It can clear land, harvest crops, split coconuts, chop wood, drive nails, and endure all the misuse we regularly put screwdrivers through. It is commonly used in homebuilding. Farmers and hunter-gatherers use them to kill and skin animals, dress out the meat and scrape and trim the pelts.We Westerners all know what a machete is, having seen them in movies, and a few of us have used them in the woods or even in a jungle. But to many people of the world, a machete is the most useful device in their lives - in some instances it may be the only factory-made item they possess - the one thing you can be sure every man in the village owns. Which is why civil wars in poor nations involve extensive machete use; everyone already has one. It is a formidable weapon in even unskilled hands, they cost a fraction of a gun to replace, and don't need ammo. The machete is also possibly the most common device of self-defense found in the world.
Other ubiquitous inventions have been compared to the machete: the VW Beetle, the AK-47, the cell phone. Kevin Kelly once called the the 4-cylinder Toyota truck the 'new machete', as it's utility and reliability had led to its extensive presence in most of the world.
So what common inventions do you consider very useful, in your (or another) society?
