The chicken or the egg? Where do chickens come from?
Chickens are more than just meat for your next meal or producers of tasty eggs, for they have a long and fascinating history behind them.
You turn it into a curry. Or deep-fry it till crispy. You eat it with fragrant rice and slices of cucumber. What is it?
Of course, it’s the chicken! The most populous bird in the world, the chicken plays an important role in the everyday diets of Malaysians, young and old, rich and poor.
But did you know that once upon a time, the chicken was more than just a delicious fowl meant for your plate?
Travel back in time to ancient Egypt, during the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose III to be exact, which lasted from 1479BC to 1425BC.
The chicken then wasn’t so much a delicious dinner as much as a bird of miracles, with the ancient Egyptians in awe of its egg-laying capabilities.
Elsewhere, people of the Zoroastrian faith regarded chickens as spirits, and whenever they crowed at daybreak and nightfall, it symbolised the battle between light and dark that was raging on.
Fighting roosters were used as examples meant to inspire young Greeks training to be soldiers.
The Romans, militaristic conquerors as they were, kept chickens close on the march, and used them to predict the outcomes of their military campaigns.
In the days before the Battle of Drepana, the Romans consulted the sacred chickens on whether they would defeat their Carthaginian foes.
When the chickens predicted that a loss was imminent, the enraged Roman commander threw them overboard into the sea.
The Romans lost that battle, with 20,000 dead or taken prisoner. Don’t ruffle their feathers indeed.
But where did chickens come from in the first place?
Interestingly, Southeast Asia may have had a part in the creation of the first chicken, as the Red Junglefowl that roams India and Southeast Asia is the ancestor of modern chickens.
The ability to produce eggs on a daily basis and their inability to fly meant that they were caught and domesticated by humans soon enough.
Some 7,000 years ago, chickens weren’t used for food as much as entertainment in the form of cockfighting.
This violent sport saw roosters, armed with sharp leg spurs, attacking each other while the audience took bets on which contender would emerge victorious.
Around 2000BC, China and the kingdoms of the Middle East received their first chickens and they gained religious significance, being used in rituals.
But once they reached Egypt, an important breakthrough was made.
When a hen is incubating her eggs, she will not lay any new ones.
The ancient Egyptians bypassed this issue by incubating them without the hen, using hot ashes instead. Hence, the hen would be left alone to continue laying eggs every day.
Eggs, which had previously only been seen on the plates of the nobility and prayer altars, became available to the common people as a meal as well.
While the Egyptians were enjoying their new eggs for breakfast, the Phoenicians of the Levant were sending chickens over to Europe, where they would become a common sight on European farms.
But at first, the chicken was just as sacred as it was tasty.
Up to the 7th century, the chicken actually was a Christian symbol, representing the light that brings an end to the darkness of night.
Wherever humans went, the chicken followed.
Chickens developed further when Chinese breeds were brought to England in the aftermath of the Opium Wars.
The Western world excitedly crossbred these chickens to see what traits would be seen in their offspring.
Interestingly, a certain Charles Darwin paid attention to this breeding process which would result in his famous theory of Evolution.
Chickens would prove to be a reliable test subject in studies of genetics, as they reproduced quickly and had distinctive traits.
Indeed, crossbreeding chickens continues to this day, as farmers work to make chickens meatier and more capable of laying more eggs at a time.
As for the chickens themselves, there has been a range of issues that has arisen from their treatment on factory farms.
A large portion of the world’s 22 billion chickens are kept in cramped and sometimes unsanitary conditions that threaten the wellbeing of the birds.
Environmentalists and animal rights activists have voiced out about these issues and it remains to be seen if the situation will change for the better.
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It is astounding to imagine that the tasty drumstick sitting on your plate right now has so much history behind it, isn’t it?