Skogsbeitets konge, 100% naturlig og mennesketsrespektfulle hånd

Abstract

Skogsbeitets konge, 100% naturlig og menneskets respektfulle hånd Om industrialiseringen av iberisk svinekjøtt og kulturelle konfigureringer av grisen og eikeskogsbeitene i sørvestlige Spania The King of the Forest Pasture, 100% Natural, and the Respectful Hand of the Human On the industrialisation of Iberian pork and the cultural configurations of the pig and the oak grove pastures in SouthWestern Spain

Race and Process: Certifying IberianPigs and Invisibilising Humans

“…We have been doing intermittent fieldwork in the comarca (administrative division) of Tentudía (in the province of Badajoz, in the Autonomous Community of Extremadura, Spain) since August 2017. Trips are organised in order to witness the significant moments in the social life of the pig: mating, birth, fang cutting, weaning, sterilising, certifying, montanera (the fattening period in the dehesa, an oak grove landscape see Simonsen, 2019), sale, transportation, killing, butchering, and curing. We also follow the different sociocultural public events associated with pigs, such as "Matanzas", the "Fiesta del Guarrito" in Montemolín and the International Agricultural fair in Zafra.…”

“…This is done explicitly: the association between a race, a geographical area (the Mediterranean), together with the highlighting of a (near mythical) deep historical continuity. It also gives the idea that the dehesa, its landscape and ecology has remained unchanged, and again the human hands that have shaped this landscape through centuries are being rendered invisible, presenting the dehesa as the space of the natural (see Simonsen, 2019). In short, the non-uniqueness of the deep historical roots of the breed is hidden, while simultaneously the history of its landscape is denied, consolidating an image of a stable unchanging natural product steeped in an unchanging natural environment.…”

“…Their by-products are superior, healthy, and exclusive. Such is, at least, one possible cohesive interpretation (what could be called the willed and inten-tional connotation) of the messages sent on varying registers, which forms the backdrop of this article (see Simonsen, 2019).…”