The distribution of chicken in Pacific

March 1, 2019 DAIGU SIGUA

The Distribution of Chicken in Pacific

Heihei is the sidekick to Moana in the 2016 Disney movie. It is this chicken who makes the Austronesian adventure great. In the real world, chickens also play a role as companion to the Austronesian during their expansion.

The chicken originated from the Red Jungle Fowl of South and South-East Asia, where this wild fowl still flourish today. This makes the domestication and distribution issues more complicated eventually. Archaeological evidences suggest chicken domestication may begin as early as 8,000 or 10,000 years ago, and was occurring in different places. People brought chickens to a new place maybe more than once. The repeated reintroductions are keeping the bloodline of chickens more complicated and making the modern technology of DNA analysis not so easy.

Just for the chicken distribution in the Pacific, including Oceania, Malay Archipelago, and Western coast of Americas, there are still existing arguments. When and how chicken had arrived the Oceania and Americas, an agreeable conclusion cannot be reached among anthropologists.

Despite the unsettled disputes on chicken genealogy, there are certain confirmed points on linguistic performance with regards to the name used for chicken in the Pacific. Most Polynesian islanders use the term “moa” for chicken, for example, the Hawaiian, Rapanui, Samoan, and Tongan. Their oral history told that their ancestors always brought various plants and animals to the new islands they went to. The plants and animals were called landscaping items, which could make their life on the new islands easier and more comfortable. The chicken, as well as pig and dog, were landscaping animals. As most Polynesians used “moa” for chicken, it confirms the fact that their ancestors had brought chicken from a distinct central distribution location.

Then where did the term “moa” come from? We’ve noticed that Fijian uses “toa” for chicken. According to Dr. Russell Gray’s “Language Phylogenies Reveal Expansion Pulses and Pauses in Pacific Settlement”, he had pointed out there were some pauses during Austronesian expansion. The area around Fiji may be one of them. “Toa” become “moa”, after the distribution routes in Fiji, was due to some of the Polynesian languages having abandoned the consonant “t” and replaced with “m”, as the Hawaiians use only 7 consonants (h, k, l, m, n, p, w). If traced further, we will find “toa” is used in Taiwanese for the juvenile chicken. Maybe this is a receivable explanation though not so satisfactory.

Map showing the direction of Austronesian expansion from Taiwan and likely timing of expansion into the Pacific.

Image credit: PNAS Tracking Austronesian expansion into the Pacific via the paper mulberry plant

Additionally there is an another exception among Polynesian languages that use “heihei” instead of moa for chicken, it is the Aotearoa Maori. Why don't they use “moa” for chicken? Because they found a big bird in Aotearoa that can replace the role of “moa”. So Maori shifted the use of the term “moa” to name this big bird. So both chicken and its Polynesian name “moa” might have disappeared from Aotearoa for quite a long time. Then when they had gotten the chicken again, they named it with “heihei”?

There was a statement that Captain James Cook brought chicken to Maori when he visited Aotearoa. But that still not explained why Maori called it “heihei”. If we consider the Austronesian ancestors expansions start 5,000 years ago from Taiwan with both vessels and technology of navigation already on the hand. Then after they had settled down on the islands they arrived, was there no any communication or trading from island to island, or from island to Americas? Apparently the answer is yes. The Indonesian had brought chicken on the board of their bangka, the double-hulled boat, during their long journey around the islands of Pacific for trading. Their chicken played the roles as meat provider and cockfighting to entertain the seafarers in the long and boring journey. So the chicken probably was reintroduced to Maori by Indonesians before Captain Cook. And the Maori name “heihei” for chicken, may derive from the Sundanese “heyam”. As to the chicken of the Americas, already proven by DNA analysis, was brought there by Polynesians in pre-Columbus times. Therefore it is possible to find in the Indigenous American languages the term used for chicken related to “moa”. But this is just a proposal without available evidence.

Nowadays the chicken in Oceania become a quite complex situation. Some islands with their domestic chicken escaped and became feral chicken. Normally a poultry and a dinner table protein resource, the feral chickens have now become a problem in Hawaii. The inhabitants' attitude of, “half the island loves them and half the island hates them", has caused the spectacles to last. Some people look at it as a lovely bird in the park or on the street, while others regard them just as a nuisance. The argument is probably due to people’s confusion on the chickens’ role identification.