Editing Cassowary (section)

=== Role in Papuan cultures and semi-domestication ===
[[File:Coat of arms of West Papua.svg|thumb|right|200px|The cassowary is featured on the coat of arms of the [[Provinces of Indonesia|Indonesian province]] of [[West Papua (province)|West Papua]]]]
[[File:UvA-BC 300.273 - Siboga - de "scheepsvogel" Piet, een kasuaris, op het erf van de pasanggrahan op Saleyer.jpg|thumbnail|200px|Cassowary held as a pet during the [[Siboga Expedition]] on Indonesia and New Guinea, 1899–1900]]

There is evidence that the cassowary may have been domesticated by humans thousands of years before the chicken. Some New Guinea Highlands societies capture cassowary chicks and raise them as semi-tame poultry, for use in ceremonial gift exchanges and as food.<ref>{{Cite web|author=Katie Hunt|title=World's most dangerous bird raised by humans 18,000 years ago, study suggests|url=https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/27/world/early-humans-raised-cassowary-chicks-scn/index.html|access-date=2021-09-28|website=CNN|date=September 27, 2021 }}</ref>{{sfnp|Bulmer|1967|}} They are the only indigenous Australasian animal known to have been partly domesticated by people prior to European arrival and colonization and by definition, the oldest form of domesticated animal and the largest domesticated bird.<ref>Bourke, R. Michael: History of agriculture in Papua New Guinea in Food and Agriculture in Papua New Guinea, ANU Press, 2009</ref> The Maring people of Kundagai sacrificed cassowaries (''C. bennetti'') in certain rituals.<ref>{{cite book|author=Healey, Chris|url=http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Memoirs/mem_048/manandahalf034.pdf|title=Man and a Half: Essays in Pacific Anthropology and Ethnobiology in Honour of Ralph Bulmer|date=1991|pages=234–241|chapter=Why is the Cassowary sacrificed|access-date=July 30, 2020|archive-date=September 28, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200928163602/http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Memoirs/mem_048/manandahalf034.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Kalam people considered themselves related to cassowaries, and did not classify them as birds, but as kin.{{sfnp|Bulmer|1967|}} Consequently, they use the [[Pandanus language|Pandanus register]] of the [[Kalam language]] when eating cassowary meat.<ref name="Majnep">{{cite book |last1=Majnep |first1=Ian Saem |last2=Bulmer |first2=Ralph |author-link2=Ralph Bulmer |others=illustrations by Christopher Healey |pages=150, 152 |title=Birds of my Kalam Country |trans-title=Mn̄mon Yad Kalam Yakt |date=1977 |publisher=Auckland University Press |location=New Zealand |isbn=9780196479538 |language=English |oclc=251862814}}</ref>

Studies on [[Pleistocene]]/early [[Holocene]] cassowary remains in Papua suggest that indigenous people at the time preferred to harvest eggs rather than adults. They seem to have regulated their consumption of these birds, possibly even collecting eggs and rearing young birds as one of the earliest forms of domestication.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Douglass |first1=Kristina |last2=Gaffney |first2=Dylan |last3=Feo |first3=Teresa J. |last4=Bulathsinhala |first4=Priyangi |last5=Mack |first5=Andrew L. |last6=Spitzer |first6=Megan |last7=Summerhayes |first7=Glenn R. |title=Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene sites in the montane forests of New Guinea yield early record of cassowary hunting and egg harvesting |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |date=5 October 2021 |volume=118 |issue=40 |pages=e2100117118 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2100117118 |pmid=34580213 |pmc=8501781 |bibcode=2021PNAS..11800117D |s2cid=238203829 |doi-access=free }}</ref>