Yeah, but it doesn't hold. Too many other cultures of the time ate pig. They didn't have a problem with trichinosis for the same reason we don't have that problem now-- fire. Marvin takes up this issue in the book I named.
Basically, pigs eat the same things we eat. Raising a pig is essentially giving it food your kids could eat. The same with dogs, but worse still, since dogs are mostly carnivorous. Pigs will, at least, eat veggie scraps and such.
If you get the organization right, you can raise pigs and still end up with a net caloric gain. But such high organization doesn't work for a nomadic people. Pig ranching has never hit the frequency of cattle ranching for pretty much the same reasons. Squeezing a caloric gain out of the deal is much more difficult that squeezing such gain out of a cow. ( Modern cattle ranching is hellishly inefficient. Don't get me started. )
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[This message has been edited by John, 08-13-2003]
[This message has been edited by John, 08-13-2003]