The Reason Pigs Disappeared from the Arabian Peninsula, Once a Primary Food Source
Pigs are one of the world’s favourite meat sources, alongside beef and goat. However, not all countries sell pork products due to various reasons, primarily religious ones. In the Middle East, for instance, it is difficult to find pork because the majority of the population is Muslim. Nevertheless, history records that pigs were once a food source in the Arabian Peninsula. A research team from Kiel University, Germany, in the study ‘Into Early Pig Domestication Provided by Ancient DNA Analysis’ (2017), noted that it was precisely there, in the Mesopotamia region, that pigs were first domesticated around 8,500 BC. Only after this were pigs brought to Europe for breeding.
As they were first domesticated in the Middle East, pigs also became a food source. Archaeological records from 5,000–2,000 BC reveal that Middle Eastern societies raised pigs as a food source. They would raise pigs for months before slaughtering them to serve as a delicious and nutritious primary protein source. The position of pigs as a food source rivalled the popularity of other livestock. However, the habit of consuming pork changed around 1,000 BC. Since then, pig farming and consumption have declined drastically.
There are at least two differing opinions regarding the transition of the Arabian Peninsula’s consumption from pork to other livestock.
- Ecological Threats
This view is presented by anthropologist Marvin Harris in ‘Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches’ (2019), which links pigs to the ecological integrity and culture of the Middle East. According to him, pigs are animals that consume significantly more resources than humans and other livestock. A single pig requires 6,0’000 litres of water to breed. If a farm has 100 pigs, they would require 600,000 litres of water. We know that most of the Middle East consists of arid deserts. Naturally, those hundreds of thousands of litres of water would be more beneficial if used by humans for survival. Consequently, Arab communities chose to divert water to their own needs rather than for pig farming. “Pigs may be tasty, but feeding and keeping them cool would consume too many resources,” stated Marvin Harris. Furthermore, pigs are picky eaters; they cannot eat grass. To gain weight, pigs must be fed nuts, fruits, and wheat. The problem is that all these foods are also consumed by humans. Practically, humans in Arabia preferred to divert nuts and wheat for personal consumption rather than feeding them to pigs. For this reason, Marvin Harris links the prohibition of pigs to ecological reasons.
- The Emergence of Chickens
This view is presented by historian Richard W. Redding in ‘The Pig and the Chicken in the Middle East’ (2015). While Richard does not fully agree with Harris’s view, he confirms that pigs are animals that require a significant amount of water to survive. This high requirement was an obstacle to the nomadic lifestyle of Arab societies. When moving locations, pigs were unsuitable for travel because they require abundant water to survive. They need to live in places that are not too dry and are easily accessible to water, which was not always possible during migrations. For Richard, the disappearance of pigs from the Arab diet was not solely due to ecological factors, but rather the emergence of chickens. Most Arab households found that chickens were much easier to care for. A chicken only requires 3,500 litres of water to produce 1 kg of meat. Additionally, chickens were considered an ideal protein source. Their small size meant they could be eaten in a single serving. This differs from pigs, which often left leftovers that tended to go to waste because there was no food preservation system at the time. Furthermore, chickens produce secondary products, namely eggs, which became another household protein source. Based on this, when faced with the choice of raising chickens or pigs, humans practically chose chickens as livestock. “In this situation, the chicken became the primary protein source. […] This made the pig no longer necessary,” wrote Richard. Since then, pigs gradually ceased to be livestock. The consumption of these heavy-bodied animals among Arab populations has declined, although it has not disappeared 100%, as some people in the Middle East still use pork as food.