Mummified Birds in The Atacama Desert Reveal a Dark Side of History

Science Alert ^ | April 2, 2021 | Peter Dockrill

[SunkenCiv]

"Some of these birds did not live a happy life. They were kept to produce feathers and their feathers were plucked out as soon as they grew in."...

In total, at least six species of parrots originally recovered from five of the desert's archaeological sites were studied in the research, with the remains variously dating from between 1100 to 1450...

"The feathers of tropical birds were one of the most significant symbols of economic, social, and sacred status in the pre-Columbian Americas," the authors write in their study.

"In the Andes, finely produced clothing and textiles containing multicolored feathers of tropical parrots materialized power, prestige, and distinction and were particularly prized by political and religious elites."

Behind the folds of this marvelous drapery, the colorful birds likely lived a miserable existence in captivity, far from the Amazonian rainforests that were once their home.

[SunkenCiv]

• A foul-mouthed parrot uses Amazon's Alexa to order things when his owner is away
• Fossil hunters reveal Squawkzilla, the three-foot tall cannibal parrot [tr]
• The True Story Of Andrew Jackson's Swearing Parrot

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinchorro_mummies

[martin_fierro]

Young Master Dockrill is appalled that the same people who practiced human sacrifice weren’t nice to parrots.

[Starstruck]

I thought this was about wind turbines and solar fields.

[RC one]

Any society that normalizes cruelty to animals is capable of normalizing cruelty to humans. History may have been dark but there’s no guarantee that the future is much brighter.

[Leaning Right]

Woke history teaches us that the native peoples were all good, and the European colonists were all bad.

So here’s my question: Which Europeans taught the natives to abuse those birds? I’ll bet it had something to do with the Grand Duchy of Fenwick. Those guys loved their feathers.

[Varda]

I wonder if they have any real evidence of abuse other than the injuries. It seems somewhat flimsy to base that conclusion.

[DannyTN]

I bet those birds said to themselves, “I am so plucked”.

[boycott]

I guess feathers were sort of like name brand clothing now.

[bgill]

Uh huh. So, why didn’t anyone pluck the feathers off the dead birds?

[bgill]

[ecomcon]

Well done lol

[Flag_This]

If you think the birds had it tough...

[Bigg Red]

+1

[TexasGator]

1100

[blam]

[Alter Kaker]

Any society that normalizes cruelty to animals is capable of normalizing cruelty to humans.

I haven't spent much time in factory farms, but I'm not sure we're doing that great ourselves.

[Ge0ffrey]

The noble savages did that? Say it ain’t so!

[Sirius Lee]

the same people who practiced human sacrifice weren’t nice to parrots.

It’s not dead, it’s stunned. You stunned it.