Bin Chicken Wonder

Allatson, P; Connor, A

Bin Chicken Wonder

Allatson, P

Connor, A

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Publisher:: Griffith Review Online
Publication Type:: Internet Publication
Citation:: 2023
Issue Date:: 2023-11-10

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Allatson, P https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2248-1605
dc.contributor.author	Connor, A
dc.date.accessioned	2023-11-29T02:27:32Z
dc.date.available	2023-11-29T02:27:32Z
dc.date.issued	2023-11-10
dc.identifier.citation	2023
dc.identifier.issn	1839-2954
dc.identifier.issn	1839-2954
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/173613
dc.description.abstract	WHY DO CERTAIN animals seem to magically capture the zeitgeist, invading our dreams and animating our fears and anxieties? Animals have always played a part in the myths and stories that help us make sense of and order the world around us. But some animals push the boundaries and unsettle this order. They sit on the fence, offering a strange combination of delight and disturbance, anxiety and wonder. The anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss famously wrote that animals become totemic not because they’re ‘good to eat’ but because they’re ‘good to think’. Few animals have captured the popular imagination quite like the Australian white ibis, aka the bin chicken, a species that is not only good to think (about and with) but that also has something to say to us. In March 2021, the Macquarie dictionary selected ‘bin chicken’ as its Aussie Word of the Week, noting, ‘The bin chicken has pecked and scavenged its way into Australian culture.’ The dictionary even dared to suggest that the bin chicken might surpass the kangaroo as Australia’s most iconic animal. It was recognition of the urban journey taken by the ibis, a native species that in a few short years has gained a highly visible presence in many Australian cities as well as its cultural landscape.
dc.language	en
dc.publisher	Griffith Review Online
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.title	Bin Chicken Wonder
dc.type	Internet Publication
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/e-Press
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences/School of International Studies
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*
dc.date.updated	2023-11-29T02:27:31Z
pubs.publication-status	Published online

Abstract:

WHY DO CERTAIN animals seem to magically capture the zeitgeist, invading our dreams and animating our fears and anxieties? Animals have always played a part in the myths and stories that help us make sense of and order the world around us. But some animals push the boundaries and unsettle this order. They sit on the fence, offering a strange combination of delight and disturbance, anxiety and wonder. The anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss famously wrote that animals become totemic not because they’re ‘good to eat’ but because they’re ‘good to think’. Few animals have captured the popular imagination quite like the Australian white ibis, aka the bin chicken, a species that is not only good to think (about and with) but that also has something to say to us. In March 2021, the Macquarie dictionary selected ‘bin chicken’ as its Aussie Word of the Week, noting, ‘The bin chicken has pecked and scavenged its way into Australian culture.’ The dictionary even dared to suggest that the bin chicken might surpass the kangaroo as Australia’s most iconic animal. It was recognition of the urban journey taken by the ibis, a native species that in a few short years has gained a highly visible presence in many Australian cities as well as its cultural landscape.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/173613