"A human being is primarily a bag for putting food into."

November 20, 2015 8:30 AM

I Would Rather Be Herod’s Pig: The History of a Taboo - "The story of how pigs became the world’s most divisive meal."

an excerpt fom Mark Essig's upcoming book.

posted by the man of twists and turns (32 comments total)

Essig, Germanically eponyisterical.
posted by Oyéah at 8:32 AM on November 20, 2015 [4 favorites]

I prefer to think of myself as a bucket for pouring beer into.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:33 AM on November 20, 2015 [4 favorites]

I'll just drop Tim Minchin's solution to the Israel/Palestine issue here: SLYT.

You don't eat pigs ...
We don't eat pigs ...
It seems it's been that way forever.
So if you don't eat pigs ...
And we don't eat pigs ...
Why not not eat pigs together?
posted by GallonOfAlan at 8:37 AM on November 20, 2015 [7 favorites]

Essig's book, "Lesser Beasts," is not upcoming -- it's available now, and it's great.
posted by neroli at 8:50 AM on November 20, 2015

"happierthanapiginmud," please; my pigs have a designated dunging spot and are clean (if sometimes dusty and muddy) animals.

This seems an appropriate place to leave this Iron-Age boar figurine (source), my current favorite virtual pig.
posted by MonkeyToes at 8:50 AM on November 20, 2015 [4 favorites]

So I'm on the no pork side now, thanks.

“You would hardly imagine you were eating cooked sows’ teats, so abundantly do they flow and swell with living milk.” [...] Some cooks, Plutarch claimed, stomped and kicked the udders of live pregnant sows and thereby “blended together blood and milk and gore,” which was said to make the dish all the more delicious. The womb of this poor sow was eaten as well, with the dish called vulva eiectitia, or “miscarried womb.”

This does not sound delicious.
posted by jeather at 8:55 AM on November 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

Huh, I had no idea the Romans were so fully down with the swine. Great read.

Plus, it's The Holiday Season: time for making a giant, garlicky pernil or two. I am actually drooling thinking about the chicharron. Thanks, pigs.
posted by uncleozzy at 8:56 AM on November 20, 2015

Sorry, if it's a choice between bacon and God, I'm going with bacon every time.
posted by madajb at 9:06 AM on November 20, 2015 [5 favorites]

Looks like a good read, though I cringed at the "culture requires irrigated agriculture" meme, which someone working with cultural anthropologists shouldn't repeat. The notion that *only* agriculturalist societies allow certain classes the opportunity for free time to create art and whatnot is not bourne out by, you know, evidence.

Hopefully, this book doesn't veer into Guns, Germs, and Steel just-so territory.
posted by clvrmnky at 9:08 AM on November 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

I find it interesting as well that beef seems to have often been the choice of the elites while pig is for the poor.

You sort of see shades of that in the U.S. even today, with BBQ and soul food (often pig based) in general starting out, at least, as "poor" food while the rich elites dine on steak.
posted by madajb at 9:09 AM on November 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

Huh, I had no idea the Romans were so fully down with the swine.

Here you go, from Apicius's "COOKERY AND DINING IN IMPERIAL ROME."
posted by MonkeyToes at 9:10 AM on November 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

Looking at a subset of the listed traits, however, it’s clear that the other parent in this hypothetical cross that produced the first human would be an intelligent animal with a protrusive, cartilaginous nose, a thick layer of subcutaneous fat, short digits, and a naked skin. It would be terrestrial, not arboreal, and adaptable to a wide range of foods and environments.

(if you are searching that quote is from the second page)
posted by bukvich at 9:12 AM on November 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

Essig, Germanically eponyisterical.

More like Fressig, amirite
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 9:34 AM on November 20, 2015 [5 favorites]

Essig was also on the Gastropodcast to talk about pigs and the eating thereof.
posted by moonmilk at 9:59 AM on November 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

For a slightly different angle on this that doesn't entirely agree with Essig's argument, see the comments in this thread by Eyebrows McGee on the pork taboo in the ancient Near East.
posted by Copronymus at 10:10 AM on November 20, 2015 [3 favorites]

Another article excerpted from this very interesting sounding book that may have been linked here previously (I forget where I first saw it).
posted by Bee'sWing at 10:48 AM on November 20, 2015

That scene from the Satyricon is positively turduckenish.

