a minor in Archaeology at the Universidad de Chile and holds a B.A. in Psychology from the same university. His interests in the field of archaeology lie in studying pre-Hispanic mining and mining technology. His undergraduate thesis focused precisely on copper mining technologies in the Atacama Desert, and he is currently conducting research on iron oxide mining technologies on the desert coast of northern Chile. His works on mining include ethnographic and experimental studies and he has published and presented his results in diverse forums in America and Europe.

Diego Salazar is an Archaeologist at the Universidad de Chile, where he holds the position of Professor in the Anthropology Department. He has carried out research primarily in northern Chile on topics of interest such as prehistoric economies and, in particular, production systems, using a focus that strives to understand those systems in broader contexts that take into account the environmental, technological, social, political and ideological dimensions of past societies. His principal studies center on systems of mineral production, but more recently he has also delved into the study of systems of metallurgical production. At present, he is complementing his analyses of these two systems by studying agricultural production in the arid highlands of the Atacama Desert. The results of his research have been published in several archaeological journals and specialized books in Chile, Latin America, the United States and Europe.

Manufacturing Techniques of Shell Objects in Pre-Hispanic Mexico

Since the year 2000, a research project has been conducted whose goal is to understand the manufacturing techniques of the shell objects that were developed throughout Mexico's pre-Hispanic history. This goal is accomplished via experimental archeology, due to the overall lack of direct indicators of production for most of the collections of shell objects, through the analysis of manufacturing traces, which, produced under controlled conditions, are compared with those present in the archaeological materials. To date over 700 experiments have been conducted, and the archaeological collections of sites from all cultural areas of Mexico, covering a temporality of about 3000 years, have been studied. The information obtained has allowed inferences regarding the specialized production of shell objects and has also made possible a proposal for the existence of technological styles specific to certain locations, regions, and eras. This paper presents the general approach of the project and summarizes the main results obtained so far.

Dr. Velázquez received his Ph.D. in anthropology at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. He was the Curator of the Museum at the Templo Mayor archaeological site from 1990 to 1993 and has been a Professor/Researcher at the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH), assigned to that Museum since 1993. He has devoted much of his professional life to research on shell-based archaeological materials; especially notable are his analyses of collections from the Maya area (Jaina, Campeche and Reforma, Tabasco) and central Mexico (Las Bocas, Puebla; Xalla and Teopancazco, Teotihuacan, State of Mexico; Tula, Hidalgo and the Templo Mayor at Tenochtitlan). His outstanding publications include: Tipología de los objetos de concha del Templo Mayor de Tenochtitlan, El simbolismo de los objetos de concha de las ofrendas encontradas en el Templo Mayor de Tenochtitlan and La producción especializada de los objetos de concha del Templo Mayor de Tenochtitlan. He earned honorable mention for the Alfonso Caso Prize in the category of Master's Thesis in 1999, and his doctoral dissertation won that distinguished award in 2005. The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México awarded him the Alfonso Caso Medal as "the most distinguished doctoral student" of his generation in 2006. Currently, he is coordinating the project entitled "Manufacturing Techniques of Shell Objects in Pre-Hispanic Mexico".

Salt Technology in Ancient China: Transitions and Continuities

Archaeological studies of salt production in China are relatively recent in China yet in the last decade research in Chongqing, Shandon, Hainan, and elsewhere have demonstrated that the salt industry that became so important to state finance in the Imperial era had deep historical roots that show some distinctive regional characteristics, but also clear connections across long distances.  Salt production in pre-Qin China was an important specialization that fostered cultural development and stimulated long-distance contacts. This paper compares recent analyses of salt archaeology in Shandong to previous work at the site of Zhongba in the Three Gorges of Chongqing Municipality.  Similar technologies were used in both places during the period leading up to technological changes that transformed the production process.  The paper d iscusses how technology developed locally in these two cases and how the salt production fit into broader regional networks.

Is a Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University.  His research is currently focused on the emergence and development of complex society during the late Neolithic period and the Bronze Age in China. This research incorporates interests in diachronic change in production processes, the intersection between ritual activity and production, the role of animals in early Chinese society - particularly their use in sacrifice and divination, and the processes involved in social change in general. Recently he has conducted excavations at a salt production site in the eastern Sichuan Basin and archaeological survey in the Chengdu Plain focusing on prehistoric settlement patterns and social evolution in that region. New research is being planned focusing on technological change in Northwest China (Gansu) during the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age. His publications include articles in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Current Anthropology, The Holocene, Antiquity, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, Journal of Field Archaeology, Asian Perspectives, Journal of East Asian Archaeology, Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Kaogu, and Nanfang minzu kaogu. He co-edited a book on specialization in the series Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, and Climate, Landscapes and Civilizations, published by the American Geophysical Union in 2012.  He is the author of Salt Production and Social Hierarchy in Ancient China: An archaeological investigation of specialization in China's Three Gorges, published by Cambridge University Press in 2011, and Ancient Central China: Centers and Peripheries Along the Yangzi River, also published by Cambridge University Press in 2013.

