The Singular Beast

Book excerpt: This original account of the significance of the pig and its relationship to Jews in European Christian culture encompasses a vast array of folklore, history and ritual. Practices related to the breeding, slaughter and consumption of the pig have inspired both religious and secular taboos and rituals, laid out by the author in fascinating detail. She demonstrates clearly the power which a symbol may hold to mould an ethnic identity, and the book stands both as s study of the role of the pig, and as an analysis of the creation of anti-Semitic myths.