Scottish pork taboo facts for kids

The Scottish Pork Mystery

Have you ever wondered why some foods are popular in one place but not another? For a long time, people in Scotland, especially in the Scottish Highlands, seemed to avoid eating pork. This was sometimes called the "Scottish pork taboo." A "taboo" is a strong social rule that says something is forbidden or wrong.

Some people, like a writer named Donald Alexander Mackenzie, thought this dislike of pork came from a very old, religious belief. However, other writers believed it was more about practical reasons, like not having enough food for pigs. By the 1800s, this dislike for pork was mostly fading away.

Donald Mackenzie's Ideas

Donald Mackenzie was a writer who studied old stories and beliefs. In 1920, he gave a talk about his idea that the dislike of pork in Scotland was linked to a very old religious practice. He thought this idea might have come to Scotland long ago, even before the Romans arrived. He suggested it came with Celtic fighters who were influenced by a group called the cult of Attis from a place called Anatolia (which is now part of Turkey). This cult had special rules about not eating pork during certain ceremonies.

Mackenzie didn't think the dislike of pork came from the Bible. He pointed out that early Christian missionaries didn't avoid pork. He also knew that people in ancient Scotland did eat pigs. But he thought this might have been from different groups of people living near each other. He also suggested that later, any pigs raised in Scotland were mostly for selling to other countries, not for people in Scotland to eat. He believed the "taboo" faded away faster in the Lowlands (southern Scotland) than in the Highlands. By the 1800s, most small farms in the Highlands were raising pigs.

Other experts who study old traditions, like Isabel Grant, agreed with Mackenzie's idea of a taboo.

Other Views on Pork in Scotland

Many other writers also noticed that Scots, especially country people, didn't seem to like pork. For example, Bishop John Lesley wrote in the 1570s that "our country people" had "little pleasure" in pork. But it's interesting that pigs were still provided for the royal family, like Mary, Queen of Scots, showing that some people did eat it.

In the 1790s, several church ministers wrote about their local areas for the Statistical Accounts of Scotland. They mentioned that the strong dislike for pork was starting to disappear. One minister from Ardchattan, in Argyll county, wrote that the "deep rooted prejudice against swine's flesh is now removed." He noted that 30 years earlier, people had "held it in the utmost detestation."

Even a historian in the 20th century, Christopher Smout, talked about a "universal superstitious prejudice" against pork.

However, a study of old pig bones found in Scotland in 2000 questioned if there was real evidence of this dislike. The study found more pig bones in rural areas than in towns during the medieval period. This might suggest that even if Highlanders didn't eat much pork, they might have raised pigs to sell to others.

Different Ideas About the Pork Mystery

Not everyone agreed with Donald Mackenzie's idea of an ancient religious taboo.

A historian named William Mackay Mackenzie wrote in The Scotsman newspaper in 1921. He agreed that some Scots had a "sporadic prejudice" (meaning it happened sometimes in certain places) against pork. But he didn't think it was linked to a "religious cult." Instead, he believed that economic reasons (money and resources) between 1500 and 1800 made it hard to keep pigs. He gave examples of people eating pork in the Middle Ages. He suggested there was a "temporary lapse" in eating pork when many of Scotland's large forests disappeared.

In 1983, an American expert named Eric B. Ross looked at Scotland's farming history in detail. He argued that practical reasons, not mysterious beliefs, explained the lack of pork. He said that when forests were cut down, pigs lost their natural food sources like acorns and beech nuts. Potatoes, which could feed pigs, weren't widely grown in Scotland until the late 1700s. During this time, when most people didn't eat much pork, many wealthy Scots still did.

Ross concluded that in the 1700s and earlier, pigs were rarely raised in Scotland, especially in the Highlands. He felt that later writers might have wrongly assumed a "foolish prejudice" was the reason for the scarcity of pigs, simply because they didn't know much about the daily lives and feelings of people back then.