Want to hear a joke about a fork and a spoon?

You don't want to hear a joke about a fork and spoon, oh... sporkward,,,

As I've looked at tool over the last few weeks, it has been interesting to see how culture influences tool use, and how tools affect culture. This is possibly most apparent when looking at cutlery and utensils.

It should be obvious. Food is a necessity of life, so tools linked to food were some of the first to be developed, for example the preparation of meat using sharpened stones and blunt rocks. Nowadays, the utensils that perform a single purpose well or many, various purposes adequately are most favourable - Japanese-crafted steel knives are notoriously sharp, and the Chinese tou can split firewood, gut fish, crushing garlic,  mincing meat...

Since these tools have been present for many, many years, in various forms or another, they have come to be identifiers of cultures, they define particular practices. The fork was used in Italy during the Middle Ages because pasta was well established. Threads of pasta could be twirled around the three spikes for easier consumption. Chinese cuisine involves the sharing of dishes and chopsticks are the perfect tool to pick at the dishes on the table. Having to pack light for camping is one of the reasons why the spork has become a popular utensil, the other reason probably being the novelty!

An intriguing chicken and egg question can be asked. Not the question of which utensil is best for eating roast chicken and boiled eggs, but rather asking whether the cuisine and culture influence the design of the tool, or whether the tool caused a type of cuisine to develop!

I would like to end by saying how tools, particularly utensils and knives, can be incredibly symbolic of a culture. If a person saw chopsticks, most likely they would think of Eastern Asia and Chinese cuisine. Tongs are associated with outdoor eating, for example barbecues in Australia. Samurai blades are natural links to Japan, martial arts and possible violence (- you know there will be action in a Hollywood movie when the characters get their samurai swords out.

The tools of a population are great identifiers of culture, and culture has a dominating impact on tools and their use. Food is a massive part of culture and therefore it is unsurprising that utensils and cutlery have become so significant.

Give me the power of man's red flower

It’s interesting to think of a world without fire. No bonfires for s’mores, that’s obviously the main concern. 

No, it’s true; a world without fire would be a very different world indeed. For many people, the origin of fire is with cavemen and hitting rocks against each other… or it’s something that is never really given any thought. Yet, fire means different things for different people, which is especially recognizable in the origin stories of fire.

Perhaps the original dragon and possessor of fire was the iguana. In Central America, this was thought

to be the case and the story goes that the iguana climbed towards the sky and took fire with him, after quarrelling with his wife… so Mrs Iguana is to blame for why humans didn’t have fire sooner. Interestingly, man commissioned birds to try and bring the fire back to the ground. After that failed, the trusty possum (opossum) reclaimed the fire for man… why a possum I’m not sure, personally I don’t find them the most inspiring of animals!

The Sakalava and Tsimihety of Madagascar said Soldiers of the Sun (flames) tried and defeat the supremely powerful Thunder. Considering Madagascar is one of the most bounteous places for wildlife, it’s interesting that, unlike the Quiches of Guatemala, they did not relate animals and fire. A cool story, but battling with Thunder never sounds like a good idea. Thunder only won because ‘of his old friends the clouds’ who literally rained on the Flame’s parade. 

The fire was put out and had to retreat into mountains, stones and sticks. Hence, today we have

volcanoes and can start fires with stones and sticks.

Finally, a look to Tasmania. Was it two black men or the stars that are the origin of fire. Two black men made fire with wood and then ‘no more was fire lost in our land’… bit of an anticlimax considering the other tales of origin. The cool thing in this story is that the bite of a blue can bring people, who appear dead, back to life!

Slurp

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The Wheels On The Bus Go Round And Round

The concept of wheels is introduced to us at an early age. I still have fond memories of singing the bus nursery rhyme. Yet, to delve into history is to discover that the wheel was not a caveman development.

Potter’s wheels are thought to have been around in Mesopotamia 3500 B.C. It was only three hundred years later that the wheels on the chariot started to go round and round. The true potential of the wheel was realised as the Greeks invented the wheelbarrow that carried the load; Western Europe was revolutionised by the water wheel (no pun intended), which powered milling and provided running water; the Arab windmills inspired the European Crusaders to build their own.

The next development that man wanted to achieve, and there are still dreams of it today, is perpetual motion – making the wheels on the bus go round and round and round and round… only having to give it a little push at the start.

With the breath of God, windmills were seen to turn continuously with no visible input. Although we can know describe wind patterns, the mystery of perpetual motion and continuous power production is still a baffling one. Archimedean pumps, weird screw configurations and wheels with various weights hanging from them were all valid attempts at solving the problem.

Salisbury Cathedral Clock

Married to this, was the use of wheels and cogs to measure time for substantial periods of…, um, time. Clocks could be developed that only needed winding a couple of times a day and stayed accurate. I make this segue to mechanical clocks because it just so happens that Salisbury, which is home to me, is also home to the oldest working clock in the world. The clock resides in Salisbury Cathedral and dates from about 1386. It’s an impressive sight when you consider its age. It sits like a bare skeleton of a machine and looking into its innards you can see the simple set of cogs and wheels that the weighted ropes are wrapped around. Two large wheels dominate the sides of the machine as they are required to wind the whole thing back up again.

Lastly, an interesting point of note is that, although we now take the wheel for granted and it is used in a multitude of modern ways, it is not always the solution. As I write this in the Emirates, it should be noted that before roads had been built throughout the country, camels still trumped wheeled transport for travel over the sand dunes. So the wheels on the bus in the desert sand get stuck and stuck, stuck and stuck.

Guns that squat

Language is a beautiful tool. It enables people to pass on knowledge to others, or hide knowledge from others. It can become part of someone's identity, for better or worse. Language can even make us obliged to think in a particular way.

In the Second World War, encryption of messages was a key part of making sure your officers knew what to do, whilst the enemy did not. Machines were tools designed specifically for this purpose; however the code that could not be broken was language. Navajos were recruited by the Marine Corps to act as code talkers. There language was unlike any European or Asian language and there tribe had not been visited by German students. Fortunately for the U.S. Americans, the tribesmen were very patriotic and willing to adapt their language for the purpose of military messages. They described military vehicles as animals, which already had names in their language, and they even added words for use in spelling out the names of places. Their code was never broken. It’s interesting that the Marines had to trust something they could not understand.

With the Navajos, their unique language was beneficial. Yet, if you look at languages that are spoken in large populations, you might find that the populations’ thoughts are shaped by how the language they use. This is not to say that they cannot describe concepts for which there language has no words, just look at the Navajos who described mortars as “Guns that squat”. No, it is deeper than that. English does not use genders for nouns, whereas French and German give inanimate objects genders, and you can always tell if a person has been with their male friends or with their female friend. This difference in thought may not just give greater emphasis to gender, it can also make the mind obliged to be aware of things others do not even necessarily value. Guugu Yimithirr speakers language gives position and directions in terms of the compass: North, East, South, West. They do not give position relative to themselves, e.g. left of me, right of you. Due to this, it has been found that these people have a subconscious knowledge of which way is North, East, South, West. Their superhero name would be ‘The Human Compass’, although quite how they would fight crime, I don’t know. It’s impressive how it appears their language has affected their mind and body in such a way that this ‘superpower’ has been unlocked.

In contrast to this, the environment can have an effect on your body that in turn affects your language. Scholars can recognise those language developed at high altitude based on the use of ejective consonants – rapid bursts of air exhaled while making a sound! As is often the case, tools are affected by the environment where they are developed and humans then adapt it further as new purposes need to be fulfilled.