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And You Thought It Was Just Chicken
By WILLIAM WEIR
Courant Staff Writer
May 20, 2002
NEW HAVEN - When we speak of the chicken, let it be said, we speak of
ourselves.
At Yale this past weekend, a dizzyingly ambitious event set out to
prove this. A three-day conference, "The Chicken: Its Biological,
Social, Cultural and Industrial History," drew scholars from around
the world to tackle this very complex bird."We see it as a window to
focus on man's relationship with the environment by focusing on this
one thing," says James Scott of Yale's Agrarian Studies Program, the
conference's sponsor.
Sure, but why this one thing, the chicken?
Because, Scott says, of all animals, its history is most intertwined
with ours. We've modified it so much that the contemporary version of
the chicken is basically our own creation. And now just about every
culture in the world depends on it, economically and socially.
"We have really created the chicken by breeding," he says. "And now,
the chicken has transformed us."
Besides, says co-organizer Gavin Whitelaw, we like chickens:
"After the dog and cat, the chicken is probably next in line to
people's sentimentality. Of course, someone could say the same thing
about the duck or the pig. Maybe we'll have conferences on those."
To stand in any one spot at Yale's Sage Hall, the site of the
conference, was to stand in the eye of a chicken trivia storm. Did
you know of socialist chicken farms in eastern Connecticut? That
scientists are on the verge of creating perfect imitation chicken
flavor? How about umami, the fifth taste - after bitter, sweet, salty
and sour - discovered in 1997? (It's how we respond to MSG).
Panel topics included "When Chickens Come to Town: The Impact on
Communities," "The Chicken in Folklore and Symbolism," and "The
Historical Creation of the Chicken." Two film festivals were also
featured.
Globalization was of particular interest here.
Ever wonder who'd win a fight between Col. Sanders and Gen. Tso? Not
so fast, Tso fans. According to panelist Fuji Lozada of Davidson
College, 600 KFCs have been built in China since 1989. While its main
competitor, Glorious China Chicken, has gone out of business, a huge
picture of the venerable colonel's face looms over Mao's mausoleum in
Tiananmen Square.
Other discussions dealt with the global effects of Perdue, Tyson and
the other major corporations collectively known in the conference
argot as Big Chicken.
But it also dealt with chickens qua chickens, and what they mean to
us.
Over the centuries, the hen has had a steady run as the symbol of
maternal competence, particularly in folklore, noted Mercy College's
Boria Sax. The rooster's a bit dodgier, as it can be both protector
and predator. In more modern times, it's also the mascot of loutish
ne'er-do-wells everywhere. Think old blues songs, or Foghorn
Leghorn.
The tone of the weekend was of a loopy good humor seemingly inherent
to those in the field of poultry study. Chicken puns abounded, almost
every one followed by an insincere apology.
Strange, then, that there were no panel discussions on why the
chicken is so funny. Some offered opinions anyway.
"Well, they look like a herd of U.S. senators," said Linnea Johnson,
who was commissioned to write a few chicken poems and read them at
the conference dinner. "They have a very serious expression on their
face, yet they just peck at their grain all day."
But it wasn't all so jovial. Panelist Karen Davis, founder of the
chicken advocacy group United Poultry Concerns, grated on some
panelists' nerves. Relentless on the issue of slaughtering
practices, Davis distributed literature that decried gallocide
(nothing to do with the French, the word comes from the chicken's
Latin name, Gallus gallus). She also charged that the conference at
times "celebrated the exploitation of the chicken."
Avoiding the phrase "ruffled feathers," Whitelaw acknowledged that
all this caused "something of a tension." But it also served as
evidence of the many and passionate feelings the chicken can evoke,
he said.
A tricky matter, this bird. E.B. White, who owned a farm in his later
years, said he didn't know which was more discouraging, chickens or
literature. As a poet and "one who lives amongst the chickens,"
Johnson seemed uniquely qualified to speak to that.
It turns out neither discourages her. Indeed, she dreams of merging
the two by leaving this world and reappearing as an extra character
in the children's book "Flicka, Ricka, Dicka and the Big Red Hen."
"I love the way they walk together - they seem to have an intention
among them," she said. "It's amazing. Me, living with chickens. I
think they think the same thing."
Copyright 2002, Hartford Courant
United Poultry Concerns, Inc.
PO Box 150
Machipongo, VA 23405-0150
757-678-7875
FAX: 757-678-5070
www.upc-online.org
(Hartford Courant Article on Yale Chicken Conference - May 20, 2002)
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