section_path: Dispersal/Austronesia
section_name: Austronesia
paragraph_text: Austronesia
  
  A word for the domestic chicken (*manuk) is part of the reconstructed Proto-Austronesian language, indicating they were domesticated by the Austronesian peoples since ancient times. Chickens, together with dogs and pigs, were carried throughout the entire range of the prehistoric Austronesian maritime migrations to Island Southeast Asia, Micronesia, Island Melanesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar, starting from at least 3000 BC from Taiwan. These chickens might have been introduced during pre-Columbian times to South America via Polynesian seafarers, but evidence for this is still putative.