LEADER 00000cam  2200325 i 4500 
001    sky273296248 
003    SKY 
005    20150924115849.0 
008    150210s2015    nyua     b    001 0 eng   
010    2014049256 
020    9780465052745 (hardcover : alk. paper) 
020    0465052746 (hardcover : alk. paper) 
040    DLC|beng|erda|cDLC|dDLC|dSKYRV|dUtOrBLW 
042    pcc 
082 00 636.4|223 
092    636.4|bESS 
100 1  Essig, Mark,|d1969-|eauthor. 
245 10 Lesser beasts :|ba snout-to-tail history of the humble pig
       /|cMark Essig. 
264  1 New York :|bBasic Books,|c2015. 
300    viii, 310 pages :|billustrations ;|c22 cm. 
336    text|2rdacontent. 
337    unmediated|2rdamedia. 
338    volume|2rdacarrier. 
504    Includes bibliographical references and index. 
505 0  Keep it simple -- Out of the wild -- "The pig is impure" -
       - "Of their flesh shall ye not eat" -- "Monstrosities of 
       luxury" -- The forest pig -- "Swine eat things clean and 
       unclean" -- "The husbandman's best scavenger" -- "All the 
       mountains swarmed with them" -- ¿"A great unkindness for 
       our swine" -- "The benevolent tyranny of the pig" -- 
       "Twenty bushels of corn on four legs" -- The republic of 
       porkdom -- "The swinish multitude" -- A growing prejudice 
       against pork -- "The other white meat" -- Vices -- "Back 
       to the start" -- Epilogue: Virtuous carnivores. 
520    Unlike other barnyard animals, which pull plows, give eggs
       or milk, or grow wool, a pig produces only one thing: 
       meat. Incredibly efficient at converting almost any 
       organic matter into nourishing, delectable protein, swine 
       are nothing short of a gastronomic godsendyet their flesh 
       is banned in many cultures, and the animals themselves are
       maligned as filthy, lazy brutes. As historian Mark Essig 
       reveals in Lesser Beasts, swine have such a bad reputation
       for precisely the same reasons they are so valuable as a 
       source of food: they are intelligent, self-sufficient, and
       omnivorous. Whats more, he argues, we ignore our historic 
       partnership with these astonishing animals at our peril. 
       Tracing the interplay of pig biology and human culture 
       from Neolithic villages 10,000 years ago to modern 
       industrial farms, Essig blends culinary and natural 
       history to demonstrate the vast importance of the pig and 
       the tragedy of its modern treatment at the hands of 
       humans. Pork, Essig explains, has long been a staple of 
       the human diet, prized in societies from Ancient Rome to 
       dynastic China to the contemporary American South. Yet 
       pigs ability to track down and eat a wide range of 
       substances (some of them distinctly unpalatable to humans)
       and convert them into edible meat has also led people 
       throughout history to demonize the entire species as 
       craven and unclean. Todays unconscionable system of 
       factory farming, Essig explains, is only the latest 
       instance of humans taking pigs for granted, and the most 
       recent evidence of how both pigs and people suffer when 
       our symbiotic relationship falls out of balance. An 
       expansive, illuminating history of one of our most vital 
       yet unsung food animals, Lesser Beasts turns a spotlight 
       on the humble creature that, perhaps more than any other, 
       has been a mainstay of civilization since its very 
       beginningswhether we like it or not. 
650  0 Swine|xHistory. 
650  0 Pork|xHistory.