The Guinea Pig: Healing, Food, and Ritual in the Andes - Softcover

Morales, Edmundo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816515581 ISBN 13: 9780816515585

Publisher: University of Arizona Press, 1995

Synopsis

The guinea pig pervades nearly every aspect of Andean life. Traditionally important in folk medicine, native religion and as a food source, guinea pig use continues to proliferate. Once a woman's domestic chore, raising guinea pigs today is a profitable commercial practice in Latin America—this once-sacred animal is now exploited as a source of cash income. As the drive to integrate indigenous peoples into the modern global market economy becomes a priority with Latin American governments, the implementation of new economic policies regulating guinea pig husbandry is aggressively changing traditions and values in the Andes.

Sociologist Edmundo Morales traveled back to his homeland in the Andes to conduct extensive research on the changes and continuities in the traditional uses of the guinea pig in his culture. Morales, a native speaker of Spanish and Quechua, easily ventured into many isolated communities and examined social customs centered upon the guinea pig. Although the guinea pig lives in the Andean home as would a family member, it is also serves as a special delicacy. Folk doctors employ the black guinea pig to determine the cause of illness—pressed against an ailing body, the animal reportedly squeals when it finds the source of disease. These are only some of the uses for the guinea pig in the Andean cultures of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.

A study of cultural traditions and changes, The Guinea Pig: Healing, Food, and Ritual in the Andes will be useful for social scientists, humanists, and policymakers, as well as for general readers interested in this unique aspect of Andean culture. The book records the cultural traditions of an indigenous people while demonstrating how participation in the global market economy can alter a way of life.

About this title

From Booklist

This odd but enticing book presents fascinating information unlikely to be found in any other one place. The guinea pig, called cuy in Spanish, ubiquitous in the Andean regions of South America, is an appreciated food source that also plays a role in folk medicine and religious practices. The book's abundant illustrations greatly contribute to points made in the text as Morales, born in Peru and now a university sociology teacher, explains in detail the natural history of the cuy, the methods of raising the animal, which ranges in venue from households to large farms, and the importance of cuy husbandry on local economies. And, to top it off, Morales also surveys cuy dishes. This visitation to Andean culture is as accessible to general readers as it is to students of Latin American civilization. Brad Hooper

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0816515581
• ISBN 13: 9780816515585
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 177