Meanwhile, I'm reminded of an anecdote I once heard from a rabbi:

He was hanging out with a non-Jewish friend, who during the course of a discussion suddenly blurted out, "What do Jews have against pigs?!"

To which the rabbi responded, "We have nothing against pigs. We leave the pigs alone."
posted by thomas j wise at 11:06 AM on November 20, 2015 [7 favorites]

Sorry, if it's a choice between bacon and God, I'm going with bacon every time.

To paraphrase Hannibal Buress, I like bacon more than I like God. Because bacon is delicious… and real.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:29 AM on November 20, 2015 [3 favorites]

Oh, here it is - previously.
posted by Bee'sWing at 11:35 AM on November 20, 2015

So I went by the butcher as I was coming home from work, and they had these fancy "black pig" chops. Apparently it's some rediscovered ancient breed, similar to the Iberian pata negra but raised on olives: I just put one on the grill, you all are definitely missing out.
posted by Dr Dracator at 11:39 AM on November 20, 2015

So the pyramid at Giza was for storing pigs? (Heh.)
posted by Mental Wimp at 12:06 PM on November 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

How would the pig like to be remembered? From Apicius's work, mentioned above: “The Porker’s Last Will and Testament,” by Petrus Lambecius:

...and of my nobler parts and property I give and bequeath, to the cobbler: my bristles; to the brawlers, my jaw-bones; to the deaf, my ears; to the shyster lawyers, my tongue; to the cow-herds, my intestines; to the sausage makers, my thighs; to the ladies, my tenderloins; to the boys, my bladder; to the girls, my little pig’s tail; to the dancers, my muscles; to the runners and hunters, my knuckles; to the hired man, my hoofs; and to the cook—though not to be named—I give and bequeath and transmit my belly and appendage which I have dragged with me from the rotten oak bottoms to the pig’s sty, for him to tie around his neck and to hang himself with. ... I ask of you who love me best, you who live like me, I ask you: will not my name remain to be eulogized in all eternity? if you only will prepare my body properly and flavor it well with good condiments, nuts, pepper and honey!

posted by MonkeyToes at 12:20 PM on November 20, 2015 [4 favorites]

This was a really interesting (if periodically horrifying) read, and I'm thinking about doing the whole book, but I feel kind of unequipped to judge whether the narrative actually holds up. It sounds like there is more than one competing model of pig culture?
posted by brennen at 12:37 PM on November 20, 2015

Topologically, I'm a tube through which food passes.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 1:25 PM on November 20, 2015 [4 favorites]

That was fascinating - this is the first time I've seen a convincing history on how the religious laws against eating pork developed.
posted by kanewai at 1:29 PM on November 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

This doesn't satisfy completely. According to the rules of kashrus, pigs are unclean because they break the rule "must have cloven hoofs and chew the cud". Thus rabbits, horses, and basically all non ruminants are unclean.

On the other hand, there are also lists of clean and unclean.

Anyway there's more to it than just pigs as cultural signifier.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 4:18 PM on November 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

...and pigs would soon enjoy a renaissance after some nine hundred years of persecution.

I'm not sure the pigs would put it in quite those terms.

Anyway. A Roman Catholic priest and a rabbi find themselves together on a train, and nod at each other with professional respect. They get to talking, and find each other excellent company. The conversation soon moves into the personal aspects of their callings. The priest eventually plucks up the courage to ask: "Tell me, Rabbi, I understand that you are forbidden certain things. Have you ever been tempted to, y'know, try pork?"

The rabbi chuckles. "Why yes, Father. I suppose it's in order, in the sanctity of the confessional, to confess. In my youth, I found myself after an all-night party with non-Jewish friends who were cooking up bacon for breakfast. It smelled so lovely, I was so hungry, and I couldn't help myself..."

"How was it?"

"Oh, delicious. I can quite see why we are warned against it so strongly."

The priest makes a sympathetic face. "If only sin wasn't so satisfying, eh..."

"It is to be human," says the rabbi. "And now, since we are on the subject of being human, may I also ask a very personal question?"

