Pigs pigs pigs & even more about pigs

[Durian Fiend]

More than you thought was possible about pigs:

With the backing of the Pele Defense Fund, a nonprofit that defends native rights, Palama ended up successfully getting the charges dismissed in December 2015. At trial, a historian from the University of Hawai‘i, Jon Kamakawiwo‘ole Osorio, testified that “hunting pig is traditional and customary to Hawaiian culture, religion, ohana,” according to a court transcript.

Despite a ruling in Palama’s favor, there is some debate about how widespread pig hunting was prior to European contact. Osorio’s documentary evidence was limited. (Osorio declined to comment, and the Palamas could not be reached.) Palama’s style of hunting, known as dog-and-knife, is generally thought to have been introduced by the Portuguese. Moreover, prior to Cook’s arrival, native Hawaiians had largely kept their pigs corralled. After all, their irrigated taro fields and sweet potato crops were incompatible with free-range swine.

https://hakaimagazine.com/features/islan...ine+Weekly&utm_campaign=8a3ac31bc3-weekly-nov-1-2024&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0fc1967411-8a3ac31bc3-121612361

Interesting.  So the subsistence tradition is fairly new, perhaps only a couple hundred years long at most.  After the larger English pigs were introduced by Cook and went feral...