Translations:Food and drink prohibitions/96/en

The original reason for this taboo is debated. Maimonides seems to have thought the uncleanness of pigs was self-evident, but mentions with particular aversion their propensity to eat feces. In the 19th century, some people attributed the pig taboo in the Middle East to the danger of the parasite trichina, but this explanation is now out of favour. James George Frazer suggested that, in ancient Israel, Egypt and Syria, the pig was originally a sacred animal, which for that reason could not be eaten or touched; the taboo survived to a time when the pig was no longer regarded as sacred, and was therefore explained by reference to its being unclean.