What’s New?

<p>First published in 1989 <i>What’s New?</i> puts innovation firmly back on the agenda of archaeological interpretation. This book revives interest in the process of innovation and reinterprets it by drawing on original work done in a variety of disciplines. It demonstrates that the study of the components of innovation—invention acceptance and the context in which they occur—is essential if social change is to be better understood.</p><p>The book contains detailed case studies that cover a broad geographical range in the prehistoric historic and modern world. It simulates and analyses the conditions of innovation and provides the necessary theoretical framework. The technologies involved are diverse: herding fishing pottery-making metalworking and land management. Several important issues emerge from this diversity: it is the context of innovation that determines whether change will take place; within hierarchical societies ideology can both stimulate and deny innovation; and the potential for innovation experimentation and change in traditional societies is systematically underrated by the Western world which is dominated by a narrow technological perspective. The contributors also study innovation in social and applied anthropology industrial planning and the natural sciences.</p><p><i>What’s New? </i>will provoke renewed discussion throughout the archaeological community about the process of innovation. Anthropologists human geographers and other social scientists will find it fascinating because it provides a time dimension for the study of the conditions of human and social change.</p>