On the Invention of the Pigeon
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In all animal history, pigeons have undergone the largest decline as a status symbol. These common birds are a prime example of how familiarity and abundance can alter external perception - from pigeons existing as a symbol of wealth and aristocracy to a symbol of uncleanliness and contempt. Even the word pigeon has developed a negative connotation. There was once a time when dove or pigeon could be used interchangeably. The dove, representing peace and associated to the holy spirit : “the third person of the Trinity; God as spiritually active in the world”. The pigeon, on the other hand, has developed the nickname skyrat, even though doves and pigeons are genetically indistinguishable.
The history of the modern-day city pigeon begins with its domestication. The domestication of an animal starts with selective breeding for a specific intention directed by various phenotypes. The domestic pigeon was breed from the wild “rock dove” – a bird that thrived in caves and rocky cliffs of Europe, Asia and Northern Africa. These pigeons thrived in buildings and around urban areas because of their history of surviving in rocky terrains. Since humans’ initial discovery that these birds were more than a food source, several distinct breeds have been “invented”.
Old Dutch Capuchine (Gardner 2019)
These pigeons were kept and domesticated for their beauty, their homing ability allowing them to become excellent messengers, as well as their taste. Dovecotes, or pigeon towers, are structures for housing pigeons. Because pigeons have a strong sense of home, there is no need to keep them captive. The pigeons would forage for food during the day and return to the pigeon towers in the evening.
English Pouter (Gardner 2019)
During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the laws surrounding who was allowed to own a pigeon tower were strict. The ability to construct a pigeon tower was a privilege reserved for feudal lords. Around the mid- 1500s, if you constructed your own dovecote without proper permissions, you were ordered to have it demolished. The strict regulation of dovecotes resulted in their rarity in the urban landscape, augmenting the pigeon tower as a symbol of status. Another layer of hierarchy that manifested in built form was their size and ornamentation. The higher your societal class, the more pigeons you were allowed to keep and hence the larger and more ornate your dovecote was allowed to be. Once the ruling class laxed their laws on who was allowed to construct dovecotes and raise pigeons, their construction became more prevalent. The increase in the number of dovecotes that were constructed initiated their decline as a true status symbol. The prestige of the birds declined alongside them. Pigeons, due to their rich history, are a great example of commonality and extreme uniqueness existing simultaneously. Over the course of recorded human history, the genetic makeup of the common pigeon that thrives in cities around the world have not changed. What has changed are the way humans feel about them. The pigeon becomes a reflection on the psychology of supply and demand. The artificial reduction in the amount of pigeon towers able to be constructed as a result of policing their construction made them a symbol of the elite. Once anyone was allowed to construct a pigeon tower for themselves, their power was lost, and they were no longer an icon of aristocracy. Artificially inflating demand, or creating exclusivity by restricting supply, does not only exist in human-avian relationships. Status symbols, as they relate to human’s relationship to supply and demand, exist in materials and objects. The decline of all materials as status symbols occurs in post-industrialized societies as a result in everything becoming cheaper to produce.
What are the necessary components of a status symbol? A status symbol is created by satisfying two conditions: it must be socially desirable and also be scarce. The lack of scarcity, or the abundance and normality of an object does not necessarily indicate that it is also undesirable. For example, having clean, fresh water in a home in the United States is desirable, but not scarce, and is therefore not a status symbol. Inversely, something might be scarce simply because it is undesirable. Pigeons were selectively breed to be intelligent, and hyper productive because of their history as a status symbol, and they are now contempt for those same qualities since becoming overly abundant in our eyes. The history of the pigeon has existed across the supply and demand spectrum. They were once scarce and desirable, became desirable but not scarce, and are now neither scarce nor desirable.
What can we learn from this history? All new and innovative technologies inherently begin as a status symbol, because few can afford to obtain them. The car, the computer, and the cellphone are all examples of things that were once only available to the super wealthy that are now commonplace. Exponential growth in the affordability of technology allows it’s democratization to the “normal” class of people. With technological innovation and increased use of robotics in production of material goods, products and materials have become more affordable and easier to obtain than ever. Technology and its associated fields (nearly everything, including architecture) are, in theory, continuously becoming better and cheaper than ever before. The paradox in the increasingly innovative and productive society is that material wealth becomes more common, thus making material wealth less desirable. As more and more people are able to afford luxury, the less desirable luxury things are, or the more companies are forced to push the boundaries. In the face of our society urbanizing quicker than ever before, Veblen wrote:
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