Editing Cockfighting (section)

== History ==
[[File:Cockfight Santangelo MAN Napoli.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|In this [[Roman mosaic|ancient Roman mosaic]], two cocks face off in front of a table displaying the purse for the winner between a [[caduceus]] and a [[Palm branch (symbol)|palm of victory]] ''([[National Archaeological Museum of Naples]])'']]
[[File:Fatimid Luster Plate with Cock Fight.jpg|thumb|[[Fatimid art|Fatimid]] [[Lustreware|Luster Plate]] with Cock Fight. Cairo, 11th–12th century. [[Edmund de Unger|Keir Collection of Islamic Art]]]]
Cockfighting is an ancient spectator sport. There is evidence that cockfighting was a pastime in the [[Indus Valley civilization]].<ref name=Sherman>Sherman, David M. (2002). ''Tending Animals in the Global Village''. Blackwell Publishing. 46. {{ISBN|0-683-18051-7}}.</ref> The Encyclopedia Britannica (2008) holds:<ref>''Cockfighting''. Encyclopædia Britannica 2008</ref>

{{Blockquote|The sport was popular in ancient times in India, China, Persia, and other Eastern countries and was introduced into Ancient Greece in the time of Themistocles (c.&nbsp;524–460&nbsp;BC). For a long time the Romans affected to despise this "Greek diversion", but they ended up adopting it so enthusiastically that the agricultural writer Columella (1st century AD) complained that its devotees often spent their whole patrimony in betting at the side of the pit.}}

Based on his analysis of a Mohenjo-daro seal,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Srinivasan |first=Doris |date=1975 |title=The So-Called Proto-śiva Seal from Mohenjo-Daro: An Iconological Assessment |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20062578 |journal=Archives of Asian Art |volume=29 |pages=47–58 |jstor=20062578 |issn=0066-6637}}</ref> Iravatham Mahadevan speculates that the city's ancient name could have been Kukkutarma ("the city [-rma] of the cockerel [kukkuta]").<ref>[[Iravatham Mahadevan]]. [http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/archive/00151/Dr_Iravatham_Mahade_151204a.pdf "'Address' Signs of the Indus Script" (PDF)]. Presented at the [[World Classical Tamil Conference 2010]]. 23–27 June 2010. ''The Hindu''.</ref><ref name="Crawford 1990"/> However, according to a recent study,<ref>{{Cite journal |doi = 10.1017/S004393390700147X|title = Overview of chicken taxonomy and domestication|journal = World's Poultry Science Journal|volume = 63|issue = 2|pages = 285|year = 2007|last1 = Al-Nasser|first1 = A.|last2 = Al-Khalaifa|first2 = H.|last3 = Al-Saffar|first3 = A.|last4 = Khalil|first4 = F.|last5 = Albahouh|first5 = M.|last6 = Ragheb|first6 = G.|last7 = Al-Haddad|first7 = A.|last8 = Mashaly|first8 = M.|s2cid = 86734013}}</ref> "it is not known whether these birds made much contribution to the modern domestic fowl. Chickens from the [[Harrapa|Harappan]] culture of the [[Indus Valley civilisation|Indus Valley]] (2500–2100 BC) may have been the main source of diffusion throughout the world." Also, "Within the Indus Valley, indications are that chickens were used for sport and not for food (Zeuner 1963)", cited in R.D. Crawford (1990). and that by 1000 BC they had assumed "religious significance".<ref name="Crawford 1990">{{cite book|url=https://openlibrary.org/books/OL2207173M/Poultry_breeding_and_genetics|title=''Poultry Breeding and Genetics'' |author=R. D. Crawford |publisher=Elsevier Health Sciences |year=1990 |pages=10–11 |access-date=2014-05-10|isbn=9780444885579 |ol=2207173M }}</ref>

In China, the first recorded cockfight took place in 517 BC.<ref>{{cite news |author=Robert Joe Cutter |url=https://taiwantoday.tw/news.php?unit=12,20,29,33,35,45&post=22471#:~:text=The%20first%20recorded%20cockfight%20in,Chi%2Dsun%20and%20Hou%20clans. |title=Fowl Combat|work=Taiwan Today |date=1 July 1990|publisher=Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of China (Taiwan) Dr. Jaushieh Joseph Wu|access-date=29 August 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=''The Brush and the Spur: Chinese Culture and the Cockfight'' |author=Robert Joe Cutter |publisher=The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press |year=1989 |isbn=9789622014176 }}</ref>

Some additional insight into the pre-history of European and American secular cockfighting may be taken from ''The London Encyclopaedia'':

{{Blockquote|At first cockfighting was partly a religious and partly a political institution at Athens; and was continued for improving the seeds of valor in the minds of their youth, but was afterwards perverted both there and in the other parts of Greece to a common pastime, without any political or religious intention.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=54BMAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA113|title=The London Encyclopaedia: Or, Universal Dictionary of Science, Art, Literature, and Practical Mechanics, Comprising a Popular View of the Present State of Knowledge. Illustrated by Numerous Engravings, a General Atlas, and Appropriate Diagrams|first=Thomas|last=Curtis|date=19 January 2018|publisher=T. Tegg|access-date=19 January 2018|via=Google Books}}</ref>}}

An early image of a fighting rooster has been found on a 6th-century BC [[Jaazaniah#Onyx seal|seal of Jaazaniah]] from the biblical city of [[Mizpah in Benjamin]], near [[Jerusalem]].<ref name=ACE>{{cite web |url=http://www.arts.cornell.edu/jrz3/frames2.htm |title=Tell en-Nasbeh: Biblical Mizpah of Benjamin |publisher=The College of Arts and Sciences, Cornell University}}</ref><ref name=HOAIAJ442>{{cite book |title=A History of Ancient Israel and Judah |last1=Miller |first1=James M. |last2=Hayes |first2=John H. |year=1986 |publisher=John Knox Press |location=Louisville, Kentucky |isbn=978-0-664-21262-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofancient00mill/page/422 422] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofancient00mill/page/422 }}</ref> Remains of these birds have been found at other Israelite Iron Age sites, when the [[rooster]] was used as a fighting bird; they are also pictured on other seals from the period as a symbol of ferocity, such as the late-7th-century BC red jasper seal inscribed "Jehoahaz, son of the king",<ref name="Taran">{{Cite journal|last=Taran|first=Mikhael|date=January 1975|title=Early Records of the Domestic Fowl in Ancient Judea|journal=Ibis|volume=117|issue=1|pages=109–110|doi=10.1111/j.1474-919X.1975.tb04192.x}}<!--|access-date=2011-02-27--></ref><ref name=DLIBT>{{cite book |title=Daily Life in Biblical Times |last=Borowski |first=Oded |year=2003 |publisher=Society of Biblical Literature |location=Atlanta, Georgia |isbn=978-1-58983-042-4 |pages=69–70}}</ref> which likely belonged to [[Jehoahaz of Judah]] "while he was still a prince during his father's life".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/1980/April/what-is-new-in-biblical-archeology |title=Ministry International Journal for Pastors – What is new in Biblical Archeology? by Siegfried H. Horn |publisher=Ministrymagazine.org |access-date=2014-05-10}}</ref>

The anthropologist [[Clifford Geertz]] wrote the influential essay ''[[Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight]]'', on the meaning of the cockfight in Balinese culture.
[[File:Reliefs of the Bayon (6597692067).jpg|thumb|left|[[Bas relief]] of cockfighting from the [[Khmer Empire]], 12th/13th century]]