Reviewed by:

• Technology and Tradition in Mesoamerica after the Spanish Invasion: Archeological Perspectives ed. by Rani T. Alexander
• Edward (Ted) Beatty (bio)

How should we understand and interpret the history of technology in post-conquest, colonial, and postcolonial Latin America? How did individuals and communities draw on both indigenous practices and European introductions as they pursued production and consumption through the long colonial and into the modern era? How did these practices vary across locality and region, and across time, in non-linear fashion?

This fascinating edited volume offers a set of nine superbly focused studies by a talented group of archeologists examining the history of technology in Mesoamerica. They do not simply present conventional histories of the conquest of indigenous technology through European artefacts, techniques, and practices, nor straightforward stories of diffusion and progressive movement toward a saturation of European-influenced technique. Themes of transfer, hybridization, and transculturation are pervasive. They vividly illustrate the varied landscape of surviving indigenous practices, of local agency in the partial adoption of new practices, and how available technologies were embraced, adopted, and adapted, repurposed, and sometimes simply ignored in local settings. The authors probe “invisible transitions and apparent continuities” (p. 91) and are as equally interested in obsolescence as in innovation. These were rarely binary choices or patterns but varied in degree, by household, community or region, and shifted over time depending on the changing nature of external linkages and local conditions. This attention to local agency and context for explaining patterns observed in the archeological records runs through nearly all the chapters, ranging from the late fifteenth to the nineteenth century, situated in central and southern Mexico, Belize, and El Salvador.

Several examples illustrate these themes. Iron imported from Spain or made locally by Spanish blacksmiths did not quickly replace stone tools. Chapter two examines survival and change in the obsidian tool manufactures of central Mexico in the century after the conquest, driven by the relative price of metal and the expertise to fashion tools. In ceramics and building materials (chapters four, five, and eleven), production techniques and styles drew from European (not just Spanish) and indigenous traditions. Patterns of material and technique choices can be traced over space and time, but also varied by household, “spotty and idiosyncratic” (p. 190) within the broader trends. Even the industrialization of cacao, indigo, sugar, and henequen production in response to rising Atlantic demand in the nineteenth century illustrates borrowing, adaptation, and hybridity when seen through the archeological record of specific sites (chapters eight, nine and ten). As demand for henequen (sisal) fiber grew dramatically [End Page 967] in the mid-nineteenth century, initial efforts to automate de-fibering methods by U.S.-based inventors failed. It was Mexican mechanics who designed and over three decades refined the first viable decorticizing machines. Technological change looked very different in the nearby cacao and indigo districts: Spanish commercial agents could easily assert control over processing and distribution networks, seen here in the excavated remains of those physical sites. European conquest eventually produced a radically transformed technological landscape in Mesoamerica, but more provocative and diverse than expected in these chapters.

Historians of technology will find the introductory and concluding chapters (by Rani T. Alexander and Anthony P. Andrews, respectively) extremely useful syntheses of this book’s central issues and arguments. The entire volume benefits from effective leadership and editing by Alexander and her colleagues: intellectually wide-ranging but also tightly focused, coherent, and consistent in its presentation across chapters. The volumes’ contributors, all archeologists, drawn from universities in the United States, Europe, and Latin America, do an admirable job of writing for nonspecialist audiences. Most are familiar with the theoretical literature in the history of technology and cite it as relevant; the work of archeologist Michael Schiffer provides an important touchstone throughout. The authors are consistently attuned to questions of behavior, society, and culture, but are firmly rooted in the material and historical record of their subjects. This is a superb volume and should be a valuable reference for historians of technology.

审核人：

• 西班牙入侵后中美洲的技术与传统：考古学观点编。拉尼·亚历山大（Rani T.Alexander）
• 爱德华（泰德）比蒂（生物）

我们应该如何理解和解释征服后，殖民地和后殖民拉丁美洲的技术历史？在漫长的殖民时期和现代时代追求生产和消费的过程中，个人和社区如何借鉴本土做法和欧洲的介绍？这些做法如何以非线性方式在各地，地区和时间之间变化？

这本引人入胜的编辑集提供了一组由九名才华横溢的考古学者研究的一组优秀研究成果，他们研究了中美洲的技术历史。他们不只是通过欧洲的手工艺品，技术和实践来呈现征服本土技术的传统历史，也不是简单的关于扩散和逐步向受欧洲影响的技术发展的故事。转移，杂交和转培养的主题无处不在。它们生动地说明了幸存的土著实践，局部采用新实践的地方机构的各种情况，以及如何在本地环境中拥抱，采用，改编，重新设定目的，有时甚至忽略现有技术。作者探讨了“无形的过渡和明显的连续性”（第 91），对过时和创新同样同样感兴趣。这些很少是二元选择或模式，而是在程度上随家庭，社区或地区而变化，并随着时间的推移而变化，这取决于外部联系和当地条件的变化性质。从十五世纪末到十九世纪的几乎所有章节都对本地机构和背景进行解释，以解释考古记录中观察到的模式，这些章节分布在墨西哥中部和南部，伯利兹和萨尔瓦多。

有几个例子说明了这些主题。从西班牙进口的铁或西班牙铁匠在当地制造的铁并不能很快替代石材工具。第二章考察了征服之后的一个世纪中部墨西哥中部黑曜石工具制造商的生存和变化，这是由金属的相对价格和时尚工具的专业知识所驱动的。在陶瓷和建筑材料（第4、5和11章）中，生产技术和风格取材于欧洲（不仅是西班牙）和土著传统。物质和技术选择的模式可以随时间和空间而变化，但在更广泛的趋势中，也因家庭，“杂乱无章”（第190页）而异。甚至在19世纪，随着大西洋需求的增加，可可，靛蓝，糖和黑醋栗的工业化生产也表明了借贷，适应，通过特定地点（第8、9和10章）的考古记录看，它们之间具有混合性。随着对剑麻（剑麻）纤维的需求急剧增长[第967页]在19世纪中叶，美国发明家为使除纤维方法自动化而进行的最初努力失败了。是墨西哥的机械师设计了三十多年的第一台可行的去胶机。在附近的可可和靛蓝地区，技术变化看起来有很大不同：西班牙商业代理商可以轻松地宣称对加工和分销网络的控制权，在这些实物遗址的发掘残骸中可以看到。欧洲的征服最终在中美洲产生了彻底改变的技术格局，但比这些章节所预期的更具挑衅性和多样性。

技术史学家会发现介绍性和总结性章节（分别由Rani T. Alexander和Anthony P. Andrews撰写）对本书的中心问题和论点非常有用。整本书都受益于亚历山大和她的同事的有效领导和编辑：理智广泛，但重点突出，连贯一致，在各章中均保持一致。本书的撰稿人，所有考古学家均来自美国，欧洲和拉丁美洲的大学，为非专业读者撰写了令人钦佩的作品。大多数人都熟悉技术史上的理论文献，并指出它是相关的。考古学家Michael Schiffer的工作始终是重要的试金石。作者始终对行为问题感到满意，社会和文化，但牢固地扎根于其主题的物质和历史记录。这是一本极好的书，应该为技术史学家提供有价值的参考。