Beyond the dinner plate, chickens changed the world as we know it
Q. “How an unassuming bird changed the world as we know it,” read the “Science” magazine heading. What is the bird, and how did it get this reputation?
A. According to Andrew Lawler’s book, “Why Did the Chicken Cross the World?,” as reviewed by Greger Larson, “chickens are everywhere and are inextricably linked to the emergence and maintenance of human civilization.” Largely descended from the red jungle fowl, domestic chickens number 20 billion worldwide, “more than the combined total of cats, dogs, pigs, cows and rats.” There are at least three chickens for every human, and “Americans now consume four times as much chicken as they did 60 years ago,” with current harvesting of the birds “only 47 days after birth — 23 days earlier than chickens raised in 1950 and 2.6 pounds heavier.”
Historically, says Larson, “chickens played a major role in initiating and sustaining the economic independence of both slaves and women in 19th-century America,” since white male farmers had little regard for the “lowly” bird, permitting both groups to raise flocks and sell eggs and meat. More recently, chicken eggs have been critical in the development of vaccines to prevent flu pandemics.
Even the English language shows evidence of chicken infiltration: “We are cocky and hen-pecked, and we brood and crow. We walk on eggshells, hatch ideas, rule the roost, fly the coop, get our hackles up, consider our place in the pecking order, appear cockeyed, and run around like chickens with our heads cut off,” to name a few.
Q. Practitioners of meditation sing its praises, citing its origins around 1500 B.C.E. in ancient India and its benefits for both body and mind. What does modern science have to say about it?
A. It seems that different types of meditation have distinct effects on the brain, reports “New Scientist” magazine. Researcher Tania Singer and colleagues at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences looked at the effects of three meditation techniques on more than 300 volunteers over nine months: mindfulness meditation, a second focusing on compassion and emotional connection with a partner, and a third asking people to think about issues from different points of view. “MRI scans taken after each threemonth course showed that parts of the cortex involved in the specific skills that were trained grew thicker in comparison with scans of a control group. For example, mindfulness increased the thickness of the prefrontal cortex and parietal lobes, which are linked to attention control.” Tests of the relevant skills showed definite improvement (“Science Advances”).
Perhaps, suggests the magazine, meditation courses like exercise regimes might be designed to focus on particular weaknesses.
Q. Among the people living in Mongolia, a group known as the burkitshi have taken on the role of eagle-hunters — with a twist. Do you know what it is?
A. For the traditional nomadic clan of the Khazakh minority, the eagles aren’t the prey but rather “the hunting rifles,” says Dan Lewis on his “Now I Know” website, drawing on the “New Yorker” magazine. The burkitshi capture the eagles when the birds are only about four years old, old enough to know how to hunt but young enough to adapt to human company. Only females are used, since they are larger, with eightfoot wingspans, and are fierce hunters. The eaglehunters then domesticate and train the birds to hunt foxes and other small animals for the clan. Many of the hunters, in fact, spoke of loving the eagles almost like their own children. Adds Lewis, “The birds, which often live to about the age of 30, are released back into the wild after ten or so years of service.”