Abstract
Mediaeval encyclopaedias described nonhuman animals in terms of their corporeality and cosmic significance by combining zoological and theological knowledge. Such descriptions were therefore prescriptions of normative parameters for how animals were supposed to function within Christian society, rather than objective observations. As mediaeval conceptualisations of species were highly malleable, particular animals that shared no biological relation could be considered kin, and animals who behaved against their prescribed nature could become a different animal altogether. This paper investigates how several species were implicated in the mediaeval invention of what it meant to be (like) a pig. My counter-hegemonic reading of the Livre des propriétés des choses, a fifteenth-century French encyclopaedia, draws attention to how late mediaeval Christian scripts of porcinity simultaneously defined the nonhumanity of pigs and of ‘other’ humans. These render the idea of the pig inseparable from what it meant to be human. I contend that the Livre des propriétés des choses employs discourses of porcinity to self-define and -stabilise particular notions of human identity by debasing and othering human and nonhuman animals with seemingly porcine traits. Additionally, I underline how such fabrications of humanity are often mired in practices that devaluate and harm real animals, including other humans. Mediaeval studies need to further address the crucial roles of animal suffering in human history. This way, historians can add valuable insights to present debates about anthropocentrism and its devastating socio-ecological consequences.
Highlights
History is the lifeblood of all animals; we are incomplete without it.1 Its ever-evolving abundance of artefacts and stories reveals our roots, shapes our notions of self, and teases us with a glimpse of what we could become
Lascivious beasts with a predilection for earthly delights. This was apparent in the downward inclination of their face and the eagerness with which they consumed foul earthly matter, be it literally or allegorically
Their short legs and bristly hides ensured that they were constantly mired in this foul material, something which they seemed to relish wallowing in
Summary
History is the lifeblood of all animals; we are incomplete without it. Its ever-evolving abundance of artefacts and stories reveals our roots, shapes our notions of self, and teases us with a glimpse of what we could become. The prevalence of pigs in these so-called animal trials has been studied extensively by Pastoureau (1993, 1999, 2000, 2012) and Esther Cohen (1986, 1992, 1994) These arguments are largely based on the popular misconception that an infanticidal sow of Falaise was dressed up like a human and hanged upside down at the public gallows in 1386. Corbechon was reticent to copy the Latin term animal (denoting any living creature, be it human or nonhuman)—which from the twelfth century onwards, took on the specialised meaning of an “animate being deprived of reason (as opposed to humankind)”—instead, translating it as hommes et les bestes (‘humans and beasts’) or a similar distinction 85 and 97, which pertain to le porc (‘the pig’) and la truie (‘the sow’), respectively
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