“The Chicken or the Iegue: Human-Animal Relationships and the Columbian Exchange.”

Marcy Norton, “The Chicken or the Iegue: Human-Animal Relationships and the Columbian Exchange,” The American Historical Review 120, no. 1 (Feb. 2015): 28-60."In 1543, a Taíno man had been living in the mountains in the central southern part of Hispaniola for twelve years. Though fluent in Spanish and familiar with Spanish ways, he had fled to escape the oppressive exploitation of the encomienda. The man survived in the wilderness through a special relationship with three formerly feral pigs, two males and a female. The man and his pigs would go hunting for 'wild' pigs, in the same way Europeans hunted prey with dogs—one pig tracking, one seizing, and one assisting, with the Indian giving the final thrust of death with a make-do spear. Once the prey was killed, the man would preside over the ritual distribution of the carcass, as was done in traditional hunts in Europe with dogs, 'giving the interior parts to his companions,' while he made a barbecue for himself and salted the flesh for several days' consumption. When prey was not readily available, the man also foraged for roots and plants, which he ate and shared with his porcine company. 'At night,' wrote the conquistador-turned-chronicler Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, 'the said Indian went to bed among that bestial company, petting for hours one and then the other, devoted to the swine [la porcesa].' Tragedy ensued, …"