Technology and tradition

observations on developments in the adoption of the production system

• Pertti Huttunen Oulun yliopisto

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33336/aik.96501

Abstract

Bipedalism, typical of man, in primarily connected with the needs of tending the offspring. lt seems that work and the use of tools became possible only as a consequence of approximately a million years of socialization development entailing bipedalims. Developments in socialization were accompanied by the increasing importance of the various forms of social behaviour which were gradually adopted. !n later stages of this process of change work assumed a central role. In primitive communities hardly any division of labour existed. But with increasing production experience the productive capacity and the needs of the labour force lead to an internal division of labour in communities. Later on, this development lead to the beginning of the clan system, within which a formerly coherent tradition connected to work and production was split and distributed between various clans. The birth of the urban society in the Ancient World on the other hand was the end of this organization of craft, tradition and work based on kin. In the Antiquity the slave system encouraged the separation of the growing knowledge of nature and society from the technical tradition, whereas, as a consequence of historical and social development, the artisans of Medieval towns had at their disposal social and productional organizations, guilds, within which technical tradition and a wider knowledge base became integrated. And, in time, growth in the forces of production, resulting from an increasing need for exchange, surpassed the boundaries of the quild organization. The artisan tradition was then transformed into an educational tradition with a scientific base.