Announcing My New Book
Who Put the Devil Into The Pig? (How Society Absolved Itself From Blame For Almost Everything)
I’m pleased to announce the publication of my book, Who Put the Devil into the Pig? (How Society Absolved Itself From Blame For Almost Everything).
The title of the book is a play of words and images. “The devil” in our title refers to society’s guilt or failures, while “the pig”, being Man’s oldest domesticated food animal, refers to society’s relationship with nature. To “put the devil in the pig”, therefore, is an allegory that refers to assigning society’s guilt to nature, i.e. absolving human society of guilt for our failures through history.
Who Put the Devil in the Pig? is my first book, and I would sincerely appreciate all comments! It is a nonfiction social history that combines anthropology, political history, law, and economics to explain how throughout history societies sought scapegoats through which guilt (i.e. evil) could be punished, especially when Man’s laws, institutions and cultures were not yet robust enough to directly confront transgressors.
The relationship between Man’s social systems and the laws of nature has grown through many phases and, shall we say, “trials”. The book reveals how, in the beginning of that relationship, the domestication of food animals introduced Man to economic concepts such as capital gains and compound interest, and then to social concepts such as inclusion, social class and hierarchy. (Both professional and amateur investors will be interested to know how the concept of compound interest evolved.)
Of course, being our earliest domesticated food animal, the pig became a social symbol and economic asset ever since the dawn of society. So when early conflicts between societies escalated into existential conflicts between values, the pig was a natural candidate to be society’s first and most enduring scapegoat. The pig was society’s perfect representative for nature, an excellent proxy for the evils in society.
The book delves into prehistory and recorded history to tell colorful stories of how animals (especially pigs) were used in animal court trials; as horrific physical and psychological weapons of war; as entrapment for heretics during the Inquisition; as unwitting players in the Underground Railroad; in cold war politics; and even in a country’s revolution for independence. Using riveting stories to illustrate society’s religious, legal, social and political issues, Who Put the Devil in the Pig? explains and also debunks many of our most widely held myths in anthropology and social history, revealing new insights on today’s most urgent environmental and governance issues.
However, through the ages what could be called “the arc of social evolution” has defined our progression from the practice of blaming nature for our shortcomings to today’s more sophisticated and inclusive relationship with nature. The book explains how human society eventually “evolved” beyond needing scapegoats from nature and how our relationship with the environment has always been a reflection of the relationship between human beings. As such, human society is now redefining its relationship with the environment. This is a refinement of the Anthropocene, a redefinition based on incorporating nature in our governance systems. The new definition places governance at the ideological center of the concept of the Anthropocene.
Who Put the Devil Into The Pig? is my first book. It is independently published and can be found on Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com
Please share this announcement widely!
Thank you!
Bertrand Laurent