Time and Cockcrow

Time is a measure of events, duration, and change. Thanks to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) we share a basis for discussing Time. It helps structure our expectations. I may be at my desk by 9:00 EST (UTC-05:00), but I understand that colleagues in California (UTC-08:00) are likely still in bed. Global clock time tells me that at 11:00 EST, I can reasonably expect them to be at their desks. However, our experiences with Time may differ in accordance with local observances even along the same latitude. While it may indeed be five o'clock somewhere, what people may choose to do at that Time may differ greatly from place to place. The meaning of five o'clock can vary greatly.

Despite the standardization offered by the clock, Time is an intersubjective experience. Though we don't often consider it, local contexts can inform our temporal awareness in subtle ways. For example, consider the role roosters have played in keeping time:

The use of cockcrows in the predawn period to reckon time is extremely widespread, and has been ethnographically documented. The Bororo of Brazil keep track of time after midnight through the gradual increase in intensity and frequency of crows between the first cockcrow and dawn; the Ifugao of the Philippines state that cocks crow four times during the night with the third cockcrow at around four oclock in the morning; and among the Saramaka, a maroon group in Surinam, cockcrow is an auspicious time for sharing secrets in the predawn hours.

While it's true that roosters can indeed crow at any time, in a recent paper anthropologist Kevin Birth discusses how avian chronobiology shapes a reliable relationship between cockcrow and the coming dawn that may help understand perceptions of time prior to the establishment of a standard global time.

First, like roosters, preachers strive against darkness to account approaching light. Second, they awaken the sluggish. Just as cocks understanding penetrates the darkness, so should the knowledge of teachers. Also, Gregory states that cocks are louder in the darkness and more gentle as dawn approaches, and he says that this is a metaphor for how preachers should treat people. Those who are in darkness receive harsher messages, while those who are approaching spiritual enlightenment should hear the subtlest mysteries. The cockcrow was a temporal signifier in the Middle Ages, but is there any biological basis for these sorts of connections?

Do Roosters Crow at Dawn? Sure they do! Chickens have a circadian cycle. They're entrained to light-cyclesmelatonin secretion, and regulation of the heart, brain, and liver change in response to light. For roosters, whose crows are driven by testosterone, light cycles which regulate endogenous cycles can also trigger crowing behavior.

Endogenous cycles in chickens can reset in response to incremental changes in light intensity. Gambian hens, for example, shift their roosting times in accordance with the seasons: since the days are relatively the same length, the chickens appear to negotiate roosting in relation to shifting light intensity. Chickens, then, are able to anticipate light cycles. Research done in North-Central India, where the sun only becomes visible after it has risen higher than surrounding mountains, documents the onset of crowing approximately two to three hours before sunrise with initial intervals of about 30 minutes that decrease to about seven minutes at the time of sunriseeven though the sun is not actually visible at the moment of sunrise.

But roosters also crow at other times and for different reasons. Birth acknowledges theyre only temporally relevant during the period of predawn for a specific locationbut they are an excellent means of generating contextually-relevant information.