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Certain readers overseas (in fact the majority
of them) who may have come to Eivissa before as tourists or
are planning a trip here might be slightly surprised about
this week's topic, the first of another series. Suffice it
to say, though, that even if you have visited the island many
times in the past but have never heard of the importance of
pigs in traditional pagès Eivissenc (Ibicenco peasant)
culture then it is safe to say than you have not yet touched
the real Eivissa. The fact that a tourist driving his or her
rentacar along some of the more rural unpaved roads near inhabited
peasant areas of the island may commonly see herds of sheep,
less commonly herds of goats, but never any pigs, does not
mean that pigs do not exist here nor that pigs are not a part
of the traditional culture. Exactly the opposite - pigs are
of great culinary and cultural importance here, but form a
part of the ancient island culture that tends to hide itself
from outsiders, and it still does so today. Pigs tend to be
kept hidden, a normal situation for objects of great value:
the local population has learnt, after over 2000 years of
the island being raided from outside for its wealth - including
pigs, gold and women - that a 'low profile' is best kept with
these items.
The Eivissenc language saying in the title,
"Ric com un verga", refers back to wealth based
upon pigs. It could be translated, I suppose, as meaning,
"As rich as a Rockefeller", or as Croesus or as
Bill Gates or whoever. In Eivissa the term 'verga' refers
to a small whip, usually a 60cm or so long twig from an olive
tree, used to gently whip along one's pigs or one's horse
as a prompter or a guide. The original Joan March, from Palma
in Mallorca, the founder of the wealthy dynasty that founded
the Banco March (March Bank) that for several generations
has had branches on the island of Mallorca and on Eivissa
(originally only in Vila/Ciutat Eivissa/Ibiza Town), amassed
his first fortune through the judicious manipulation of the
local pig market. As a Mallorcan peasant youth he was regularly
seen bringing pigs to the market in Palma, and controlling
them adroitly with his 'verga'. As his wealth grew, so did
his fame, spreading across the waters to Eivissa where pigs
played a greater cultural role in an island with fewer resources
than Mallorca.
The typical porc eivissenc (Ibicenco pig)
was a beautiful creature, with fine black hair and a long
'furga' (snout). This long 'furga' was particularly useful
for 'snuffling' or 'truffling' out the delicious bulbs of
the plant of the same name. These bulbs, growing a few inches
underground from the plant's base, were the pig's favourite
food. Unfortunately these fine black-haired pigs are almost
non-existent on Eivissa today, although some are still kept
and bred on the neighbouring small island of Formentera. The
reason for their relatively recent disappearance on Eivissa
is due to a slight misunderstanding over the exaggerated value
of different types of pigs available from the Spanish mainland.
The black-haired pigs were widespread on Eivissa until the
1950s but by that time the island's isolation was beginning
to break down, slightly more money was beginning to circulate,
and it was then possible (or more easy) to import different
types of pigs from the Spanish mainland. The island began
avidly importing large white pigs, a commoner variety and
one, which fattens up more easily. This breed - and others
- rapidly replaced the traditional variety and a smaller red-haired
variety. Islanders thought this would produce a 'pig boom',
but older pagès now recognize that this change may
not necessarily have been for the better. It was a change
of 'quantity over quality' - common throughout the world.
For those old enough to remember eating the local variety,
the former meat and products were tastier than those from
imported pigs and their new descendants. The long black-haired
pig's meat was firmer and sweeter. Some were bred specifically
on Formentera for selling to Eivissa. In the typical Eivissa
way, this led to a certain amount of 'pig smuggling' between
Formentera and Eivissa, either to avoid 'pig taxes' that might
be imposed by the 'Senyors de Vila' ('the masters from the
Town') as the rural pagesos rather disparagingly called those
Ibicencos traditionally from Ciutat Eivissa, or to avoid a
ban on pig transport if swine fever had been confirmed in
the islands. The pigs were smuggled by fast boat at night
from Formentera to Eivissa (it is said sometimes the boats
hid on L'illa des Porcs - 'Pig island' - one of the numerous
small islands in between Formentera and Eivissa until there
was an easy moonlit night-time run to the southern Eivissa
coast. Once reaching the coast some of the pigs would be hidden
in special caves where they would be well fed until sold.
This would all be considered illegal by the 'Senyors de Vila'
but it was a time-honoured tradition that inspired songs and
brave deeds - and lasted well into living memory. I was very
pleased to meet, in 1991, the last of the 'Contrabandistas
des porcs' (pig smugglers), a man proud of coming from a lineage
of such dashing 'businessmen-adventurers'.
On Eivissa, pigs are not just pigs; they
have a cultural value above and beyond their nutritional value,
although the preponderance of nutrition from pigs far outweighed
meat from other sources on the island until very recently.
In 1995, Josep Antoni Tur Marí published his important
study on the evolution of local cooking in the 20th century:
around 1900 he estimates that 68% of meat consumed on Eivissa
was from pigs, that figure rising to 75% on Formentera. The
rest would have been from sheep, goats, chickens, hunted birds
and hares. There were, of course, no cattle on either island.
