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Pork is meat from the pig. While it is one of the most common meats eaten by Chinese and Europeans, it is considered inedible under Islamic and Orthodox Jewish law.

1 Varieties of pork

Pork from the haunch of the pig is called ham. Other parts include pork shoulder, pork chops and pigs' feet. Sausage is often made from miscellaneous meats, and scrapple is another aggregate meat-food derived from pigs. Pork intestines are called chitterlings or chitlings. Some pork products figured prominently in the traditional diets of southern African-Americans, such as pigs' feet, hog jowls, and other parts not wanted by whites, because they were both available to them and affordable for the very poor. (See soul food).

Pork products are often cured by salt ( pickling) and smoking. The portion most often given this treatment is the ham, or [rear] haunch of the pig; pork shoulder, or front haunch, is also sometimes cured in this manner.

1.1 Other varieties

Bacon, chorizoChorizo is a pork sausage originating from Spain. It is made from coarsely chopped fatty pork and seasoned with chili and paprika. The mild Spanish paprika used is what gives this sausage its characteristic flavor. It can be found as picante (hot) or dulc, fuetFuet is a Catalan thin, cured dry sausage of pork meat in a pork gut. The most famous is made in the comarca (county) of Osona and is also known as Vic fuet fuet de Vic after the city of Vic, capital of Osona). Cuisine of Catalonia Sausages., salamiSalami is a sausage of Italian origin. The name comes from the Italian salare meaning to salt''. Originally made from a mixture of chopped pork and salt which was air-dried in a casing, salamis now come in many varieties made in several countries and near

2 The pork tabooFor the Taboo boardgame, see Taboo (game). A taboo is a strong social prohibition (or ban) relating to any area of human activity or social custom declared as sacred and forbidden; breaking of the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by

Both Muslim dietary lawsA Muslim is a believer in or follower of Islam. The word Muslim means one who submits and implies complete submission to the will of God ( Allah). Muslims believe that nature is itself Islamic, since it follows natural laws placed by God. Thus, a Muslim s and Orthodox JewishJudaism is the religion and culture of the Jewish people and the first recorded monotheistic faith. The tenets and history of Judaism constitute the historical foundation of many other religions, including Christianity and Islam. Star of David, a common s ( KashrutThe laws of kashrut ("keeping kosher ) are the Jewish dietary laws. Food in accord with Jewish law is termed kosher from the Hebrew term kasher , meaning "fit" (in this context, fit for human consumption). Food not in accord with Jewish law is termed trei) dietary laws forbid pork. There are several explanations for this.

MaimonidesRabbi Moshe ben Maimon ( 1135 1204), , known commonly by his Greek name Maimonides was a Jewish rabbi, physician, and philosopher. Many Jewish works refer to him by the acronym of his title and name, RaMBaM (" in Hebrew). As such, he is occasionally refer was the first to point that these dietary restrictions may have been created to prevent trichinosis, which can be caught from undercooked pork.

Others point to pigs being unclean, but pigs like to bathe frequently to keep cool. It's when they don't find water that they have to use mud or their own feces. Other meat beasts are as dirty as pigs.

For others, 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. They compete then with humans for expensive grain.

Hence a Middle Eastern society keeping large stocks of pigs would destroy their ecosystem. Harris points how while the sedentary 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 cycle is established: Christians keep pigs and live in the oak woods. Muslims keep goats and live in denuded places. The goats maintain this status by eating saplings.


Pork is also a shortened form of pork barrel spending, a term from politics.





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