On the Geographical Environment and Technological Development of Pre-Hispanic Salt on the Eve of the Conquest

During the Mesoamerican Postclassic period, inland sites of salt production, especially in the central areas, provide evidence for a wide variety of techniques and artifacts that were possibly related to the rise of regional markets and the expansion of the domain of the Triple Alliance. Some well-known studies have demonstrated the methods and artifacts used, but certain aspects of the specific use of those artifacts remain obscure; especially when dealing with clay objects or briquetages, which exist in many interior salt production sites. This technological diversity—likely associated with processes of local identity—manifests itself in the production of salt, especially in the use of techniques and devices for the production of salt blocks that functioned as units of measurement. This paper compares and evaluates some of these technological variations at sites in central Mexico, Puebla, Oaxaca, and Guerrero. Similarities and differences in the pre-Hispanic period, as well as changes in the early colonial period, are identified as part of a system of relations and transformations that remains poorly visible, and one whose various technological and historical stages researchers are only just beginning to reconstruct.

Dr. Castellón studied archaeology at the Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia. He earned his Master's in Archaeology at Arizona State University, and his Ph.D. in Archaeology at the Universidad Autónoma de México. He has been a researcher at the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia since 1985, participating in archaeological projects in Jalisco, Veracruz, Puebla, El Salvador and Nuevo México. His interest is in the symbolism and mythology of Pre-Hispanic Mexico, a topic on which he has several publications. Since 2002, he has conducted research on ancient and modern saltworks in southern Puebla, Oaxaca and other areas of central Mexico. Today, his research focuses on Santo Nombre, a Classic Period site in southern Puebla.

Framework for a Technological Analysis of Food Processing

Focusing on the Early Agricultural period (1200 B.C. to A.D. 50) in the borderlands of southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, this project uses ethnographic and scientific research to explore techniques used for incorporating maize into the diets of early farmers. Pop/flint maize races grown in the Borderlands by early agricultural farmers had little floury endosperm compared to later maize races. Modern farmers in the same area plant pop/flint and flour maize landraces adapted to specific local ecological conditions and have specific techniques for processing and consuming each type of kernel.

Modern races of pop/flint maize, Chapalote and Reventador, and flour maize, Tohono O'odham 60-day, were chosen for exploratory experiments designed to compare the performance characteristics of pop/flint kernels with flour kernels when ground with manos and metates. The two types of metates, flat/concave and basin, used by early agricultural farmers are efficient enough for grinding dried pop/flint kernels, but boiling, parching, and popping prior to grinding improves flour production and nutritional benefits. Alternatively, it is proposed that pop/flint maize was not grown primarily as a grain crop by Early Agricultural farmers, and that the entire plant was often used in a way that preempted kernel maturation. This has technological and cultural implications for the introduction of flour maize to the Borderlands about A.D. 500. The design and function of fired-clay pots, and food grinding tools also changed about this time. Pots made between A.D. 50 and A.D. 500 were primarily for storage while cooking pots became more common after A.D. 500. Also just prior to A.D. 500 a new trough metate design was introduced that was more efficient for grinding a grain crop grown for flour production.

Jenny Adams, Ph.D. is a Research Archaeologist with Desert Archaeology, Inc. in Tucson, Arizona. She received her B.A. and M.A. degrees in Anthropology from the University of Colorado, Boulder and her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in Tucson. Adams' fieldwork is extensive in Arizona and Colorado, USA and brief in the Humahuaca Valley, Argentina. Her specific interest in ground stone analysis was fostered by the opportunity to work on the Hopi Reservation where she learned that archaeologists and native tool users have different concepts of traditional technologies. As a consequence, use-wear analysis, experimentation, and ethnographic research are interwoven throughout her projects. Adams' research into the development of grinding technology in the U.S. southwest spans three decades and has resulted in numerous national and international publications. Recent publications are concerned with recognizing gender and technological identity through ground stone research, designing experimental research, and the intentional breaking of ground stone artifacts. She teaches on an individual basis, training anthropology students in ground stone classification and analysis techniques.

Kenneth Hirth is professor of Anthropology at Pennsylvania State University.  He is an archaeologist and economic anthropologist interested in the comparative analysis of domestic and political economy in the Precolumbian world.  He has authored, edited, and coedited fifteen books on different aspects of Mesoamerican economy and political economy.  These volumes include: Merchants, Markets, and Exchange in the Pre-Columbian World (2013),  Housework: Craft Production and Domestic Economy in Ancient Mesoamerica (2010), Obsidian Craft Production in Ancient Central Mexico (2006), Mesoamerican Lithic Technology: Experimentation and Interpretation (2003), and Ancient Urbanism at Xochicalco (2000).  He is the recipient of the Chairman's Award for Career Achievement in Archaeology by the National Geographic Society (2000) and the Excellence in Lithic Studies Award from the Society of American Archaeology (1998).  He is currently conducting active field research on the organization of prehispanic craft production at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan and Teotihuacan, Mexico.