"By all means," says the priest. "We can have no secrets before Him whom we both serve, in our own way."

"Quite so", says the rabbi. "I understand that you too must abstain from certain things. Have you ever had sex?"

The priest chuckles. "Ah, now... there's a thing. It was also after an all-night party, and I was young, and I found myself alone with this most gorgeous girl - and, in my defence, I had not yet found my vocation. But she was so entrancing, and we talked and we held hands and we kissed and... well, it was just the once."

The rabbi nodded. "Better than bacon, isn't it?"
posted by Devonian at 4:49 PM on November 20, 2015 [9 favorites]

In a bit of synchronicity, I was reviewing the Kosher Kiwi directory earlier today before buying some chocolate to take to my sister in Canada. The directory has a little summary of rules at the beginning, including this amazing paragraph:

"The Bible defines Kosher beasts as those, which have a split hoof and chew the cud. Hence, cows, sheep, goats and deer are Kosher species. The pig, which has a cloven hoof, but does not chew the cud, is not. Horses, rabbits, dogs, cats, etc., are also excluded. In theory, giraffe would be Kosher; in practice it is very difficult to slaughter it painlessly in the prescribed manner."

This then led to an exchange with my partner, who said "but you wouldn't eat a giraffe, would you?" And I thought about all the things I've eaten over the years for no better reason than that I could, and realised yes. Yes I am the kind of person who would a giraffe. Especially a kosher giraffe.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 7:25 PM on November 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

I was raised a Muslim and while not particularly Orthodox or practicing, the one taboo I will not violate is the prohibition against pork. I have accidentally eaten it a couple of times and don't see it as anything special. In fact, the smell of bacon cooking makes me ill (I know, I know, bacon is delish, etc.). I guess if you never eat it or cook it, you don't care that you are "missing out".

Also, I think pigs are smart, sometimes cute animals that are grossly mistreated by factory farming in this country. And I can't deal with the people who freak out about touching a pig or pig product but I think there is an element of what I like to call "competitive religiosity" in there, i.e., let's see who can more religious than thou.

I was told some sort of fable as a kid, that the prohibition against pork had to do with how closely it resembles, supposedly, human flesh. Don't know the source of that story or the details but remember thinking how gross that was.
posted by nikitabot at 10:14 AM on November 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

Well, there's pig and long pig - and also things like pig aortic valve transplants, so the resemblance theory might not be entirely off the mark.
posted by Dr Dracator at 10:25 AM on November 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

The Jewish prohibition on animals which do not have cloven hooves extends to camels. If a Jew has the problem I have, not being able to consume cow or goat milk, they need a letter from their rabbi to permit it, since camels aren't kosher, neither is their milk.
I am Muslim, but discovered at age 50 that my father was a Jew.
Basically, pork have me horrible cystic acne.removing it from my diet improved my complexion.
Also if you don't eat pork for awhile, you will find it smells pretty bad when it's cooking.
Mr. Roquette converted to be with me, and he really can't take the smell of pork anymore.
I did read a serious paper about the kashrut status of giraffe.
They were indeed ruled as being kosher, but aside from the slaughter requirements, the writer pleaded that Jews not eat giraffe because they are a rare animal.
Giraffe are less numerous in the wild than elephants or rhino.
If a lion kills and shares a giraffe with her pride, well, lions are even more rare, but people should leave them be.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 1:11 PM on November 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

Do You Eat Pork? Identity Politics In The Borderlands

In minority land, the question topping the list is whether or not you eat pork. It is not a question of diet, but of loyalty—a question of whose side of the ongoing ethnic conflict you are on. The Han Chinese eat pork. Muslims minorities like the Uyghurs don’t. There are separate restaurants throughout the city, labeled. As you travel further north, to the Han part of the city, the halal labels that designate Muslim-friendly eating options become sparser; pork-free options are fewer. Pork is political in western China. But then, everything is political in western China. What you wear, where you go on vacation, where you shop, how you spend your free time, what foreign languages you speak. Uyghurs are Uyghur, first and foremost. Their loyalty is to their people and to their religion, before the Han government, and they differentiate themselves from the Han in a thousand little ways.

posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:25 PM on November 29, 2015 [1 favorite]