hanging/aging is, in a sense, letting it "rot" but only for a limited way for short period of time. allowing it to hang (ideal temp is about 42 deg.) allows bacteria to start "working" on the meat and begin breaking down the tissue, thereby making it more tender, the same is done with beef. they hang in the meat cooler for several days before they are cut up (skin off). in fact some types of meat are hung for weeks and they say that you wouldn't want to touch it with a ten foot pole (it becomes almost black with "decay") if you saw what it looked like after hanging that long, but boy is it deliciously tender.
it is hard to do properly without a cooler - you could always ask your butch to hang if for a desired length of time.