Religious restrictions on the consumption of pork

Religious restrictions on the consumption of pork exist in both the Muslim dietary laws and Jewish dietary laws, making it a taboo meat.

Restriction

Both Orthodox Jewish (Kashrut) and halaal dietary laws forbid pork, making it a taboo meat.

Possible reasons for prohibition

There are several explanations for this.

Maimonides, the Jewish court physician to Muslim sultan Saladin in the twelfth century, agreed with other Muslims and Jews of his day by declaring that pork was an "unclean" meat because of pigs' dirty habits; when pigs cannot find water, which is often the case in the Middle East, they have to bathe in mud or their own feces. Maimonides therefore asserted that pork was an unhealthy and unwholesome meat to consume. He was the first to justify the taboo on secular rather than religious reasons.

Medical evidence supporting this early notion did not become available until 1859, when a clinical study found a connection between undercooked pork and trichinosis. This caused a period of unrest for some Jews, as some began to argue that pork was safe to eat so long as it was fully cooked. Orthodox Jews, however, were appalled at this and insisted that there was some other divine meaning behind kosher law. A third view is that the restriction is arbitrary, a way to test the faith.

The cultural materialistic anthropologist Marvin Harris thinks that the main reason was ecological-economical. Pigs require water and shade woods with seeds, but those conditions are scarce in Israel and Arabia. They cannot forage grass like ruminants. Instead, they compete with humans for expensive grain. Unlike many other forms of livestock, pigs are omnivorous scavengers, eating virtually anything they come across, including carrion and refuse. This was deemed unclean.

Hence a Middle Eastern society keeping large stocks of pigs would destroy their ecosystem. Harris points out how, while the Hebrews are also forbidden to eat camels and fish without scales, Arab nomads couldn't afford to starve in the desert while having camels around.

He also points to Albania where a partition is established: Christians keep pigs and live in the oak woods, while Muslims keep goats and live in places that the foraging habits of goats keep unforested.

Some food psychologists point out the similarity between the Mosaic food laws as laid out in Leviticus and the natural 'disgust' reaction that all people generally show to unfamiliar meats (see the work of Paul Rozin). That suggests that the food taboos were a codification of existing practice rather than the imposition of a new rule, an attempt to give a religious explanation for an existing state of affairs in which the early Israelites did not eat pork etc. while other groups they knew did.

Archaeological significance

The relevance of the pork taboo for archaeologists is that the teeth of cooked pigs are highly resistant to biodegradation. This facilitates the pinpointing of the moment at which Islam took hold, for example, at points along the Indonesian archipelago. Plentiful pig's teeth are found in digs of pre-Islamic settlements. Pigs' teeth disappear from the traces as soon as Islam is adopted. See Maluku for an example.

Pork prohibited in the Bible

Leviticus 11:7-8 And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be cloven footed, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you. Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcass shall ye not touch, they are unclean to you.

Deuteronomy 14:8 And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you. Ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcass. A similar prohibition is repeated in the Bible in the book of Isaiah chapter 65 verse 2-5.

Qur'anic injunctions against pig consumption

Muslims are forbidden by the Qur'an to eat pig meat:

Al-Baqarah The Cow 2:173. He hath only forbidden you dead meat, and blood, and the flesh of swine, and that on which any other name hath been invoked besides that of Allah. But if one is forced by necessity, without willful disobedience, nor transgressing due limits,- then is he guiltless. For Allah is Oft-Forgiving Most Merciful.

The Food 5:3. Forbidden to you (for food) are: dead meat, blood, the flesh of swine, and that on which hath been invoked the name of other than Allah; that which hath been killed by strangling, or by a violent blow, or by a headlong fall, or by being gored to death; that which hath been (partly) eaten by a wild animal; unless ye are able to slaughter it (in due form); that which is sacrificed on stone (altars); (forbidden) also is the division (of meat) by raffling with arrows: that is impiety. This day have those who reject faith given up all hope of your religion: Yet fear them not but fear Me. This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My favor upon you, and have chosen for you Islám as your religion. But if any is forced by hunger, with no inclination to transgression, Allah is indeed Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.

The Cattle 6:145. Say: "I find not in the Message received by me by inspiration any (meat) forbidden to be eaten by one who wishes to eat it, unless it be dead meat, or blood poured forth, or the flesh of swine,- for it is an abomination - or, what is impious, (meat) on which a name has been invoked, other than Allah's". But (even so), if a person is forced by necessity, without willful disobedience, nor transgressing due limits,- thy Lord is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.

The Bee 16:115. He has only forbidden you dead meat, and blood, and the flesh of swine, and any (food) over which the name of other than Allah has been invoked. But if one is forced by necessity, without willful disobedience, nor transgressing due limits,- then Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.

External links

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