My research process for this assignment began with the need of choosing a topic. After thinking for a long time, and considering several options such as the history of ice cream and the historical and cultural significance of Jewish food, I finally think I have settled on a topic: chicken. It occurred to me that chicken is a main staple food in almost every culture in the world. How did this come to be? How did humans decide that chicken would be one of the most popular meats in the world? After doing some initial research on Google, I came across this magazine article from renowned scientific and historical organization Smithsonian. This article gives a very detailed history of the chicken and its introduction into the human palate. I feel like chicken is unique because of the many different ways it can be prepared and served: fried, grilled, over pasta, sliced on a sandwich, etc. So far, I am keeping track of the websites that I find in a bookmarks folder on my computer. I wonder, has anyone tried any of the other research management tools that we discussed in class the other day, like Zotero? I also wonder what other kinds of texts could be used to support my project? I am thinking of finding some old recipes involving chicken. I need to explore the UT library database to try to find these. Unfortunately, I have two tests tomorrow and have not had the chance to scour the database for information.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-chicken-conquered-the-world-87583657/
The history of chicken, what an interesting topic to think about. I would have never stopped to think about the origins of an item of food that I consume on a daily basis. Using the Smithsonian as resource database is great, the amount of knowledge that they have on a plethora of topic is insane. I would suggest trying the library when ever you get the chance to go do some reading physically and maybe use encyclopedias to research chicken!