Pig

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DNA studies indicate that the first domestic pigs were brought to Europe from the Middle East. People soon began domesticating the local European wild boar, causing the genes from the Middle East animals to die out in the European pigs. Later, European animals were brought back to the Middle East, and during the 18th and 19th Centuries, Asian pigs were introduced to Europe. Thus, modern pigs have very complex genes. The majority are more or less pink, with a rather scanty fur.

When Europeans migrated to the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere, they, naturally, brought pigs along. Descendants of these pigs have become feral in many parts of the world, including North and South America, New Zealand, northern Australia, and parts of Europe, often causing considerable damage to the environment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To me however, it seems much more likely that it was introduced by the original Negrito inhabitants of these islands, as it resembles the pot-bellied pig of Southeast Asia far more than it does the wild boar. Some of these introduced pigs probably escaped to form wild populations. In his book The Way of the Animal Powers – Historical Atlas of World Mythology (1983), American author Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) is of the same opinion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In many places in Asia, so-called pig-toilets are still in use in rural areas. It simply consists of an outhouse, built over a pig sty. The faeces fall down into the sty, where the pigs consume them – an eco-friendly and economical way of getting rid of human waste.

A new trend is pigs as pets, usually dwarf forms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cleverness of the pig was used by English author George Orwell, aka Eric Arthur Blair (1903-1950), who was very much opposed to the totalitarianism, which had just shown its true nature in Germany, and was now being practiced, on the pretext of socialism, by Russian dictator Josef Stalin, who is portrayed in Blair’s novel from 1945, Animal Farm.

In this novel, the animals, led by the clever pigs, usurp the wicked farm owner, Mr. Jones, declaring that “all animals are equal.” Later, “a large, rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar”, named Napoleon, assumes power on the farm and kills his rival Snowball, using dogs he himself has trained. He now declares that “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others,” turning into a replica of Mr. Jones, just much worse. In the end, he even fraternizes with humans, keeping the other animals as slaves. As they peep through the windows, “the creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”