Evolution of Eating Utensils

Evolution of Eating Utensils

( By Pragya Kumar )

Image By:- Graphics (LDL)

Gripping the loose end of her mother’s sari a six-year-old was walking down the aisle of a jam-packed market. She could hardly parallelize herself with the hastiness of her mother. All she had was a blur vision of the shops lined along the aisle. They were dark and grey. Among the dusky nuances of the market, her eyes got attracted to a colorful shop which was just a few steps away. Unknowingly she leaned towards the direction of the shop and with a static jerk, she froze at the doorstep of the shop. Her eyes twinkled with a beam of happiness to see a set of shinning cutlery set perfectly arranged to play. Without a second thought, she requested her mother to buy her the set. The mother gave her a stern look stating that her place was overflowing with her toys and there was no requirement of anymore. Her request now changed into stubborn want and ultimately into a cloudless shower of tears. The mother realized that she was fighting a lost battle and hence the girl walked home with her one hand griping the sari and the other embracing the bag of cutlery set.

It was a childhood innocence of arranging the cutlery and also a sense of achievement to own them. In the course of time we never thought about the actual evolution of this cutlery, I mean I remember the cockney teapot an animated feature from “beauty and the beast” controlling the other household utensils, giving the best kitchen sarcasm. Eating utensils played a very essential role in the evolution of a human being. Humans resided in small nomadic groups during the early Stone Age. An age which made humans aware of surviving in the world by hunting and development for the tools for the same. They used their hands to eat which was further replaced by the leaves of the trees. In the course of time the spoons were the first sort of utensil used by the human. The Cambridge dictionary defines it as an object consisting of a round, hollow part, and a handle, used for mixing serving and eating food. And it was a preconceived notion that ancient Egyptians the flag bearer of the invention respected their spoons. The archaeologist much later dug the fossils to reveal that spoons were primarily carved out of the seashells and bones of animals. A final report stated that wrecks of ancient Egypt talk about their craftsmanship as their spoons were made out to ivory and slate. With the development of time, the utensil reached its zenith of social acknowledgment when the Christmas gift unwrapped to set of shinning “APOSTAL SPOONS”.

Apart from the spoons, the other utensil that grabbed the eye of the human was a fork. Primarily it was kept away from the dine-in and used to grill the hot steaming meat. The later centuries saw the emergence of a small and condensed form of the fork and thus in the 18^th century, it occupied its position alongside the spoon and knife on the table. Its whimsical appearance was accompanied by the fear of the devil’s pitchfork. No matter how useful it proved to be, it holds a dangerous outlook too.  Moving on to CHOPSTICK, another interesting invention of the Chinese which captivated the hearts of many. I can easily relate  Stephon Marbury when he says, “ I got so used to using chopsticks that using a fork and knife is weird.”  Chopstick was famous in the regions of Asia and many other cultures got influenced. It was the product of the Han dynasty which got appreciated all around the world. The pair of sticks seems easy to use but they can beyond our assumption. Hence this kitchen was challenging in all aspects.

The world witnessed the emergence of many eating tools. Robin Morgan spoke her heart out stating that, “ when the table utensils were invented in the 1100s, the Catholic Church condemned them as obscene and heretical, claiming, ‘God gave us fingers with which to eat.’ And we’re supposed to get politically discouraged? Oh please. We’re being opposed by the people who denounced the fork”. It is with the time that we realized the actual importance of these utensils. Though they are petty yet very essential. 

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The opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Light de Literacy and LDL does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.