The chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) is a domesticated
fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and
widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in
2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird.
Humans keep chickens primarily as a source of food, consuming both their meat
and their eggs. The chicken's "cultural and culinary dominance" could
be considered amazing to some in view of its believed domestic origin and
purpose and it has "inspired contributions to culture, art, cuisine,
science and religion"from antiquity to the present.
The traditional poultry farming view of the domestication of
the chicken is stated in Encyclopædia Britannica (2007): "Humans first
domesticated chickens of Indian origin for the purpose of cockfighting in Asia,
Africa, and Europe. Very little formal attention was given to egg or meat
production... "Recent genetic studies have pointed to multiple maternal
origins in Southeast, East, and South Asia, but with the clade found in the
Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa originating in the Indian
subcontinent. From India the domesticated fowl made its way to the Persianized kingdom
of Lydia in western Asia Minor, and domestic fowl were imported to Greece by
the fifth century BC. Fowl had been known in Egypt since the 18th Dynasty, with
the "bird that gives birth every day" having come to Egypt from the
land between Syria and Shinar, Babylonia, according to the annals of Tutmose
III.
No comments:
Post a Comment