Religious restrictions on the consumption of pork

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The consumption of pork by humans is restricted by many worldwide religions. This restriction is most notable for featuring in Judaism and Samaritanism, before being adopted by other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. It is thought to have its origin in a stigma that was already present in the ancient Near East, as before the rise of the Israelites—pork was prohibited in cultures in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and those of the Levant and Anatolia. The pig also represented a taboo observed at Comana in Pontus, as noted by the Greek geographer Strabo. A lost poem of the Greek poet Hermesianax, reported centuries later by the Greek geographer Pausanias, described an etiological myth of Attis being destroyed by a supernatural boar to account for the fact that "in consequence of these events, the Galatians who inhabit Pessinous do not touch pork." In spite of the common religious stigma associated with pigs, pork remains the most consumed meat of any animal globally. With regard to Christianity, only...

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