Technology across boundaries: preserve or perish

Technology is ubiquitous and culturally situated, influencing and impacting lives every second of every day. As humanity emerged, so did technological development. Diverse cultural groups developed technologies, related knowledge, and processes, to meet emerging needs or realise opportunities—such as trade. There is little doubt that some technological processes and knowledge travelled with people as they explored the world. Other technological development is likely to have evolved in parallel, in response to cultural needs and situations. Some technological knowledge and processes became unique to specific cultural groups, with others crossing boundaries. A boundary is defined here as something that indicates confines or limits. Boundaries are represented in diverse ways in this paper, such as in ethnic, cultural, and geographical bounds. As humans evolved from apes they became bipedal, thus freeing their hands for other tasks. This evolution, coupled with the emergence of the thumb, enabled significant manipulation of the environment and materials, leading in turn to the development of technological outcomes and processes. As humans became distributed around the world, so did their technological know-how. Survival across a range of geological locations and climates meant the modification of existing technologies and processes, and emergence of others. The authors use their professional experience as technology educators to situate their arguments, and apply food preservation processes to illustrate similarities across technologies, which resulted from geological, cultural, and time boundaries. In some cases, these responses were a result of food supply issues, during times of short supply in droughts, winter, busy times, or travel. The article identifies two key ideas pertinent to a developing understanding of the nature of technology as defined in the New Zealand Curriculum; that technology has always been transformative, that technological development is not linear, but at times occurs in parallel—across geographical and cultural boundaries.