# Poultry-less societies **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 9, 2011, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poultry-less-societies/599079 "2011-10-09T16:01:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poultry-less-societies/599079/21 "2011-10-10T08:31:46Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > Yes, though probably not for long. Polynesians introduced chickens to South America, presumably via Easter Island, but probably only a few hundred years before Columbus. Cite? (I’m genuinely curious.) ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poultry-less-societies/599079/22 "2011-10-10T08:56:50Z")
[You can start here.](http://anthropology.net/2007/06/05/did-the-polynesians-bring-over-the-first-chickens-to-the-americas/) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poultry-less-societies/599079/23 "2011-10-10T14:55:02Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > Yes, though probably not for long. Polynesians introduced chickens to South America, presumably via Easter Island, but probably only a few hundred years before Columbus. And they didn’t have time to spread very far from the west coast of South America before the Spanish arrived and introduced European or Asian breeds. They were not present in North America or the Caribbean at the time of contact. ---
**Author:** ![pope\_hentai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@pope\_hentai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pope_hentai)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poultry-less-societies/599079/24 "2011-10-10T16:17:16Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Do chickens eat chicken? Just asking. from experience, yes. ---
**Author:** ![JBDivmstr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@JBDivmstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBDivmstr)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poultry-less-societies/599079/25 "2011-10-10T16:26:26Z")
> [@pope\_hentai](#): > > from experience, yes. Beat me on the draw! :smack: Agreed, chickens will eat damn near anything, that doesn’t eat them first. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poultry-less-societies/599079/26 "2011-10-10T20:13:39Z")
I met an old Yupik man once that told me that the missionaries came to his village when he was a kid and attempted to raise chickens and failed. Now they sell chicken at the village store of course but the Yupik did apparently did not have chicken. Duck and other wild waterfowl were very popular however. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poultry-less-societies/599079/27 "2011-10-10T21:01:10Z")
> [@Max\_the\_Immortal](#): > > Though the Maori did hunt the moa into extinction. If anything, that’s an excessive gusto for eating poultry. In fairness, if you consider the size of some moas, it may have been self-defense as much as dinner. Sure, they were herbivores, but anything that size can be dangerous when provoked or defending its young. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poultry-less-societies/599079/28 "2011-10-10T21:36:43Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > And they didn’t have time to spread very far from the west coast of South America before the Spanish arrived and introduced European or Asian breeds. They were not present in North America or the Caribbean at the time of contact. Is it now accepted consensus that Polynesians made it to the Americas? I thought that was a minority view. And Blake’s cite also mentions Chinese pottery, which I find even less believable. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poultry-less-societies/599079/29 "2011-10-10T22:29:21Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Is it now accepted consensus that Polynesians made it to the Americas? I thought that was a minority view. And Blake’s cite also mentions Chinese pottery, which I find even less believable. I wouldn’t call it an accepted consensus. There’s no ironclad evidence I am aware of. However, the presence of the South American sweet potato in Polynesia before European presence has long pointed to some kind of contact (which helped prompt Heyerdahl’s Kon-Tiki voyage). The recent genetic data on chickens would tend to reinforce that view. If both are true, this implies at least one two-way voyage. IMO, given their incredible sailing feats it wouldn’t surprise me if at least an occasional Polynesian canoe reached South America and made the return voyage. I don’t know about the Chinese pottery. ---
**Author:** ![bizzwire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/958977/32.png) [@bizzwire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizzwire)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poultry-less-societies/599079/30 "2011-10-10T22:44:29Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Given that a female produces a single egg a year, no, they’re not a good candidate for domestication if you want to have omelets much more frequently than that. (They lay the largest egg in proportion to body size of any bird, about a quarter of the female’s weight.) And while they do eat some seeds, they rely mainly on animal food like worms and grubs, which would make them difficult to maintain in large numbers. The “Book of General Ignorance” (required bathroom reading around these parts) awards the prize for “largest egg in relation to the size of the bird laying it” to the spotted Kiwi (26 percent), although it goes on to say the extinct “Elephant Bird” (_Aepyornis maximus_) laid an egg about 10 times bigger than an Ostrich egg ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poultry-less-societies/599079/31 "2011-10-10T22:47:38Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I wouldn’t call it an accepted consensus. There’s no ironclad evidence I am aware of. However, the presence of the South American sweet potato in Polynesia before European presence has long pointed to some kind of contact (which helped prompt Heyerdahl’s Kon-Tiki voyage). The recent genetic data on chickens would tend to reinforce that view. If both are true, this implies at least one two-way voyage. IMO, given their incredible sailing feats it wouldn’t surprise me if at least an occasional Polynesian canoe reached South America and made the return voyage. Yes, I agree that it would not be terribly surprising if they did. I was just wondering if the consensus had shifted in the last few years. The wikipedia article says the chicken DNA data has been disputed, but the sweet potato issue has been known for a long time, and there isn’t much disputing that. