Dear Pam, 

Thank you for the additional sources. I was initially hoping to find a dearth of evidence for pig-naming conventions (to support my theory...now disputed...that animals that do not produce secondary products do not have intimate social relations with their human keepers).

Jorgen's suggested reading on Old Norse religion and the social importance of pigs may be found here:
http://skemman.is/en/stream/get/1946/10143/25318/1/Lenka_Kovarova_MA.pdf

Cheers,
Adam




To: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ZOOARCH] Cases of pig-naming
From: [log in to unmask]
Date: Wed, 5 Feb 2014 12:09:03 -0500

Hi Adam

I would be interested in the Old Nordic texts you mention, if you wouldn't mind passing along Jorgen's comments. The Icelandic sagas are probably a good source, particularly the family sagas rather than the more well known ones on gods and kings. 

As per Angelo and Terry and Julie, farm species, particularly those regularly eaten, tend to only get names if it's a breeding animal or a special pet. Most breeding boars, studs, rams, etc will have names and breeding females. What exactly do you mean by anthropomorphic names? Many names are descriptive, such as Angelo mentions, even for pets and people - Red, Big Red, Flat Nose...

A good source for folklore, folk stories/traditions can be found in JSTOR.

Historic sources - search google books for pig/swine herd book - these have boars/sows and there are at least, sources for the UK back the last 200-400 yrs...

The Herd Book of Lincolnshire Curly-coated Pigs - Volume 2 - Lincolnshire Curly-Coated Pig Breeders' Association inc – 1908. books.google.com/books?id=1VNCAAAAYAAJ

Modern associations may also have some historical info... http://www.britishpigs.org.uk/


Do you think Don O'Meara's ([log in to unmask]) comments should be considered? Though these, and ref's to Frey's boar may be more in the realm of gods, gods attributes/animal forms, so I'm not sure whether that of interest to you. Though this would also include cult animals kept as rep's of gods...

The Welsh pigs are mentioned in the Mabinogion. There are a number of net sources for this/ wiki has a number of them...
www.joellessacredgrove.com/Celtic/deitiesg-h-i.html
(Welsh) The Goddess of sovereignty who held the feet of Math while he reigned. ... She was also an aunt of King Arthur and this folktale is really about an ancient sow .... HENWEN, (Anglo-Celtic) [HEN-oon] A sow Goddess much like her Welsh


Best regards
Pam
 
Pamela J Cross
PhD researcher, Bioarchaeology 
Horses of Men & Gods project (AHRC, NT & MoL) 
Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford, BD7 1DP UK
p.j.cross (at) student.bradford.ac.uk / pajx (at) aol.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Adam Allentuck <[log in to unmask]>
To: ZOOARCH <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wed, Feb 5, 2014 8:20 am
Subject: Re: [ZOOARCH] Cases of pig-naming

Hello all,

Thanks for the many replies to my question of pigs with names. While examples from Orwell, Russian translations of A.A. Milne and Hollywood are fun, I should have mentioned that I am not considering sources from the post-Enlightenment Western world. Rather, I'm looking for examples more in line with Angelos' excellent example from a traditional Cypriot context (although pigs were not the subject of his work) and the Old Nordic texts that I now know of thanks to a private message from Jorgen.

If any other cases spring to mind (other than Miss Piggy et al.), please pass them along.

Cheers,
Adam





Date: Wed, 5 Feb 2014 15:31:01 +0000
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ZOOARCH] Cases of pig-naming
To: [log in to unmask]

Hi Adam, 

Again I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for, but the Soviet version of Winnie the Pooh, Vinni Puhk (Âèííè-Ïóõ) renames Piglet as Pyatachok (Ïÿòà÷îê) which apparently translates as a five copek coin. I'm sure someone more familiar with Soviet culture would be better able to explain this renaming. 

Best, 

Ashleigh

Ashleigh Haruda
Graduate Research Student
Department of Archaeology
University of Exeter
Laver Building, North Park Road
Exeter EX4 4QE


On Wed, Feb 5, 2014 at 1:17 PM, Adam Allentuck <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Hello all,

Do you know of any ethnographic or epigraphic cases that report descriptive or anthropomorphic names assigned to individual pigs?

Best regards,
Adam Allentuck