More Than a Meal: The Turkey in History, Myth, Ritual, and Reality

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1930051883 ISBN 13: 9781930051881

Publisher: Lantern Publishing & Media, 2001

This scholarly and authoritative book examines the cultural and literal history, as well as the natural history and biological needs and concerns of turkeys. Davis explores how turkeys came to be seen as birds who were not only the epitome of failure or stupidity but also the suitable centerpiece of the celebration of freedom in America itself—Thanksgiving. She examines the many varieties of turkeys and uncovers the methods by which millions of turkeys are raised, fattened, and slaughtered on farms around America today.

Davis takes us back to European folklore about turkeys, the myths, fairytales, and downright lies told about turkeys and their habits and habitats. She shows how turkeys in the wild have complex lives and family units, and how they were an integral part of Native American and continental cultures and landscape before the Europeans arrived.

Finally, Davis draws conclusions about our paradoxical, complex, and "bestial" relationship not just with turkeys, but with all birds, and thus with all other animals. She examines how our treatment of animals shapes our other values about ourselves, our relationship with other human beings, and our attitude toward the land, nation, and the world.

About the Author:

Karen Davis, Ph.D. is the President and Founder of United Poultry Concerns, a nonprofit organization that promotes the compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl, including a sanctuary for chickens in Virginia. Inducted into the National Animal Rights Hall of Fame for Outstanding Contributions to Animal Liberation, she is the author of Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs: An Inside Look at the Modern Poultry Industry; More Than a Meal: The Turkey in History, Myth, Ritual, and Reality; The Holocaust and The Henmaid’s Tale: A Case for Comparing Atrocities; a children’s book, A Home for Henn, and Instead of Chicken, Instead of Turkey: A Poultryless ‘Poultry’ Potpourri, a vegan cookbook.

Review:

Challenges all Americans to think about the values they want their annual family ritual to embody. -- Peter Singer, DeCamp Professor of Bioethics, Princeton University; author, Animal Liberation

I very much like this book for its sensitivity, its well-researched cultural history, its honesty and probing qualities. -- Gisela Kaplan, Full Professor, School of Biological Sciences, University of New England, Armidale, Australia

This is the kind of book that we need more of.... Davis cuts through the pyramid of lies. -- Jim Mason, VegNews , July/August 2002