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poultry-less-societies/599079/32 "2011-10-10T22:54:22Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > The wikipedia article says the chicken DNA data has been disputed, but the sweet potato issue has been known for a long time, and there isn’t much disputing that. The fact that it got there isn’t disputed, but how it did still is. Of course, Heyerdahl proposed it arrived via one-way travel via balsa rafts from South America. Apparently there is a recent proposal that it could have arrived on a drifting, unmanned vessel. The chicken evidence would help support the idea of a two-way voyage by Polynesians. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poultry-less-societies/599079/33 "2011-10-10T22:57:56Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > New Zealand had no chicken-type birds before the arrival of humans; the only animals the Maoris brought with them were dogs and rats. But New Zealanders did do quite a job of eliminating the Moa. Granted they weren’t domesticated but I read somewhere that giant earthen ovens were built to roast the birds. Also, using the giant eggs as water vessels probably seemed like a good idea at the time. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poultry-less-societies/599079/34 "2011-10-10T23:00:11Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > The fact that it got there isn’t disputed, but how it did still is. The dispute is about whether or not the DNA is actually closer to polynesian chickens: > [@wikipedia](#): > > However, a later report in the same journal looking at the same mtDNA concluded that the Chilean chicken specimen clusters with the same European/Indian subcontinental/Southeast Asian sequences, providing no support for a Polynesian introduction of chickens to South America. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poultry-less-societies/599079/35 "2011-10-10T23:02:32Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > The dispute is about whether or not the DNA is actually closer to polynesian chickens: In the bit you quoted, I was talking about the sweet potato. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poultry-less-societies/599079/36 "2011-10-10T23:20:25Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > In the bit you quoted, I was talking about the sweet potato. Which bird is most closely related to the sweet potato? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2011, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poultry-less-societies/599079/37 "2011-10-11T00:15:17Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Which bird is most closely related to the sweet potato? 😃 The turkey is generally the closest, at least near the end of November.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2011, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poultry-less-societies/599079/38 "2011-10-11T03:53:33Z")
While pastoralists, such as the Tauregs, probably do not often keep chickens, they have no problems trading with settled populations. They probably get a chicken now and then, and eggs make good road food. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2011, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poultry-less-societies/599079/39 "2011-10-11T04:19:20Z")
The OP is, somewhat surprisingly, not the first person to raise this cosmic question on the interwebs: [www.chickenquest.com](http://www.chickenquest.com/) > [@](#): > > This site started to answer one question. Is there a country in the world that has not had chickens introduced. Call me Mr Obsessive but I have made this a mission of mine. […] > > Something though, had laid a seed of nagging curiosity and when the subject arose again, this time with the right combination of deranged minds and alcohol, the rules were set argued about and the quest was on: Is there a country in the world that chickens have not been introduced to? At present, his answer appears to be “no”. (Of course, I think he’s investigating only **countries** that might be devoid of chickens, not possible isolated social groups of non-galliformivores\* **within** a country.) - (Yes, I am extremely proud of that word. ;)) ---
**Author:** ![JBDivmstr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@JBDivmstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBDivmstr)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2011, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poultry-less-societies/599079/40 "2011-10-11T15:00:54Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > The OP is, somewhat surprisingly, not the first person to raise this cosmic question on the interwebs: > > [www.chickenquest.com](http://www.chickenquest.com/) > > At present, his answer appears to be “no”. (Of course, I think he’s investigating only **countries** that might be devoid of chickens, not possible isolated social groups of non-galliformivores\* **within** a country.) > > - (Yes, I am extremely proud of that word. ;)) Antarctica! 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poultry-less-societies/599079.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poultry-less-societies/599079.md?page=3)