Well, I did warn you...

1) Chickens - cockerels, capons, chicks, chooks - are commonly kept for consumption as food. However, the domesticated bird has also held roles as oracle, prophet, and even as a stand-in for the recently deceased in certain ceremonies. The Bible, the Talmud, Ancient Greek texts, and even Aesop's Fables treat the bird with a sense of supernatural anthropomorphic reverence. Perhaps it is the remarkably human-like scaffolding of their social structure that is responsible for the connection that we have experienced over time and across cultures. A flock of chickens is highly organized into a patriarchal "pecking order" that especially reminds me of the manifesto of...

2) Marx. The philosophy of Karl Marx was introduced to me formally in college, but I had first become aware of his ideas in popular culture references. Marxism, which holds that all societies progress through the dialectic of class struggle, may be illustrated in regards to the development of the flock. Just as capitalism produces internal tensions that may lead to destruction, the unchecked power of an overly-dominant rooster or challenger causes disruption among the flock. A rooster who obeys the rules of the flock by signalling his mates, sharing food, and asking permission to procreate, might fit more readily into the "ideal" society of socialism. However, chickens, like humans, tend to fight the idea of a "classless society" of pure communism in favor of individual identity. For chickens, distinct personalities and individualist behavior has a range as differentiated as their feathers. This is good news for...

3) Kate MccGwire, who uses the feathers of chickens and other common birds in absolutely unbelievable ways. Her modern sculptures draw on these materials as a channel for dichotomous experience, visceral reaction, and an intellectual characterization of our views on the world. Though I have not seen Marxist-chicken-theory-related criticism of her artwork (yet), it seems entirely applicable. Repetition, pattern, and the conforming of individual pieces to the form of the whole relate to the way she displays the incredible works. Seriously, look at these things and tell me that there is not some sense of (slightly terrifying) power in those discarded bird-pieces. Wow.