The pig makes up for its inability to sweat by cooling off with the clean mud , but if it does not have this and the space where it lives does not allow it to cool off in any other way, then it becomes covered with its own feces. The higher the temperature, the dirtier the pig becomes and the arid climate of the Middle East would contribute to the dirt of these animals. The prohibition of the pig for reasons of public health was also endorsed in the thirteenth century by Maimonides, the influential Jewish theologian and doctor.
For Harris, although this theory is plausible, it does not justify such an exhaustive prohibition, and he attributes the rational consolidation of this dietary taboo to the discovery in the midth century that trichinosis was caused by ingesting pork that had not been well cooked.
Nor is this a definitive explanation for the anthropologist, since he claims that other diseases at the time caused by other animals were much more serious than trichinosis and even lethal, and the animals that transmitted them were not banned. Other hypotheses suggest that the taboo on pork comes from the consideration of the pig as a totemic animal by some tribes. However, for the author, the fact that in the past they were considered divine animals does not fully explain the refusal to eat it.
For the expert anthropologist, the most valid theory that explains why Jews and Muslims do not eat pork is ecological in nature. Harris considers that the pig was condemned because the breeding of these animals then constituted a threat to the integrity of the natural and cultural ecosystems of the Middle East.
Even in these hygienic conditions the pigs are kept together in sties. No matter how hard you try to keep them clean they are filthy by nature. The pig is the most shameless animal on the face of the earth. It is the only animal that invites its friends to have sex with its mate.
In America, most people consume pork. Many times after dance parties, they have swapping of wives; i. We Indians look upon America to be very advanced and sophisticated.
Whatever they do, we follow after a few years. According to an article in Island magazine, this practice of swapping wives has become common in the affluent circles of Bombay. You must be logged in to post a comment. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. They live and thrive on muck, feces and dirt.
It could be argued that in developed countries, pigs are bred in very clean and hygienic conditions. Even in these hygienic conditions the pigs are kept together in sties, and so the chances of them consuming filth are very high.
Research has shown correlation between pork consumption and several diseases. Eating pork can expose the individual to various helminthes worms like roundworm, pinworm and hookworm.
It harbors in the intestine and is very long. Its ova i. And the pig, because it divides the hoof but does not chew the cud, is unclean for you. You shall not eat their meat, and you shall not touch their carcasses. Lev —8. Although these instructions are unequivocal in their rejection of pigs and their meat, the underlying reason for the prohibition remains unclear.
The text states that pigs are forbidden because they do not chew cud, yet it frustratingly does not explain why not chewing cud is so problematic! As in many ritual texts, the explanation for the practice clarifies very little.
Because the text does not get to the heart of the larger meaning and purpose of the ban, the underlying rationale for the prohibition has been greatly debated since ancient times, with varied explanations. For example, the first-century CE Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria argued that pork was not permitted to Jews because it is the tastiest of the land animals and eating it would lead to gluttony; the legal prohibition teaches self-restraint and frugality. In addition, he thought, animals that chew cud are permitted because as vegetarians they befit nonviolent "gentle mannered" souls, and their literal ruminating on their cud models the intellectual ruminating of good students who ponder the principles of knowledge taught by their teacher On the Special Laws A more common and persuasive argument was made in the Middle Ages by Moses Maimonides, who argued that the Torah prohibits swine for food because both their habits and their own food are dirty and loathsome; eating swine would lead to disgusting homes and streets, making them dirtier "than any cesspool" Guide for the Perplexed Indeed, he cites the Talmudic statement that "The mouth of a swine is as dirty as dung itself" b.
This disapproval of the pig's food and habits is the most common explanation of the prohibition. Swine do have food habits that are different from the main domesticated animals that are raised for food, in both ancient Israel and the modern world, namely cows, sheep, and goats. Pigs not only don't chew cud or graze on grass, but they will also eat waste of many kinds, such as animal and human dung and slop and other leftover garbage, and they will eat meat, including human flesh and that of their own offspring.
Moreover, Maimonides was alluding to the swine's other objectionable behavior of wallowing in urine and excrement when they do not have mud to cover their skin. A more modern explanation of how the eating habits of pigs relate to their problematic nature was somewhat famously described by Marvin Harris, who argued that pigs were shunned by ancient Israelites and other in the ancient Near East because the land does not accommodate them well.
Since forests are also scarce in the Middle East, pigs were difficult to raise there. The prohibition against them, he thought, comes from such practical difficulties. However, archaeological and written evidence shows that it was possible to raise swine in the Middle East—as in fact the Philistines did, and any difficulty raising them does not adequately explain why they are shunned and considered abhorrent. It seems to have a more deep-seated cultural concern.
Other explanations for the prohibition include that eating pork can lead to trichinosis, a parasitic infection that can develop from eating undercooked meat. Yet there is no evidence that pork is more likely to cause trichinosis than other meats, nor are there any other known health concerns that arise specifically with pork—unlike, say, shellfish, which is also forbidden and which can cause deadly allergic reactions among some people.
Why, then, is pork prohibited among the land animals? The prohibition seems to go beyond the practical into the symbolic. Indeed, in the Hebrew Bible, eating pork is not only unclean, it is treated as disgusting and horrific.
The book of Isaiah associates it with death, idolatry, and sin ; Whatever the problem, it appears, in some way, to violate important cultural principles. Though this may be related in part to what pigs eat, there may be other contributing factors that are deeply entrenched in society, and in fact related to the very construction of the social system.
One key way in which pigs are radically different from 'clean' land animals is not how they eat, but rather how they mate, and more specifically how they reproduce. In the Hebrew Bible, for example, both sex and birth are important sources of ritual impurity Lev 12 ; All the clean land animals listed in Deuteronomy have a reproductive feature that is different from pigs: they give birth singly or to twins.
Unlike cows, sheep, goats, and deer of various kinds, pigs give birth in litters.
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