These figures would have remained relatively stable until
the 1950s. He notes that 23-25% of this was fresh pig meat.
This percentage would be considered normal by any Ibicenco
but might be thought slightly unusual by readers from, say,
England, where more 'fresh' meat from pigs might be eaten.
But the traditions on Eivissa are different. Here, pigs are
only killed at a certain time of the year and the majority
of products from the pig are traditionally processed in such
a way that they will then provide the main protein source
for an extended family for a whole year. This is not to say
that 'bacon' (which, combined with beans, sausages, fried
eggs and white toast provide the mainstay 'Full English Breakfast
served all day' for daring English culinary explorers to San
Antonio) or 'ham' form a traditional part of the diet - no,
that is from the mainland. Most of the pig was used to produce
the traditional Eivissenc forms of the sausage-like preserves
so beloved of pagès eivissenc in former times and today:
sobrassada, botifarro and botifarra. We will savour these
delicacies in a later article. Here I want to concentrate
more on the pigs themselves.
Most pigs on Eivissa today are still raised
in a relatively traditional matter - and that is why tourists
driving around the island hardly ever see them. The pigs raised
to eventually provide pagès with the preserved protein
source for the year are raised within special stone huts (often
now constructed of concrete blocks) and normally no-one outside
the members of the owner's extended family will see them.
Each family guards well the secrecy of the type and size of
the pig(s) which it is fattening up for the annual matança
(pig-killing) due to take place during February or March each
year, the cool season. Ses matançes are the most important
traditional annual rituals for the pagès population
of the island, the only annual event that groups together
each whole extended family, in the family house, re-establishing
family ties with those who may now be living on the coast
or in Vila/Ciutat Eivissa. 'Richer' pagès families
might have two cycles of matançes per year, the first
taking place during a two-week period in November, when a
pig would be killed to provide fresh meat over the winter
season - and also to make preserves. The second matança
cycle in February or March provide more preserved proteins
and the collection of the animal fats, etc, so necessary for
cooking purposes. These traditional in-house matançes,
although not as common as before, still occur regularly, and
still serve their ancient function of promoting extended family
solidarity and identity as well as providing culturally important
food. Such rituals are still such an integral part of peasant
life here in the islands that the official announcement of
the beginning of the annual matançes season was even
broadcast on the local Baleares islands TV news on 14th November
1999.
The preferred pig for a matança to
take place in a pagès house is a male pig, although
female pigs can sometimes be killed. There are culinary and
cultural difficulties with female pigs, however, as the fact
that they have monthly periods ("Se va de lluna"),
like women, poses certain problems. Ibicenco peasant women
do not work in the fields, nor cook, nor paint houses (another
traditional female activity) during the time they have their
periods. This type of prohibition is almost universal in traditionally
oriented societies around the world and it is not to be seen
as a form of 'backwardness'. Most societies around the world
have - or had (our Euro-American societies have 'lost it')
- such a series of prohibitions to do with female periods.
Although certain 'modern' academics or writers or scientists
might say there is no reason for such a type of prohibition,
they often do so on purely theoretical grounds, possibly never
having thought to look seriously into the topic. Producers
of computers have, though, which is why women working manually
on aspects of computer chip etching production in the computer
factories are either not allowed to do their work whilst they
have their periods or have to wear special gloves. In Eivissa,
if a female pig ('sa truja') is killed for a matança,
she is not killed during the time of her period - pagèsos
know only too well that meat or products from a female pig
killed during her period can have a bad smell and an acrid
taste, that it is difficult to drain the blood from the pig's
corpse and that the resulting meat is itself too bloody. Therefore
the killing of a truja is only done anywhere from two to nine
days after the period has finished - different areas of Eivissa
have slightly different time scales, some areas waiting two
to three days, some a week and some nine days. Moreover, during
the matança itself, no Eivissenc woman who has her
menstruation, 'sa mala setmana', will touch the pig or anything
to do with it.
Pigs raised for a matança are daily
given special food: types of traditional flour, fava beans,
dried figs, cactus figs, etc., to make their meat sweet and
to help them put on as much weight as possible. Other pigs,
usually females reserved solely for breeding purposes, are
just fed scraps. Nowadays Ibicencos can buy 'piensos', animal
food from their local Agricultural Co-operative stores, to
feed their precious pigs - and most now do so - but they acknowledge
that although this is easier than providing the traditional
diet for their matança pigs, the culinary results are
not as good. They say 'piensos' make the meat and pig products
blander and softer. Some of the matança pigs grow to
an enormous size. Next week we will approach their stone/cement
bloc hut and try and bring one out. You will be surprised.
With thanks to numerous Eivissenc friends
- and pigs - and to the work of Marià Torres i Torres.
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Copyright© Gary Hardy
(December 1991)
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Kirk W Huffman
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