Yet food and the partaking of it are also about the similarities. As Dr. Margaret Visser, cultural anthropologist and author, discusses in The Rituals of Dinner, food is never just something we eat. We use eating as a medium for social relationships, and satisfaction of the most individual of needs becomes a means of creating community.

Here’s a closer look at some of the most common instruments people of the world use for eating and thereby, building community:

Fingers and Flatbreads

Although dining customs across India vary regionally, eating with the right hand is traditional and common. Indians use roti and naan flatbreads to scoop bite-sized amounts from foods on communal platters or individual plate-like surfaces.

Traditional Ethiopian cuisine is served with a large, slightly spongy flatbread called injera, made from the ancient grain teff. The thin injera tears easily, allowing eaters to use the pieces to pick up small food quantities.

Yemeni cuisine favors two types of flatbreads: malooga and lahoh. Malooga often pairs with savory dishes, like those that include beans or eggs, while the spongier sourdough lahoh complements soups and curries.

Forks and Spoons | Forks and Knives

In Thailand, most people eat using a spoon in the right hand and a fork in the left hand, moving food with the fork onto the spoon. Chopsticks tend to appear only alongside noodle dishes.

In the Philippines, forks and spoons function in a similar way. But at a traditional kamayan feast, a Tagalog word that translates to “by hand,” a bounty of Filipino dishes sits atop banana leaves, and everyone around the table gathers bites of food and rice with their hands.

Forks, knives and spoons may reign as the most common cutlery in the United States, but we still eat plenty of handheld foods simply for the sake of convenience and speed. When we think about hamburgers, French fries and corn on the cob, eating with our hands doesn’t seem so different after all.

Chopsticks

The word “chopsticks” is a combination of the pidgin English word “chop,” meaning “quick,” and the English word “stick” — quick sticks — which originated from the Chinese word “kuaizi” that translates into “nimble ones.” Invented in China, chopsticks are popular in countries across East Asia, such as Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore.

Chopsticks are the most frequently used utensils in Japanese cuisine. The Japanese also use them in burials; the deceased’s rice bowl and a pair of chopsticks, in an upright position, are placed next to their coffin. To avoid a social faux pas, it’s best to not stand chopsticks, when not in use, in a bowl of rice but, rather, place them side by side, parallel to the table’s edge or in a chopstick rest.

Edible Cutlery

The disposal of single-use eating utensils contributes to the plastic waste crisis. To reduce their carbon footprint, companies around the world have started developing biodegradable versions that can be consumed.

The India-based company Bakeys, for instance, molds spoons and forks from a mixture of sorghum, rice and wheat flours. The spoons even come in three flavors: savory, sweet and plain. Bocado in the United States makes edible spoons from which one-bite appetizers can be served and eaten.