When archaeologists claim to study social and cultural structures and phenomena, patterns of social engagement and human interaction in general, the study is always based on the material and culture of the past. It is understood that these objects were created and crafted by people of the past, but the weight of this is not always recognized: the fact that no matter what phenomenon we might focus on, we are always studying the material expression of past manufacture and production. The acknowledgement leads to the question of how and to what degree craft and technology can be said to be inherently human and to what degree they shape and mirror societies. In Grasping Technology, Assessing Craft, Ulla Isabel Zagal-Mach Wolfe attempts to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the inherently social phenomena of craft and technology and subsequently how to study them through the limited empirical material of the archaeological record.

When archaeologists claim to study social and cultural structures and phenomena, patterns of social engagement and human interaction in general, the study is always based on the material and culture of the past. It is understood that these objects were created and crafted by people of the past, but the weight of this is not always recognized: the fact that no matter what phenomenon we might focus on, we are always studying the material expression of past manufacture and production. The acknowledgement leads to the question of how and to what degree craft and technology can be said to be inherently human and to what degree they shape and mirror societies. In Grasping Technology, Assessing Craft, Ulla Isabel Zagal-Mach Wolfe attempts to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the inherently social phenomena of craft and technology and subsequently how to study them through the limited empirical material of the archaeological record.