July
6, 1996
Dear
Bill,
I
will send this to Australia.
Send
me a copy of your book. I will pay. I’m off to Maine for summer. My chicken
book was shot down by the Anthropologists! I have been writing a chapter for
the England Research Association on diffusion.
Interesting
recent findings. The jade pieces from La Venta, Mexico, are marked.
The marks read in Chang Dynasty language and name well known people in China!
My
argument runs. The Spanish had Dung Hill Fowl bare legged, single combed,
showy tail, held up at 30°, sharp upcurved spurs, and the hen layed white
shelled eggs. The Amerinds had Melanotic Silkies - over all of Latin America
-, Frizzle Fowl, brown or tinted eggs, blue eggs layers " South America
and into Honduras -, mixed bred fowls with many Asiatic features, fluffy
feathers, short wings and legs " these I have seen in Mexico. In Japan
and India very small chickens, ditto Mexico, probably elsewhere.
Mexican
says: "Ours were small". The Spanish could not have brought these
for they didn’t know them at 1600 AD, except by hear says Aldrovandi.
Names
for melanotic chickens are virtually identical in India (Karakuath, Chogo
Kara, etc) to the Arawak (northern interior of South America). Names for
chicken " Tarahumba and related tribes " Totori, Tori, Tottori.
Japanese: Cehua Tori (yardbird, ondori cock, mendori hen. Or just Dori.)
In
Japan very small chickens are the aboriginals, many regional variants. Very
like the wild Gallus. In Japan they are regional type names.
Religion
etc. Most people worldwide would not eat chickens or eggs originally. Chickens
are ritual, sacrificial birds. The melanotic is most important. Maya most
notable for this. Very close similarity in beliefs about chickens, especially
melanotics. Great detail in Carl Johannensen’s work. Question? Does this go
back to the Chinese Olmec. The Maya are the cultural descendents.
Name
of last Inca Atahualpa. Ata, chicken in Ecuador many variants. Hualpa, chicken
all over Inca empire, invariant. So the last Inca was named chicken-chicken.
Obviously honorific.
All
the best.