ABSTRACT
For most of our species' 200,000-year history, technological innovations were sporadic and fragile. They might flourish for a time, even for thousands of years, only to disappear. That process is the subject of this chapter, in which the author reviews current thought on these questions: What background social conditions make for the invention, preservation, and propagation of technology? What alternative conditions lead to loss and regression? As a case study, the chapter begins with the Tasmanians. At least one of the initiators of technological innovation has been identified: exposure to environmental change. And considerations relevant to the perpetuation and development of existing technologies have been located: population density and intergroup sharing of knowledge and technologies. When applied to the events of the Upper Paleolithic in Europe from 40 ka and on, these help make sense of the spread and rate of technological invention and change.
