Collaborative Research: An Inquiry into Turkey Behavioral and Morphological Change

Washington State University, Pullman WA

Investigators

Abstract

Dr. Erin Thornton (Washington State University) and Dr. Kitty Emery (Florida Museum of Natural History), along with a network of colleagues in the United States, England, France and Mexico, will conduct inter-disciplinary research to document the development of turkey husbandry and domestication in ancient Mesoamerica. Through the process of animal domestication, humans assumed increasing control over the animal resources they relied on, and fundamentally altered how they interacted with and impacted their environment. The topic of animal domestication is therefore of crucial importance to understanding evolving human-animal and human-environment relationships. Animal domestication independently emerged on several continents during prehistoric times, but only a single vertebrate animal, the turkey, was domesticated in ancient North America. Relatively little is known about turkey domestication in comparison to the domestication of other animals. The history of turkey domestication is thus a large gap in our knowledge of animal husbandry, a subject that relates to important aspects of subsistence, cultural complexity, and human-environment interactions in the ancient Americas. Moreover, by addressing the impacts of domestication on turkey diet, morphology, and genetics, the research will contribute information regarding how animals respond to human interaction and manipulation. This information is relevant to many fields including anthropology, evolutionary and conservation biology, and animal science. This interdisciplinary research facilitates international collaboration among biologists and archaeologists in the United States, Mexico, England and France. The partnerships will also provide research training for students from several universities including the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). Additionally, through open-access data storage and publication, this project will contribute to future research in both the biological and archaeological/anthropological sciences. The research team led by Drs. Thornton and Emery will combine morphological, osteometric, isotopic and genetic analyses to document the development of turkey husbandry and domestication throughout ancient Mesoamerica. Archaeological as well as historic and modern turkeys throughout Mexico will be analyzed to determine: 1) the timing and geographic origins of turkey domestication, 2) how the domestication process influenced the genetic and physical makeup of pre-Columbian and present-day Mexican turkey populations, and 3) the variable ways wild and domestic turkeys were integrated into Mesoamerican social and economic systems. Documenting the basic details of how, when and where the turkey domestication unfolded in Mesoamerica provides a stepping off point for addressing larger questions about the cultural and environmental context of North American animal domestication. For example, did ancient populations manage animal resources primarily to feed and supply growing populations, or were managed animals more often used in rituals, feasts or other displays of elite power? Is there evidence for widespread experimentation with turkey husbandry throughout Mesoamerica, or did domestic turkeys emerge from a small initial founding population? What morphological and genetic traits were under selection during the domestication process?