Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig

Description

Poor pigs are mocked and stereotyped as ugly, greedy, foul, disgusting brutes. Why? Pigs are some of the most intelligent animals on earth. They have been key to building socialized human society. They are the only livestock whose one purpose is meat. Why do most cultures have so much bias against them? This book goes over all this stuff. It starts at the very beginning, with why and how the pig evolved. Pigs, after all, did not evolve like their other cloven-hoofed relatives—cows and bison and the like. Pigs are made for forest life, not for grazing. This book follows the path of the pig, including its evolutionary divergence from other hoofed mammals, its domestication, its role in colonizing the New World, and how it helped develop civilizations across the globe.

Well-written and engaging, this book is a fascinating look at an often overlooked animal. It was eye-opening to read about the effect of the pig, and how it changed the world. This book is written in an easily accessible style that made the material very comprehensible. Overall, the book is interesting, easily understood, and surprisingly informative.