Standardized Estimation of Technology in Cultural Systems

Presenter Information

Gary Kaunonen, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Location

CSU

Student's Major

Anthropology

Student's College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Mentor's Name

Kathleen Blue

Mentor's Department

Anthropology

Mentor's College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Description

Anthropology) In order to assess the technologic viability of a cultural system, a cultural system's analysis is predicated on treating the cultural system as a specific behavioral organism. In treating a specific cultural system as a behavioral organism, the analysis of the overt behavior of the cultural organism is possible according to the principles of behavioral analysis. In order to analyze the level of technology present in a cultural system, a standardized estimation of technology (SET) equation analyzes the overt variables of a cultural system's population, spatial population density, and environmental surroundings to ascertain the technologic level needed to sustain a specific cultural system in a given spatial area. The technologic adaptation of a cultural system to sustain or raise their carrying capacity ultimately decides the successful transmission or failure of any cultural system. The research objective of creating an SET for a cultural system will be to plot the cultural system's SET on a scatter plot and analyze the data.