Fowl Play: A History of the Chicken from Dinosaur to Dinner Plate
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Of all animals, chickens “best represent the contradictory ways we humans treat other species. They’re both beloved pets and cheap commodity, symbol of rural simplicity and icon for ‘misery meat’ and the industrialisation of food.”
Sally Coulthard’s exploration of chicken ranges from their descent from, yes, dinosaurs though their cultural and religious significance around the world to their status as pets and vicious fighters, to their role as both layer of eggs and the most consumed meat across the globe.
Coulthard, a natural historian who keeps chickens on a farm in Yorkshire, smoothly links millions of years of human and poultry history, from fossil records and genetic analysis to burial practices and chicken metaphors. While British and American references predominate, she weaves in the rooster as Bird of Five Virtues from Chinese mythology, cockfighting in ancient Greece, egg incubators in Ptolemaic Egypt, and the importance of chickens to divination.
Paperback. Line drawings.
