Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/374

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

powell] TECHNOLOGY, OR THE SCIENCE OF INDUSTRIES 323

rowed from metaphysic, we may say that an entelechy is ultimately reached. The entelechy is the final end had in view by the exer- cise of an activity.

In tracing material through its transmutations from its original state to its final purpose, there arise a succession of correlations, the terms of which are known as production and consumption. How these terms are used will be made clear by a few illustra- tions : Primitive man produces flint from the quarry and consumes it in making the arrowheads which he produces. With his arrow- heads he produces rabbits; thus his arrowheads are said to be consumed when they are lost or destroyed, but there is still the production of rabbits from the wold, and this production is con- sumed as food.

The farmer purchases a tract of land covered with forest. The forest land he converts into a field ; the forest he consumes perhaps for fuel, and the fuel is the product which he consumes for welfare, and the entelechy is reached. The field remains from which he grows corn, and the year's production of the field is consumed ; but the corn remains as a product, which is material for the miller, which he consumes as miller's material by grinding it, thus producing meal ; the meal is baked by the housewife who consumes it as meal in producing bread, and the bread is eaten by the farmer's household and consumed, thus producing welfare, which is the entelechy.

The lumberman cuts logs in the forest ; he consumes forest trees and produces logs ; the raftsman consumes them at the place where they were produced, and delivers them at the mill as the product of his labor ; the product is the log delivered at the mill. The log is material for the miller, out of which he produces lumber ; logs are consumed and lumber produced. To the builder the product of the miller is material which the builder consumes in the product of his labor, which is a house ; the domiciliary user consumes the house in welfare, and this welfare is the entelechy. Maybe the lumber is used for making furniture, then lumber is

�� �