How far has the technology of communication conditioned social change? The studies in this book focus on communication and its implications for human thought and action in a comparative and historical framework. They touch on issues surrounding the nature of experience and development and the constitution of human society, thought and artistry. The book welds recent work in social anthropology and history with field research in Europe, Africa and the South Pacific in an attempt to show how any form of information technology depends upon the social uses to which it is put.