SC - regional american food
deborah minyard
dminmin at hotmail.com
Mon Dec 11 22:14:55 PST 2000
In a message dated 12/11/00 12:37:27 AM Eastern Standard Time,
stefan at texas.net writes:
<< I quoted just from Ann Hagen's summary. She has a whole chapter on
the Anglo-Saxon pig including records on their breeds and sizes. I
didn't think the list really wanted me to quote sections from the
whole chapter.
>>
I was not commenting on Hagen's work. I commented on '1000 Years.'. I looked
at the bibliography in that book and found it to be riddled with secondary
and tertiary sources. I also glanced through the book again and found a large
proportion of his 'quotes' from period sources to be based on poetry, etc.
So for the record my comments were not directed at your personal pig theory
but rather on '1000 Years' which I do maintain is a good read but not a
prefered source of good reference material, IMO.
BTW, IMO means 'In My Opinion'. I do have a reference from Platina which you
should have in yopur swine files which specifically states that at least one
pig was so fat it had a nest of mice living in it's flesh'. I take that as
at least ONE valid primary source that does not conjecture but rather
indicates that pigs were fat. All period refences to pigs that I am aware of
do not state that the pigs were in fact skinny. Skinniness seems to be
conjectured by the writers you mention. Granted they may be correct for a
certain section of England, I do not see that as indicative of general
swinish characteristics throughout the rest of Europe. Perhaps I am missing
something here but since this is an area I am EXTREMELY interested in I
certainly would welcome an actual period quotation which stated that pigs
were indeed skinny. On face value, I now have fat quotes 1 and skinny quotes
0. :-)
Yours in service to the Dream,
(which includes potentially fat pigs snuffling for acorns in oaken forests.
Acorns, BTW, are relatively high in calories.:-))
Ras
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