Muslims and Jews don’t eat pork. A prohibition that stems from a number of factors.
Although every religion imposes its own set of eating rules, the ban imposed by Jews and Muslims on the consumption of pork has some fascinating connotations. Why has the Suidae suborder of artiodactyl mammals become a symbol of impurity?
The first answer can be found in the holy texts.
The Old Testament (Leviticus XI) states, “You can eat any quadruped that has a divided hoof and that chews the cud …. Do not eat … pig, because it has a divided hoof but it does not chew the cud, it is considered unclean”. This prohibition is also found in the Koran (2:173 and 16:114-115), “(Allah) … has made unlawful for you that which dies of itself and blood and the flesh of swine and that on which the name of any other than Allah has been invoked”. Scholars claim that the Islamic prohibition derives from the Jewish one and makes historical sense; by adapting its requirements to the widespread customs of the region, it was much easier for Islam to convert members of the Jewish faith. But Muslims do not see it this way, according to Michel Desjardins, a professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada and expert on food and spirituality: “Muslims say they don’t eat pork because Allah has told them not to. The Koran establishes a relationship of trust between Allah and the faithful, and it is not up to the individual to doubt the divine word, nor seek a motivation or reasoning”. But what has the pig done to deserve such a ban? There is more than one explanation.
Some Muslims claim health reasons: uncooked pigs’ meat is a carrier of parasites such as Trichinella sprialis and Taenia. More plausible is the idea that we are what we eat and the perception that purity of soul is nourished by the ingredients we consume. Furthermore, Muslims who come into contact with contaminated foods must subject themselves to purification procedures. “Pigs, which eat absolutely anything, are often seen as dirty and sexually promiscuous. Eating an animal in some way can mean absorbing its powers and characteristics, so ingesting the meat of a pig would make the eater impure or dirty”, explains Desjardins. This symbolism is also widespread in many Western cultures. The expression “You eat like a pig” is synonymous with messiness or greed and when a man is accused of “behaving like a pig”, it implies he has not acted as a gentleman should. In truth, when pigs roll in the mud, they only do so to keep cool, seeing as they don’t sweat.
“Alongside the ecological and sanitary reasons and any historical and political explanations, there seem to be many irrational motivations and others that hark back to ancient practices, such as the belief in the demonic nature of the pig or, inversely, the sacred value assigned to pigs by the ancient peoples of Asia Minor and Africa”, notes university professor Lorenzo Ascanio in the article “The Nutritional Rules in Muslim Law”. Desjardins, however, also suggests a more provocative theory that certain cultures do not eat pork because pigs are too similar to man. The screams of pigs when slaughtered are remarkably similar to the cries of humans, while a study of the animal’s genome published in Nature in 2012 raised eyebrows by revealing far more similarities between pigs and humans than had previously been thought.
Muslims and Jews don’t eat pork. A prohibition that stems from a number of factors.
