Could the nuts tell a story about the human race? Is it possible to see our own development using the nuts as our mirror? As the prime nut, could the macadamia be used as the crucible in which human development is reflected?
The Nutcracker Man
In 1959, famous paleontologist Louis Leakey discovered some human skull in Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. The fossil was approximately 2 million years old. Because of the large size of the jaws on this skull, the owner was given the name Nutcracker Man. His diet was supposedly vegetarian. This included seeds, berries, and nuts. Since nuts could be the hardest in the vegetarian class of dishes, it was argued that the prominent jaws and well-developed teeth were for cracking the nuts.
The big jaws
If we used Dr. Leakey’s theory, then it would be expected that in this century, human beings found around this area would have even more prominent jaws. This is because, during the Second World War, macadamia nuts became part of the crops cultivated in East Africa. Macadamia is one of the nuts with a rock hard shell. Imagine a person with jaws the size of a giant color sorter. Think of a mouth endowed with teeth the size of an average roller cracker. A tongue as long as the conveyor belt of even a baby sorter would be something marvelous in a human mouth. That would make for a superhuman being.
Industrial Extraction
Working with the argument around the Nutcracker Man, it could be a valid conclusion that recent technological developments have worked against the continued physical development of man. What called for physical human effort can now be accomplished by machine. While some experiences point to a relation between physical size and efficiency; others don’t. Modern industrial processing of nut kernel is a mixture of small and large size implements.
From small to huge
When he lived, the Nutcracker Man might have been primarily concerned with producing for individual consumption, and for a small community in his locality. Just imagine how gigantic your mouth would be, just to be able to crack macadamia nuts, enough to feed a few thousand people.
Efficiency versus size
Expansion in the human concept of community has contributed to the need for increased production. Before, there was nil possibility of one small human population having to crack and consume a few hundred tons of nuts; even in a good year. The increase in the volumes could partly explain the huge size of the implements that have to be developed for macadamia processing.
Small but effective
Still referring to the remains of the 2 million year skull, we can see efficiency being the focus. Thus, in some way, technology has made it possible to achieve higher efficiency through miniaturization. Remote technology has made it possible for huge tasks to be accomplished by the use of small size gadgets.
Singularity
One interesting development in this century is the singularity. This is a concept used by scientists to refer to the interface between man and machine. How this is going to affect the next course of development for food processing technology is going to be the nut to crack in this century and beyond.
Written by Amadi Kwaa Atsiaya
