Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

In searching for the origins of technology, students will examine a global array of societies. Predominant focus will lie on Indigeneity and Indigenous peoples, worldviews, and knowledges from across the globe. In Europe, for example, students might contrast historical Sámi migration patterns, and the influence of colonization and modern nation-state borders; in the Americas, students may explore Aleut dietary needs in contrast to Euro-Canadian moral codes. Focus is applied on global concepts of self, the supernatural, nature and the relationship between these and the development of tools, changes in concepts of labor, development of cities, and how these relationships were seen and expressed. Course may focus on particular themes such as “housing/structures”, “transportation” or “food acquisition and storage”. Through all, the overall theme will be the interaction of emerging societies and technology.  Students will begin to understand how our contemporary values and views of technology represent a confluence of many traditions.

Upon successful completion of the course, students should be able to:

1. Evaluate aspects of technology and how it affects peoples, societies and nations, in different geographic areas and time periods.
2. Assess how the values, assumptions, and other cultural attributes of individuals and groups are expressed in technological developments.
3. Speak, listen, and write clearly about technology and early civilizations at an appropriate level.

The SAC expects that instructors will assess student learning throughout the term using a variety of methods.  The SAC encourages instructors to consider the following in determining the achievement of course outcomes:

• Reflective discourse and writing;

• Examine and discuss a musical, literary or visual art and support views in writing;

• Describe the value of a creative work from a historical perspective;

• Working collaboratively in large and small groups;

• Capstone project on the confluence of technology as developmental process;

• Research paper on the impact of technology on human cultures, for example a cross-cultural examination of “gender”;

• Assess how technology has affected civilizations over time;

• Analyze primary and secondary sources of information.

Competencies and Skills:

• Critical and creative thinking;

• Connect past and present events;

• Problem solving;

• Working collaboratively with others;

• Clearly articulate thoughts orally and in writing;

• Close examination of primary and secondary sources.

Themes

• Indigeneity, place, culture, belonging, and the concept of the self;

• Interaction of technology and society;

• Interaction between environment and technological development;

• Cross-cultural notions of “gender”: performance, presentation, identity, and expression;

• Cultural continuity and change;

• The bidirectional interaction of technology and politics/economics;

• Developments in human expression: literature, art and music;

• Religions and philosophies;

• Changes in the concept of labor;

Concepts

• “Technology” (product) vs “Science” (process);

• Tools;

• Civilization;

• The self and the other;

• Spiritual structures (aninatism, deities, ritual, etc);

• Urbanity and political evolution;

• The confluence of values and technology;

• Changes in the concept of  “labor”.

Issues

• Technology’s affect on societal values;

• Impact of technology on urbanity as a social construct;

• The ongoing effects of colonization and impacts on indigenous peoples;

• Nature and the development and use of tools.