We all know or should know that food is an important part of everyday life
and has contributed to the growth of cultures. Someone once said, "The
plow gave way to civilization the formation of societies and all science". What that quote means is
that society as we know it socially evolved through agriculture and
gathering around the table. So it is not surprising to know that the
development of utensils to eat with came out of that as well. The place where
people settled and 'got' civilized was largely through eating together what
they produced together in that place. Place then as it is today had/has
much to do with shaping people's food consumption. As people settled in a place
and grew what plants successfully in that place shaped their culture- their
being and sharing social reality in a place. As cultures grew more
sophisticated in what they produced, cooked and shared, so did the tools they
used to eat with. So, when you set down to eat your next meal you can to
a great extent thank the Greeks, the Romans, the French, and the Chinese for
helping to bring to you the ability to enjoy the delights in front of you. One
of the oldest utensils ever used by man is the spoon. You thought that it would
have been the knife right? Well, the spoon actually was the first as cavemen
and their descendants would use various shaped shells to scoop out their food
and eat. The hands worked for roasted meat but the spoon came about to get
things that the hands just could not hold. Archaeological evidence shows that
the earliest spoons were made of shells (sea shells and snail shells) and even
pieces of wood that were slightly curved. The most far reaching design of a
spoon came from the Romans. They developed long handles with round and oval
ends to help hold the food better. Due to the vast Roman Empire and the
influence they had on cultures, the new spoon designs took off. The first ones
though made of shell and wood continued for many centuries. Over the time the
rich were able to have gold and silver ones. But the development of tin and
pewter in cutlery brought the most advanced spoons into the hands of the
masses. Forks have become one of the most basic of our dining
instruments. They date back as far as the Greeks, but originally were
created with two tines as a spearing utensil. Dining was not the intent
of the first fork creation. Cutting and serving was the main purpose in
which two tines worked wonderfully. By the seventh century it was common
place at the tables. Originally, like most things, it was the rich who had
them first. They were very ornate. Yet Europe was very slow to
adopt this tool. Many comments were made that God created hands and that
was good enough for them. Eventually, small forks could be found to
retrieve messy foods so that the hands could stay relatively clean. As
the years rolled by, the forks were used more and more. It was in the
seventh century that forks with four tines were developed. The inventors
saw that when using the two tines, food could easily slip through it. The
addition of two extra tines kept the food on the fork.
Moreover, in the social imagination, how we eat is socially determined and what we eat as well.
Food
has a sociological significance
that far outweighs the attention it has received. The willingness to
share food, for example, 'potluck supper' defines membership in social
groups. Affirming, who is who, what they bring and how much. There are
so many interesting aspects of behavior that are directly food
related. For instance, consumption patterns, nutritional trends, lay
beliefs
and practices, eating disorders, shortage and plenty, as well as the
impact of
technology and dining out.
Tara Tober, a University of Virginia graduate student in Sociology said
boldly "Sociologists have largely ignored food until recently, because it
was seen as just biological, something we needed to survive". "But it
is very much social when you think about what we eat, who we eat it with and
where we eat it."
Tober said that the surrounding society influences the development of
individual taste, explaining why some foods are very much identified with
nations, such as kimchi in Korea or tea in England or potatoes in Ireland. Some
ethnic groups eat foods that other ethnic groups sternly reject. "Taste and preferences are socially shaped," Tober said.
"They are not as individual as people think." Even though globalization
has broken down some barriers and introduced people to new foods.
And,
“despite modern mythology”, Tober said, “national
studies show families have dinner together an average of five days a
week”. Excerpt from - You Are What You Eat: A Course at the University
of Virginian, by Matt Kelly 2008.
