Excerpt from Pigeons by Andrew D. Blechman, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Although the pigeon was cherished for its innocent and gentle nature, these same attributes caused the bird to bear the brunt of brutal ritual sacrifice in humans’ quest for spiritual atonement and divine appeasement. It is recorded that Ramses III offered 57,810 pigeons to the god Ammon at Thebes. Besides a talent for assembly-line slaughter, the offering also reveals an Egyptian knack for domestication. The Jewish Bible describes the bird as a poor person’s offering at the Jerusalem temple. If you couldn’t afford a heifer, goat, or lamb, then the sacrifice of two pigeons would do just fine - one for a sin offering, the other for a burnt offering. According to the Gospels, when Mary and Joseph visited the temple after the birth of their son Jesus, they made an offering of pigeons. Thirty-three years later, pigeon sellers were among the vendors that Jesus berated when he marched through the temple. The Hebrew God nonetheless appreciated the pigeon offerings. In fact, when sealing His covenant with Abraham and his descendants, He specifically asked Abraham to sacrifice (along with a collection of larger domesticated animals) a young pigeon, or squab, particularly prized for its tender flesh, as the baby is eaten before it ever has a chance to spread its tiny wings. In Christian writings and art, the bird is given the pious honor of symbolically representing the Holy Spirit, in much the same way a guiltless lamb represents Jesus. When the Holy Ghost visits the Virgin Mary to impregnate her, he does so in the form of a pigeon. The bird is often depicted in Christian art as descending from heaven in a bolt of light that ends in Mary’s stomach or head. The pigeon is also present for Jesus’ ritual immersion into the river Jordan by John the Baptist. Writes Luke, “And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.” A pigeon attends Jesus’ crucifixion, perhaps as a reminder that God has not abandoned his son. Muhammad is also said to have been fond of pigeons, and to this day the bird continues to hold a protected place in Islamic society. Chinese society also reveres the pigeon. One tradition, hundreds of years old, celebrates the bird in a most unusual manner: intricately carved gourds are attached to specially trained pigeons. The gourds act as whistles of varying octaves and notes, playing music as the birds circle above. Throughout history, the bird has been treasured as a source of companionship (and protein), admired and utilized for its unique navigational and athletic abilities, and even worshipped as a timeless symbol of God’s grace. We release them as offerings of hope at our weddings and civic ceremonies, and as a representation of the soul’s final journey at our funerals. Yet we have brutalized them at the sacrificial altar, slaughtered more than one species to extinction, and continue to heap daily abuse onto the ones still in our midst. As I threaded my way through the peculiar world of pigeon people, I found this ambivalence magnified. Although I still had no firm opinion on the bird’s place in the avian pantheon, there were plenty of people out there who did. Their minds were made up. Some coddled and preened them; others pulverized them for sport. It was a winter that thrust me onto the front lines of extreme eccentricity and fierce brutality. Like the bird, I was caught in the middle. Passive participation and detached indifference were no longer possible. I would be sucked into the pigeon’s universe in ways that I never could have suspected nor embraced.

Excerpted from Pigeons © 2006 by Andrew Blechman, and reprinted with the permission of the publisher, Grove Press.