Subject: Re: Jews dont eat pork?

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 30 Sep 94 05:14:33 EST

IC>Let's think about that a bit.  We're speaking, here, of biblical
IC>times.  No modern medical (or any other) science of any kind.  What
IC>I find hard to believe is that a correlation would be made between
IC>illness caused by parasites in pork and the eating of that pork.
IC>Certainly such illness doesn't appear forthwith.  It takes time to
IC>manifest itself.  By the time, for example, trychinosis would
IC>become apparent, a person would have consumed any number of things.
IC>Which of them caused the illness?  The pork?  The beef?  The mutton?
IC>The vegetables?  The wine?  Or was it not something consumed at all
IC>but, rather, the weather, a curse, ...?

IC>	  [email-masked]

There are a lot of "mysteries" such as this.  At least mysteries to me.
For instance, think about all the Native American populations that have
a mix of grains and legumes (Corn and bean in succatash, for instance)
as a staple.  Do you suppose they KNEW they had a complete protein with
all essential amino acids?

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From: [email-masked] (Matthew Hill)
Date: Fri, 30 Sep 1994 16:27:13 GMT

>IC>but, rather, the weather, a curse, ...?

Since Trichnosis takes a long time to develop this is even more relevant.

>all essential amino acids?

The point is not whether THEY KNEW it, but whether nature KNEW they were
doing it. Positive selection is based on what you do, not what you think
about it.  You may be dead wrong or you may be right for the wrong or
irrelevant reasons- the latter probably the Hebrew pig taboo case. 
 
My personal suspicion is, given that Moses was a product of the secondary
products revolution he didn't want his folks wasting their time on 
swine which produced only meat, leather, bristles and bone when kine
produced all but the penultimate plus milk.  And as someone pointed
out ate things people can't.
 
Pigs of course do produce milk but may be poor milkees.  Certainly the
process would require most ungainly postures on the part of the milker. 
 
Matthew Hill  ([email-masked])
 
The opinions expressed above are my own and none the worse for that.