INTRODUCTION

The purposes of this study are to document the distribution of black-boned, black-meated chickens (BB-BMC) in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, to identify past and present uses of the chickens, and to illustrate possible linkages between prebColombian, Meso-American, and Oriental practices associated with the BB-BMC. The BB-BMC are currently found from northern Mexico southward into Central America, although the number of genetically pure, fully expressed melanotic chickens is small. The realization that the uses of the BB-BMC among the K'ekchí Maya are similar to the uses of this same chicken by the ancient Chinese leads me to suggest the likelihood of early and significant contact between the Orient and the Middle American Mayan realm (Johannessen 1981, 427-434; Johannessen 1982, 73-89; Johannessen, Fogg, and Fogg 1985,493-95). The medicinal treatments involving the BB-BMC in the Maya-dominated regions of Mexico and Guatemala are similar to the ancient belief systems found in old Chinese "medicinal" texts but differ considerably from the practices of other New World indigenous peoples (Johannessen 1981, 427-34). The peoples of the Maya language groups apparently used in the past the BB-BMC in brujería or witchcraft, but those data are much more difficult to obtain than is information on curing the peoples' maladies. Belief in brujería was present, but I could not effectively gather data on it.