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Chapter

5

Space, Time and Pig

David J. Nemeth

Space prohibits so much and permits so little
(Stevens, 1974: 3, 222)

Introduction

Wild pigs (Sus scrofa) in the early Holocene were nimble,
fierce combatants for humans who sought them out for sport,
as rites-of-passage and as flesh food in the hinterlands of their
isolated agrarian settlements. In contrast, pigs-as-pork in the
Anthropocene have been reduced to unhealthy indolence while
awaiting slaughter in industrial factory farms.
Of late, improving the welfare of pigs-as-pork in factory
farms has become a major campaign issue among organized
animal welfare activists. They also aim to improve pig–human
relations in general by restoring a prevailing human perception
that narrowly values ‘pigs-as-pork’ to a pre-Modern agrarian
perception that more broadly values pigs ‘as-pigs’. This idealis-
tic goal challenges a dominant ‘pigs-are-pork’ paradigm that is
presently shared by most factory farmers and the general public.
The ‘pigs-as-pork’ paradigm is deeply entrenched and has thus
far proved not readily amenable to change.

Pigs-as-pork?

There are nearly eight billion humans worldwide and – to help
feed them – there are hundreds of millions of pigs-as-pork con-
fined to factory farms around the world, awaiting slaughter.
Statistics reveal that pork is the most-consumed meat world-
wide today (FAO 2014). Forty per cent of pigs worldwide are
in China, where a long history of productive relations between
humans and their domestic pigs has been well-documented
(Simoons 1991; Gade, 2000). Whether Sus scrofa form domes-
tica in China was always valued exclusively or mainly ‘as-pork’ is
the topic I will now address.
The overwhelming opinion of scholars and the general pub-
lic at present is that pigs have been valued essentially ‘as-pork’
throughout recorded history, and less so, or never, valued ‘as-
pigs’, e.g. as robust, intelligent animals with multiple uses to
humankind. Wild pigs across Eurasia, the forbears of today’s
domestic pigs, were certainly robust. Wild pigs, omnivorous
herd animals and mammals (like humans) – but ungulates –
were hunted by humans and their dogs. This was prior to their
increasing management by humans in the wild (their semi-
domestication). Their management in the wild (free environ-
ment) did not restrict their movements and can be contrasted

to, and preceded, their full domestication and more careful atten-

tion to restrictions on their movements ranging from by mild to

severe confinements. Managed restrictions emerged approxi-

mately 7000 BC, and rather simultaneously in both western and

eastern parts of Eurasia. Were these innovations in domestic pig

rearing motivated by their valuation mainly ‘as-pork’?

Inarguably meat protein is an important component of

the human diet; for example, meat protein provides healthy

cells with essential amino acids. At the same time, it cannot be

ignored by pork consumers (much less denied by pork produc-

ers) that there are abundant alternative sources of meat protein

available for human consumption as food in addition to the

pork readily available worldwide: the most familiar are beef,

chicken, and fish, but there also many other animal protein sub-

stitutes and alternatives, including insects (Huis 2013). In addi-

tion to these are the other sources of many non-meat proteins:

nuts, beans, legumes, seeds, and so on. Pork is therefore not a

necessary component of a healthy human diet, even though this

is widely assumed to be the case. My own personal failure to dis-

cern between pigs-as-pigs and pigs-as pork and its implications

changed dramatically when I joined Peace Corps in 1972 and

was sent to South Korea.

Discovering Pigs-as-pigs: My Cheju

Island Epiphany

Not very long ago, the famous cultural materialist Marvin

Harris summed up with certainty his perception of pig–human

relations throughout history: ‘Clearly, the whole essence of pig is

the production of meat for human nourishment and delectation’

(Harris 1997). Apparently, asserting pigs-as-pork without any

need for qualification was neither a controversial topic nor even

a challenging hypothesis when Harris made this truth claim

near the turn of the millennium. Millions of scholars and their

students around the world simply accepted his ‘pigs-are-pork’

assumption as a statement of fact. I did until I arrived on South

Korea’s Cheju (Jeju) Island in 1973.

My encounter with Cheju Island’s gregarious, hyperactive

domestic privy-pigs was a profound event in my life and perhaps

epiphanic, for it set into motion my journey down a life-long

research path that to this day remains a gift that keeps on giving.

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