LOOK
WHEN YOU
The Indescribable Junglefowl
When you look at the Junglefowl, you see an unstable yet powerful identity
When I first walked into the Orma J. Smith museum in the basement of Boone Hall, I saw this weird chicken looking thing in a bottom shelf in the, what I can only describe as “arranged fowls” section. Almost as if it was crouching in that glass case, the wobble-eyed taxidermy looked kind of pitiful to be honest. But, I knew there was more to it. So, I began my research into the world of the Junglefowl, and through bunches of academic journals and books, I found that this bird has a very unstable, but in this it also has an equally powerful identity.
Thompson, Jason. “Male Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus).” Flickr, 2 May 2012, https://www.flickr.com/photos/79492850@N00/6989728758 .
Harrison, JJ. “Female Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus).” 12 Jan 2011, https://www.jjharrison.com.au/.
Origin and Spread
The Junglefowl, quite simply, can be called the prehistoric chicken, as it was through their domestication that we now have our modern day chicken. Their origin is usually set around Southern Asia, but no one knows specifically where they were first domesticated. Some say 5400 B.C. in China, some claim 3200 B.C. in India, others say during the Bronze Age or even in Thailand. The Junglefowl doesn’t really have what one would call a “home” it belongs to. It’s spread into the rest of the Old World and into the New, however, suggests it may have many homes. From being used for egg-laying in the Middle East, cockfighting in Europe, and being used for evidence of Pre-Columbian exploration to the Americas in the 1300s, the Junglefowl has left its feathers nearly everywhere, as the chicken is now one of the most prevalent and economically important birds in the world.
The Art of Cockfighting
One of the ways the Junglefowl has been seen throughout time in a way that isn’t strictly found in regards to human economic consumption is the art of cockfighting. The experience of having two male chickens fighting to the death has been around since antiquity, and is still prevalent around the world today (although it is now illegal most places). This sport has been used to tangibly represent many aspects of the Junglefowl, such as its use in violence (in contrast to submission through domestication) and masculinity (specifically male superiority). In fact, during the Roman Era, rates of overall violence went down, possibly due to the cathartic nature of the game, but domestic
abuse against women increased, perhaps due to the admiration of masculine violence.
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​Cockfighting also represents intercultural mingling and universality, especially in the United States. In the Southeast, and parts of Appalachia, cockfighting is still a prominent yet illegal sport. However, the continuously racially divided and contentious South finds the cockfighting pit as a multicultural common ground. Even before the Civil War, slaves and slave masters alike would put their best chicken head to head. Now, people of many groups and cultures in the South see cockfighting as a sport not against social groups, but between insiders of the sport and critics.
Anon, Terez. “The Cockfight Mosaic.” TrekEarth, 14 April 2007, https://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Europe/Italy/Campania/Naples/Naples/photo625199.htm.
"Cock-Fighting", Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora, http://slaveryimages.org/s/slaveryimages/item/1006.
So, all in all, no. You can’t really say that the Junglefowl is any one thing, or any one word. It is universal, but has no home. It is a junglefowl, but also a chicken, and also a means for human consumption. It is a cock and it is a hen. It is violent but it is submissive. And it is in this very way that the Junglefowl shows power- because it can simultaneously be everything and nothing at once.
By: Megan Gilbert