Just the other day, a middle-aged lady approached me in the supermarket, near the organic vegetable section. “Aren’t you that beat writer on 10000birds? The one who can’t take a decent bird picture even if his life depends on it?”. I had to admit “That is me, indeed, thank you very much”, while scanning the aisles for a possible escape route. “There’s something that always bothers me at Christmas and I want to ask you. Why are Turkeys called Turkeys? Do they come from Turkey?”.
Why indeed? Turkeys do not hail from Turkey (English, Kurdish and yes, Turkish), Peru (Portuguese) nor India (French, Polish, Belarussian). Although never brought up in supermarket conversation, the Spanish call the Turkey pavo – peacock. Geographically just as wrong, and certainly not worth an honorary doctorate in ornithology… Now, some people would like to make us believe all of society’s flaws hail from the Age of Discovery and the subsequent colonisation by European powers. In the Turkey‘s case, they would be right.
Those explorers were undeniably brave, but also ruthless, religious fanatics, rife with disease and hungry for riches (nowadays they would run for office). They weren’t actually very good at navigation (the “discovery“ of many places happened by accident) and they well and truly were biology dimwits. Add these facts to a largely ignorant population, drunk because one couldn’t drink the water, and confusion is almost guaranteed. So, here’s the scenario. Two ships arrive at a dock in Lisbon, London or Le Havre, a galleon sailing in from the Levant and a three-master originating from the Americas (called Indies before Vespucci took the credit). One ship has large and delicious birds on board – what would you call them…? The French would get the origin right but the whole continent has been misnamed, zero points. The Londoners don’t even know which ship the birds came from and go for Turkey – named after the most powerful country in the Levant. And who knows what the Portuguese were smoking to come up with peru?!
Only the sober continental northern Europeans innovated: kalkoen, kalkun, or Truthahn. Sadly, English speakers continued misnaming birds for centuries, with a fetishy preference for robins. It took the Anglo-Saxon world a long time to get some street cred in biology again…
All pictures from the enormous and wonderful 10000birds archive. Whatever your festive reason to come together with your family to eat a large bird: happy holidays!
Nice post! We need more elderly ladies stalking the worst photographer among the 10,000 Birds writers.