January 05, 2008
Polynesian Chickens in Chile
Eggheads have long assumed the Spaniards introduced chickens to the New World. But radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis now suggest that the Polynesians first brought chickens to South America.
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Auch, in diesem sinne, Chicken Archaeologists.
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It's so amazing to think of all the things that existed exclusively on one land mass back then. I imagine that the potential to experience wonder and new experiences was much greater then than now. I can probably sample a variation of almost all the world's cuisine here in my own small city. But the explorers back then were able to try out things (turkey? buffalo?) that they had never knew existed. Those food must have commanded quite a price back in Europe in the early days.
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Turkeys (and presumably other food animals) were almost immediately exported and bred in Europe upon discovery in America. Pepys' diary mentions poultry farmers with flocks of turkeys in London circa 1661. So the price wasn't exorbitant for those sorts of things.
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Were buffalo ever brought back? I know that they were largely slaughtered in North America. I know that people at them, but were they considered to be good food? That is fascinating about the turkeys. Did they have ecological concerns back then about introducing new animals? Did they try to only bring animals they could control? Did they try to bring animals and release them into the wild to see how they would fare?
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It's amazing how large a role food played in early exploration.
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What's amazing is that they never brought over the peanut duck. Selfish gits.
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that's the crappiest chicken I ever drew. phew
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Buffalo (bison) is delicious, and lower in fat than beef.