Pig Out – Hogs and Humans in Global and Historical Context

The second day of the conference, Panels 5-7, revolved around a broad theme of ecologies—in labor, history, politics, and literature. This final panel examined how the pig entered our ecological imagination through the intimate relationship between hog and human, marked by the bond of giving and receiving care as well as nourishment. “Some Pig”: Porcine Exceptionalism and the Biopolitics of Charlotte’s Web Colleen Glenney Boggs, Professor of English and Women and Gender Studies, Dartmouth College

The second day of the conference, Panels 5-7, revolved around a broad theme of ecologies—in labor, history, politics, and literature. In the afternoon, Robin Derby and Marcy Norton offered an environmental perspective to our current understanding of empire by examining how pigs configured into networks of imperial power. Bringing the Animals Back In: Writing Quadrupeds into the Environmental History of Latin America and the Caribbean Robin Derby, Associate Professor of Latin American History, University of California, Los Angeles A Tale of Three Pigs: Modes of Interaction and Porcine Human Intersubjectivity in Spain and Native Lowland South America Marcy Norton, Associate Professor of History, George Washington University

The second day, Panels 5-7, revolved around the issue of ecologies. Julie Hughes, Brett Mizelle and Mindi Schneider investigated human-hog labor ecologies and highlighted ethical and environmental impacts of putting pigs to work. Pigs in the Picture: Seeing Wild Boar at Work in Princely India Julie Hughes, Assistant Professor of History, Vassar College The Labor of Bacon Mania in American Culture Brett Mizelle, Professor of History and Director of American Studies, California State University at Long Beach Wasting the Rural: Meat, Manure, and the Politics of Agro Industrialization in Contemporary China Mindi Schneider, Assistant Professor in Agrarian, Food, and Environmental Studies, International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, Netherlands

The conference panels were organized around two main themes. The first day, Panels 1-4, delved into the issues of pig domestication from various perspectives; genetic, agricultural, labor and social. Speakers in Panels 3 and 4— Catherine McNeur, Mark Essig and Brad Weiss - discussed how domesticated pigs were put to work in the city and small scale farms. Swinish Multitudes on a Small Scale: American Pigs in the Woods, on the Streets, and on the Farm Mark Essig, freelance writer and editor, author of Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig Hybrids, Breeds, and Brands: How “Heritage Pigs” Matter Brad Weiss, Professor and Chair of Anthropology, William and Mary College

The conference panels were organized around two main themes. The first day, Panels 1-4, delved into the issues of pig domestication from various perspectives; genetic, agricultural, labor and social. Speakers in Panels 3 and 4—Catherine McNeur, Mark Essig and Brad Weiss - discussed how domesticated pigs were put to work in the city and small scale farms. Tainted Milk and Foul Swine: The Different Treatment of Urban Cows & Pigs in 1850s Manhattan Catherine McNeur, Assistant Professor of History, Portland State University

The conference panels were organized around two main themes. The first day, Panels 1-4, delved into the issues of pig domestication from various perspectives; genetic, agricultural, labor and social. Aaron Gross, Jordan Rosenblum and Jeffrey Yoskowitz in the second panel present various aspects of how religion shaped and is shaped by its views on eating domesticated swine, with special attention being paid to Judaism. The Question of the Animal and Religion: Consider the Pig Aaron Gross, Assistant Professor of Theology and Religious Studies, University of San Diego A Brief History of Pork and Jewish Identity from the P Source to Pulp Fiction Jordan Rosenblum, Belzer Professor of Classical Judaism, University of Wisconsin at Madison Pigs in the Promised Land: Reconciling Jewish Identity, Democracy, and Bacon in Israel Jeffrey Yoskowitz, journalist, author, chef, and publisher of the website The Pork Memoirs

The conference panels were organized around two main themes. The first day, Panels 1-4, delved into the issues of pig domestication from various perspectives; genetic, agricultural, labor and social. The first panel, comprising of Benjamin Arbuckle, Greger Larson and Philip Piper highlighted archeological and scientific evidence to debunk the notion of a "domestication event" and invited the audience to consider how a deep history of the pig could be constructed. The Origins of Pig Husbandry In the Neolithic Near East Benjamin Arbuckle, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The Gene-flow Revolution: How Appreciating Admixture Is Shaping Our Understanding of Pig Domestication Greger Larson, Director of Palaeogenomics and the Bio-Archaeology Research Network, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford Early Domestic Pigs in the Southeast Asian Context Philip Piper, Associate Professor in Archaeology, Australian National University, Canberra