Article 8 of 118
  
Subject:      Re: chicken in America: from Asia? (cont.)
From:         yuku@io.org (Yuri Kuchinsky)
Date:         1996/12/16
Newsgroups:   sci.archaeology.mesoamerican,sci.archaeology,sci.agriculture

Domingo Martinez-Castilla (agdndmc@showme.missouri.edu) wrote:

: In 1571, Diego de Trujillo wrote about his remembrances of the Conquest.
He : was present at Cajamarca at Atawalpa's capture.  Even though he was
an old man : when he dictated his chronicle, it is important to note the
following passage:

: "Llegamos a Caña que es una población grande, y de mucha comida, y ropa
de la : tierra, que avía silos llenos della; [...] En este asiento se
hallaron : gallinas de Castilla pocas, y todas blancas"

: My translation: "We arrived at Zaña, a large town, with much food and
local : clothes, with warehouses full of them; [...] In this place we
found chickens : of Castilla a few, and all of them white"

The fact that they were white chickens DOES NOT prove that they were
European of "Castille". White chickens were highly prized by the Chinese
for their feathers. White chickens were all over the Pacific islands
pre-contact (see p. 197 in Carter).

: It took me 30 minutes of almost random reading to stumble upon this.
: I would : believe that other mentions of the Spaniards finding Castilla
chickens would : not be hard to come by

The argument that just because the Spanish called them so they must have
come from the Spanish is not persuasive.

Regards,

Yuri.
--

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