The Chicken or the Egg??

[Tituscrow]

Ancient Aliens (the show) has me thinking Quetzalcoatl was a craft. Probably the same kind that gave rise to the Thunderbird myth. But I'm a kook, so there's that.

I think it translates to 'feathered serpent' from Mesoamerican mythology.

 

[basscooker]

Correct. Also mythed to have brought knowledge of the stars, agriculture, mathematics, government, and written language to the people. IIRC the Mayans' "top" god. Maybe it was Inca....

 

[Gopherbassist]

Exactly. What we call a chicken today likely didn't exist until very recently, maybe 2-3000 years ago, if not more recently. The question is moot. Just like other neolithic inventions such as corn. They had maize, sure, but what we call corn today didn't exist until it was domesticated and hundreds if not thousands of generations of selective breeding altered it. Dogs and cats being other examples. Broccoli and cauliflower two more.

The Greeks created broccoli. There was a kind of seaweed that they found very tasty, and they could propagate it near the shore. Eventually, a variant developed that was able to grow in the sand. This was further changed through selective breeding to grow in dirt, and that lead to celery, broccoli, cauliflower, and brusselsprouts, as well as several other vegetables.

 

[basscooker]

I thought it was the Romans, but yeah. I didn't know it was seaweed, I heard it was from cabbage, but still cool. I always bring that up when people start getting uppity about "modified" foods... so where exactly does one draw the line? Broccoli wasn't invented by Mother Nature....

 

[nukes_da_bass]

Selective breeding is far different from splicing an elephant gene into a tomato.

 

[basscooker]

Well, yeah. Big difference, but when I bring it up I say it like a smartass...