Religious restrictions on the consumption of pork

The consumption of pork by humans is restricted by many worldwide religions. This restriction is most notable for featuring in Judaism and Samaritanism before being widely adopted in other Abrahamic religions, such as Islam, and consequently becoming prominent around the world. However, it is thought to be rooted in a stigma that was already present in the ancient Near East before the rise of the Israelites—pork was prohibited in parts of Syria and Phoenicia, and the pig represented a taboo observed at Comana in Pontus, as noted by the Greek historian Strabo. A lost poem of the Greek poet Hermesianax, reported centuries later by the Greek geographer Pausanias, described an etiological myth of Attis being destroyed by a supernatural boar to account for the fact that "in consequence of these events, the Galatians who inhabit Pessinous do not touch pork."

In spite of the common religious stigma associated with pigs, pork remains the most consumed meat of any animal globally. With regard to Christianity, only certain sects that consider Jewish dietary laws to still be binding abstain from pork, including Seventh-day Adventists, Hebrew Roots, and Messianic Jews. Thus, the Christian-majority Western world is among the regions where pork consumption has historically been widespread, along with East Asia and parts of Southeast Asia.