Low Tech Innovation: Resurveying the Basic Meaning of Innovation

Most studies of innovation have a biased high tech slant to them. For an innovation to be considered of major importance it must ordinarily be a high tech innovation which advances the knowledge of society. But innovation is not the exclusive domain of the Western or industrialized world. So‐called primitive societies have succeeded in innovations which in some cases the West has yet to duplicate. Examines the definition of innovation, presents examples of low tech innovations by “primitive” societies and provides several recommendations.