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Known as much for their pink curly tails and pudgy snouts as their low-brow choice of diet and habitat, pigs are prevalent in popular culture—from the Three Little Pigs to Miss Piggy to Babe . Today there are more than one billion pigs on the planet, and there are countless representations of pigs and piggishness throughout the world’s cultures. In Pig , Brett Mizelle provides a richly illustrated and compelling look at the long, complicated relationship between humans and these highly intelligent, sociable animals. Mizelle traces the natural and cultural history of the pig, focusing on the contradictions between our imaginative representation of pigs and the real-world truth of the ways in which pigs are prized for their meat, used as subjects in medical research, and killed in order to make hundreds of consumer products. Pig begins with the evolution of the suidae , animals that were domesticated in multiple regions 9,000 years ago, and points toward a future where pigs and humans are even more closely intertwined as a result of biomedical breakthroughs. Pig both examines the widespread art, entertainment, and literature that imagines human kinship with pigs and the development of modern industrial pork production. In charting how humans have shaped the pig and how the pig has shaped us, Mizelle focuses on the unresolved contradictions between the fiction and the reality of our relations with pigs.
224 pages, Paperback
First published June 15, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 7, 2011
A thoughtful and intelligent book about the ambivalent relationship humans have with pigs.
January 8, 2023
Christ this was depressing!
This book might as well have been called "Pork" or "Slaughter" as that's pretty much what the majority of the content dealt with. There was an unnecessary amount of detail about butchering, meat processing, cuts of pork; it felt like a butcher's handbook!!
The very small chapters regarding pig intelligence, their memory, emotion and bonding were glossed over ever so briefly.
Disappointing and an absolute downer.
Straight to the charity shop.
This book might as well have been called "Pork" or "Slaughter" as that's pretty much what the majority of the content dealt with. There was an unnecessary amount of detail about butchering, meat processing, cuts of pork; it felt like a butcher's handbook!!
The very small chapters regarding pig intelligence, their memory, emotion and bonding were glossed over ever so briefly.
Disappointing and an absolute downer.
Straight to the charity shop.
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December 16, 2019The Reaktion series of book about animals and our world is just great. You get the whole animal - as a creature, in world mythology, art and, in the case of the pig, on our plates.
Brett Mizelle is fascinated by how we and pigs have interacted in history. Indeed, he thinks that we, pigs and dogs all evolved into the species we now are, together. Once our ancestors settled in particular places each community would have had a midden. This rubbish tip was a magnet for wild boar who helped themselves to the rich pickings and, before long, they made these places their homes as well.
There is a treasure trove of pig information in this book. Aristotle thought that pigs were the animals closest to humans. Pigs were associated with Demeter, the Greek goddess of agriculture and Aeneas, the legendary founder of Rome, knew he had arrived at the right spot when he saw a sow rootling at the base of an oak tree.
Like us or not, pigs were the first creatures to be industrially slaughtered and packaged. In the early twentieth century the burgeoning population in the US got their meat from CAFOS - Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. Or 'disassembly lines' as they were also known. The food writer Michael Pollan is quoted as saying that contemporary pig production and slaughter ‘offers a nightmarish glimpse of what capitalism can look like in the absence of moral or regulatory constraint'.
Here are some of the ways that pigs are like us. They have an episodic memory. Not just remembering what happened but in what order. In other words, the storyline of events. Contact with and attention from other animals (including us) has a de-stressing effect on pigs. Their incarceration and selective breeding for rapid weight gain makes them liable to panic.
Some have made a break for freedom, however. There are an estimated 1.5 million wild hogs Texas alone and escaped wildboar/pig cross animals are making themselves at home in the Forest of Dean in the west of England. Interestingly, in a just a few generations, the escaped domestic pigs revert to wildness. They get faster, hairier and their tusks are bigger.
The author (quoting Claude Levi-Strauss) says that pigs are 'good to think with'. He sees the vilification of the pig as a guilt reaction on the part of humans who have treated pigs so badly over the millennia. Not all humans, though. On the Pacific island republic of Vanatu pigs are eaten but also revered. These islanders are regarded as being among the happiest communities on the planet.
Brett Mizelle is fascinated by how we and pigs have interacted in history. Indeed, he thinks that we, pigs and dogs all evolved into the species we now are, together. Once our ancestors settled in particular places each community would have had a midden. This rubbish tip was a magnet for wild boar who helped themselves to the rich pickings and, before long, they made these places their homes as well.
There is a treasure trove of pig information in this book. Aristotle thought that pigs were the animals closest to humans. Pigs were associated with Demeter, the Greek goddess of agriculture and Aeneas, the legendary founder of Rome, knew he had arrived at the right spot when he saw a sow rootling at the base of an oak tree.
Like us or not, pigs were the first creatures to be industrially slaughtered and packaged. In the early twentieth century the burgeoning population in the US got their meat from CAFOS - Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. Or 'disassembly lines' as they were also known. The food writer Michael Pollan is quoted as saying that contemporary pig production and slaughter ‘offers a nightmarish glimpse of what capitalism can look like in the absence of moral or regulatory constraint'.
Here are some of the ways that pigs are like us. They have an episodic memory. Not just remembering what happened but in what order. In other words, the storyline of events. Contact with and attention from other animals (including us) has a de-stressing effect on pigs. Their incarceration and selective breeding for rapid weight gain makes them liable to panic.
Some have made a break for freedom, however. There are an estimated 1.5 million wild hogs Texas alone and escaped wildboar/pig cross animals are making themselves at home in the Forest of Dean in the west of England. Interestingly, in a just a few generations, the escaped domestic pigs revert to wildness. They get faster, hairier and their tusks are bigger.
The author (quoting Claude Levi-Strauss) says that pigs are 'good to think with'. He sees the vilification of the pig as a guilt reaction on the part of humans who have treated pigs so badly over the millennia. Not all humans, though. On the Pacific island republic of Vanatu pigs are eaten but also revered. These islanders are regarded as being among the happiest communities on the planet.
June 3, 2017
The Animal series by Reaktion is meant to provide a broad overview of specific species, and this volume does exactly that. It outlines a fascinating cultural timeline of the pig via history, literature, art, advertisements, etc. I was engrossed by many tidbits, and it was great to learn more about the pig outside of my own narrow field of animal studies research. Despite the broad nature of the series, Brett Mizelle still makes a convincing argument concerning the ambivalent state of current pig-human relationships. I'd love to read more in the series.
June 25, 2019
Short history of the pig and their relationship with humans that is entertaining, insightful, well illustrated, well written and makes for a thought provoking read. Brett has done a well researched addition to the Reaktion Books series that I highly recommend for single subject introductions to numerous animal histories.
May 12, 2023
This book discusses the placement of pigs in human cultural history, and predominantly concerns itself with their role in the food industry. Other topics such as pig behavior or the mythological aspect of pigs are touched upon, but barely elaborated in depth and I'd have appreciated a deeper dive into them (and Reaktion's own Wild Boar does cover the mythology angle much better) instead of all the dry infodumping of the history of pork farming in the US for dozens of pages, all while european (& otherwise) pigs receive much less space - maybe great if you're american, much less so if not.
May 10, 2016
Excellent short introduction to the history of pigs, their relationship with humans, and how they are treated today. Even dedicates a whole section to pigs of the imagination.
A survey and reference book in one. Worth owning if you are an animal lover, worth reading even if you're not.
A survey and reference book in one. Worth owning if you are an animal lover, worth reading even if you're not.
August 30, 2012
Great look at the history and current evolution of swine! Very relevant in today's fast food nation culture.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews