As an artifact of culture, the portable radio is an unusual but perfect subject for investigation by archaeologist Schiffer. Seeing the history of everyday objects as the history of the life of a people, he shows how the portable radio has reflected changes in American society as surely as clay pots have for ancient cultures.

Michael Brian Schiffer is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Laboratory of Traditional Technology at the University of Arizona, where he has taught since 1975. Born in 1947 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, he grew up in Los Angeles. He was educated in anthropology and archaeology at UCLA (B.A., 1969) and the University of Arizona (M.A., 1972; Ph.D., 1973). Schiffer has taken part in archaeological field projects in California, Arizona, Arkansas, Chile and Cyprus but is best known for his many and diverse contributions to archaeological method and theory. Especially important have been his writings on behavioral archaeology and on the formation processes of the archaeological record.

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