For instance, our modern jack, used for lifting up the side of a car, is usually based on the principles of the lever and the screw. Those principles were well known to the ancient Greeks more than 2,000 years ago. 20th century jack B y the 1940's, anthropologists began to realize that ideas and artifacts generally are not invented or changed in isolation. They are the product of particular cultural settings. Cultures are organic wholes consisting of interdependent components.
Inventions often occur in response to other cultural changes.
L ikewise, inventions potentially can affect all cultural institutions. Beginning in the 1950's, for instance, televisions in American homes affected how and when members of families interacted with each other. Less time was available for direct conversation. S imilarly, the introduction of new, effective birth control measures, mostly beginning in the early 1960's, allowed people to easily limit the number of children they had and to space their births. This affected the relationships of children with their parents and siblings.