The History of African Village Chickens: an Archaeological and Molecular Perspective

Abstract

The history of the introduction and dispersal of village chickens across the African continent is a subject of intense debate and speculation among scholars. Here, we synthesize and summarise the current scientific genetic and nongenetic knowledge in relation to the history of the species on the continent. Sociocultural, linguistic, archaeological and historic data all suggest a complex history for the species in Africa, characterized by multiple maritime and/or terrestrial introductions over time and several dispersal routes towards and within Africa. Molecular genetics information supports these observations and in addition suggests possible Asian centers of origin for African domestic chickens, including South Asia and Island Southeast Asia. However, both sets of data were until now too limited in their geographic scope, both within Africa and in comparison with chickens from Asia, to unravel the history of the species in detail. We anticipate that further continent-wide studies combining archaeological, ancient and/or modern genetic information may shed new insights on the history of the species. These will contribute to a deeper understanding of the history of trading networks and human interactions within Africa and between African and Asian societies, at the root of the development and expansion of African civilizations.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10437-013-9128-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Animal Genetics and African Archaeology: Why It Matters

“…Thus, they travel well with people versed in their needs and behavior. In this issue, Mwacharo et al (2013) suggest that multiple lineages of South Asian and Southeast Asian domestic chickenincluding two relatively rare ones-followed several different paths of entry into Africa, which in turn may reflect divergent, sometimes temporally successive, systems of commercial contact.…”

“…As Mwacharo et al (2013) note, this chicken haplogroup is most diverse in Indonesia, the original home of seafaring migrants who settled Madagascar in the mid-first millennium AD. One would expect that these migrants carried chickens with them, as well as other typically Southeast Asian crops such as rice and banana, yet the authors report the Malagasy word for chicken is of Bantu origin (Blench 2006).…”

“…It then outlines the research questions and approaches amenable to collaborations between archaeologists and geneticists. It ends by briefly introducing the papers, which outline genetics and archaeogenetics (Campana et al 2013) and which present the current state of knowledge on five species: pig (Amils et al 2013), sheep (Muigai and Hanotte 2013), cattle (Stock and Gifford-Gonzalez 2013), donkey (Kimura et al 2013), and chicken (Mwacharo et al 2013).…”

Phylogenetic Analysis of South East Asian Countries Chickens Based on Mitochondrial DNA Variations

“…Nowadays RJFs are hybridizing with native chickens to produce meat for human consumption. Therefore, it is necessary to estimate genetic interrelationship among RJFs existed in Asiatic countries.The nucleotide sequence of mtDNA D-loop region is an important tool to find out the origin and genetic diversity of domestic animals (Beja-Pereira et al, 2006;Amills et al, 2008), and to investigate the origin and phylogeny of fowls as a genetic information of the ancestry that descended from female fowls as maternal inheritance.A number of studies have investigated the origin and dispersion of domestic chickens (Crawford, 1990;Mwacharo et al, 2013). Akishinonomiya et al (1996) reported that the present domestic chickens have originated from Gallus gallus gallus in Thailand and adjacent regions.…”

“…A number of studies have investigated the origin and dispersion of domestic chickens (Crawford, 1990;Mwacharo et al, 2013). Akishinonomiya et al (1996) reported that the present domestic chickens have originated from Gallus gallus gallus in Thailand and adjacent regions.…”