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Intro -- Studying Technological Change -- Contents -- Tables -- Preface -- Part I -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Building a "Crap Detector" -- 3. A Conceptual Scheme -- 4. Social Needs and Technological Change -- Part II -- 5. Some Basic Invention Processes -- 6. Technology-Stimulated Invention -- 7. Development and Resource Acquisition -- 8. Development and the Design Process -- 9. Manufacture -- 10. Adoption -- Part III -- 11. Large-Scale Processes of Aggregate Technologies -- 12. Reflections -- Glossary -- References Cited -- Index.

Archaeology is argued here to have a significant behavioral science component. Various kinds of laws used in the study of the past—correlates, c‐transforms, n‐transforms, and the laws of socio‐cultural variability and change—are not readily borrowed from other sciences. It is shown that in order to fill these substantial gaps in scientific knowledge, archaeologists have for some time been carrying out nomothetic studies.

This article calls attention to ceramic abrasion as a class of traces that can be employed by the archeologist in a variety of behavioral studies. Basic principles of ceramic abrasion are set forth, built upon the engineering literature and on experiments undertaken in the Laboratory of Traditional Technology. Abrasion mechanisms are discussed, but the limitations of current knowledge are underscored. The major factors pertaining to ceramic, abrader, and contact situations that influence the rate and nature of abrasion are identified.