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Third Thursday Food for Thought Presentation: “Talking Turkey: Domestic Turkeys in the US Southwest’s Archaeological Record (and a Little on Them Today)”
July 15, 2021 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s “Third Thursday Food for Thought” free Zoom online dinnertime program featuring “Talking Turkey: Domestic Turkeys in the US Southwest’s Archaeological Record (and a Little on Them Today)” presentation by archaeologist Sharlot Hart will be held on July 15, 2021 from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m.
Join archaeologist Sharlot Hart as she recounts an often-surprising history of the domestication and husbandry of turkeys in the American Southwest and Mexican Northwest (SW/NW). Ancient turkey use in what is today’s US Southwest is well recorded, if not publicly well known, starting about 1 CE. While macaws are known to have ceremonial connections and are distributed along trade networks in the SW/NW, traces of turkeys largely are found in areas where wild turkeys abound. Recent research has focused on two assumptions about archaeological turkeys: the wild subspecies that was domesticated, and the purpose of domestication and intensive husbandry. (A spoiler . . . it wasn’t all about food!) Discover the husbandry practices and reasons behind turkey domestication yesterday and today. This presentation will walk us through recent research, oral histories, and examples of ancient practices that exemplify why “talking turkey” is still so important. Sharlot Hart is an archaeologist with the National Park Service – Southern Arizona Office.
To register go to https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_i1jbqpOGQvSPGLpsaus0Xg. For more information contact Old Pueblo at info@oldpueblo.org or 520-798-1201.
Photo caption: Turkey-feather jacket found in Tularosa Cave, New Mexico (Figure 149 in “Culture of the Ancient Pueblos of the Upper Gila River Region, New Mexico and Arizona” by Walter Hough (1914, Smithsonian Institution).
Flyer: Revised_20210715(v3)ThirdThursday_SharlotHart_TalkingTurkeyFlyer