The Singular Beast [Hardcover]

Claudine Fabre-Vassas (Author), Carol Volk (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 1997 | ISBN-10: 0231103662 | ISBN-13: 978-0231103664 0

Throughout history, the slaughter and consumption of the pig has been the inspiration for role-playing and taboos, and at the center of practices that defined the boundaries between Christians and Jews. A provocative exploration of the pig in European culture and anti-Semitism, The Singular Beast chronicles the cultural and religious character of the pig -- and details the folkloric beliefs still found among both provincial and urban Europeans and the rituals that have been associated with it from the Middle Ages to today.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Singular Beast is an academic study of the relationship between pigs and Jews in European Christian culture. It is a challenging book, but it's well worth the trouble for readers who want to understand the shape of traditional Christian anti-Semitism. "We know that the world's cultures readily designate others by what they eat; in Europe we call one another frogs, roast beefs, or macaroni eaters," Claudine Fabre-Vassas writes. "A very rare exception should have aroused suspicion: Jews are called 'pigs,' imagined to be bloodthirsty, identified precisely as what they forbid themselves." When Fabre-Vassas digs into this paradox, she discovers all kinds of interesting and awful myths. Suffice it to say, Christian readers will think twice about putting ham in the oven next Easter.

From Library Journal

Fabre-Vassas, a research fellow in Paris, has written an examination of Christian attitudes toward Jews particularly during the Middle Ages. A reader may ask: Why focus on the pig? In the author's words, "The pig is a creature divided. It incarnates the sins of lechery and gluttony....At the same time, it is a Christian flesh, endowed with a soul of blood, called upon to appear at the meals of Christmas and Easter." Yet in the historical anti-Semitic literature, the Jews were associated with the pig's lowly traits. In Christianity, the very traits of the pig raised a duality. There was the profane pig and the pig used in sacred ceremonies purged of its negative attributes. Fabre-Vassas offers a solid, scholarly study that would be best suited for libraries with comprehensive collections in social anthropology. Readers may also want to consult an older, classic work, Mary Douglas's Purity and Danger (LJ 10/15/66), a groundbreaking study on the topic of taboos.?Paul M. Kaplan, Lake Villa District Lib., Ill.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Columbia University Press (April 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0231103662
• ISBN-13: 978-0231103664
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #667,799 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)