The History Of The Humble Pig

By Anita Rao,

Published December 21, 2016 at 11:55 AM EST

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Toby was one of many 'learned pigs' that spelled words and solved math problems onstage in England and America in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Basic Books

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The wild boar emerged in Southeast Asia about four million years ago and then colonized nearly every corner of Eurasia, from mountain to desert to jungle.

Basic Books

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As Europe’s forests were felled to grow crops, pigs took up residence in towns, as depicted in this detail from Breugel the Elder’s 1559 drawing Fair at Hoboken.";s:

Basic Books

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A Virginia farmer and his hogs in 1939.

Marion Post Wolcott / Library of Congress

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The grain grown in America’s Corn Belt became food not for people but for livestock.";

Boston Public Library

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Mark Essig with a piglet at Warren Wilson College's farm near Asheville

Mark Essig

Pigs are a beloved part of North Carolina culture and vital to the state’s economy, but internationally their reputation is more divisive.

In the new book “Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig” (Basic Books/2015) historian Mark Essig argues that we have loved and hated pigs for as long as they’ve lived among us. Essig examines pig biology and traces 10,000 years of human culture to explore how the clever, versatile animal ended up with such a complex reputation.

Host Frank Stasio talks with Essig about his years of research into the beast that he calls the ‘humble pig.’

Note: This is a rebroadcast. This program originally aired January 6, 2016.