teleonomy

Much too long since last update.

Currently writing the article (although it's slowly turning into a chapter); will publish when finished.

"Technological historians share certain biases. They prefer working with artifacts or pictures to working with descriptions. They believe that technological change is, by and large, gradual and that there is usually at least one middle stage to be discovered between one type of device or process and any significantly improved versions of the same device or process. And they tend to favor diffusionist theories linking technological developments into chains stretching back chronologically and geographically to a single point of origin to theories of simultaneous discovery or parallel evolution. They are always ready, naturally, to throw over these biases in the face of persuasive evidence, but they influence nevertheless the direction they take in investigating a problem, and they have influenced this study of the camel." (37)

--Richard W. Bulliet, The Camel and the Wheel for a little light reading.

(Organized by reading order)

--Bulliet, Richard W. The Camel and the Wheel. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1975. ISBN:0-674-09130-2.
--Schroeder, Ralph, ed. The Social Life of Avatars. London: Springer-Verlag, 2002. ISBN: 1-85233-461-4.
--Murphie, Andrew and John Potts. Culture & Technology. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. ISBN: 0-333-92929-2.

More information on the general reading list.