3 - Animal Divination and Climate: An Environmental Perspective on the Cult of the Pig

Summary

Introduction

Although previous two chapters focused on plants, animals were not less significant in shaping the material and spiritual life of ancient China. In the classical era, the tradition of observing nature was developed in the context of the Yin-Yang and the Five-phase theories, which were later incorporated into the ancient arts of divination, including the technique of predicting weather changes by observing the behavior and health of animals. The observation of the close connection between animals and weather developed into the worship of animals, that is, which led to the rise of the cult of animals. This chapter aims to analyze the rise of the cult of the pig in ancient China, with special reference to the context of environmental and climate change.

As one of the most common species among domesticated animals in traditional China’s agricultural civilization, the pig occupies a unique position in both the material and the spiritual life of the Chinese people, which some comprehensive Western-language works on pigs in the past decade did not fully acknowledged. In the Central Plain of the Chinese empire, where the so-called Yellow River civilization had its origin, the pig was the most important source of meat consumed in daily life, thus contrasting sharply with the civilizations of the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian people who lived in the ancient Near East and the Middle East where pork was a food taboo. Contemporary scholars have debated about the origins of the view of the people in these regions that pigs are unclean, and the taboo against pork in these areas.

One of the most notable perspectives on this issue is Marvin Harris’ ecological and environmental theory. For Harris, pigs are hated not only because they are perceived as unhygienic, given that they frequently roll around in their own feces and urine, but also because they compete with humans for the same basic nutrients, such as those found in grain. What interests us is Harris’ observation that pigs have to roll around in their own feces and urine in order to cool off. Harris notes that the behavior of pigs in the Middle East may be influenced by the local climate and the environment.