guinea pigs: meals, meds, prophecies

[from Wikipedia (mostly)]

The guinea pig plays an important role in the folk culture of many Indigenous South American groups, especially as a food source, but also in folk medicine and in community religious ceremonies. Since the 1960s, efforts have been made to increase consumption of the animal outside South America.

cuy being raised at home in Andean fashion

The scientific name of the common species is Cavia porcellus, with porcellus being Latin for "little pig". Cavia is New Latin; it is derived from cabiai, the animal's name in the language of the Galibi tribes once native to French Guiana. Cabiai may be an adaptation of the Portuguese çavia (now savia), which is itself derived from the Tupi word saujá, meaning rat. Guinea pigs are called quwi or jaca in Quechua and cuy or cuyo (pl. cuyes, cuyos) in the Spanish of Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. Ironically, breeders tend to use the more formal "cavy" to describe the animal, while in scientific and laboratory contexts it is far more commonly referred to by the more colloquial "guinea pig".

Moche guinea pig

The common guinea pig was first domesticated as early as 5000 BC for food by tribes in the Andean region of South America (present-day the southern part of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia), some thousands of years after the domestication of the South American camelids. Statues dating from ca. 500 BC to 500 AD that depict guinea pigs have been unearthed in archaeological digs in Peru and Ecuador. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped animals and often depicted the guinea pig in their art. From ca. 1200 AD to the Spanish conquest in 1532, selective breeding resulted in many varieties of domestic guinea pigs, which form the basis for some of the modern domestic breeds. They continue to be a food source in the region; many households in the Andean highlands raise the animal, which subsists off the family's vegetable scraps. Folklore traditions involving guinea pigs are numerous; they are exchanged as gifts, used in customary social and religious ceremonies, and frequently referenced in spoken metaphors. They also play a role in traditional healing rituals by folk doctors, or curanderos, who use the animals to diagnose diseases such as jaundice, rheumatism, arthritis, and typhus. They are rubbed against the bodies of the sick, and are seen as a supernatural medium. Black guinea pigs are considered especially useful for diagnoses. The animal also may be cut open and its entrails examined to determine whether the cure was effective. These methods are widely accepted in many parts of the Andes, where Western medicine is either unavailable or distrusted.

 cuy asado

Guinea pig meat is high in protein and low in fat and cholesterol, and is described as being similar to rabbit and the dark meat of chicken. The animal may be served fried (chactado or frito), broiled (asado), or roasted (al horno), and in urban restaurants may also be served in a casserole or a fricassee. Ecuadorians commonly consume sopa or locro de cuy, a soup dish. Pachamanca or huatia, a process similar to barbecueing, is also popular, and is usually served with corn beer (chicha) in traditional settings.

happy sad in South America

[from Adelina Bash @ The Santiago Times, 4 July 2011]

Chile among South America’s least happy nations, study finds

Though Chile has one of South America’s strongest economies, a recent study of happiness rates it second-to-last in the region, leading experts to assert that national happiness is not determined by a nation’s wealth or economic development.

The survey as conducted in Chile, Perú, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela.

Happiness in Chile was on par with happiness in the sample’s poorest country: Bolivia.

“Money does not determine happiness,” Pablo González Vicente, president of Cimagroup — the marketing analysis firm that conducted the study — said to El Mercurio. “What is more important is the level of inequality in countries: in general, the countries with the most equal distribution of wealth are happier than those with a lot of inequality.”

While there was little correlation between wealth and happiness, the study did determine other factors that appeared to influence national satisfaction.

People who live in warmer climates, for example, tend to be happier than those in colder ones, the study found. Within Chile, the cities in the warmer north were on average happier than those in the south, where the weather is much colder.

Overall, the analysis found that people were most satisfied with their family life and least satisfied with their financial situation.

Financial satisfaction, however, seemed to be determined not by the amount of money a person had, but instead by their expectations of what that money should mean.

For example, Venezuela, which the study determined was the happiest country overall, had a 56 percent economic satisfaction rate. Chileans, on the other hand, were wealthier but had a lower average satisfaction rate of about 33 percent.

Along with climate, family and finances, researchers found that happiness was influenced by a person satisfaction with his or her love life, health, job and physical appearance.

The importance of these factors varied between countries. For Chileans, personal finances were the most important; for Bolivians job satisfaction ranked the highest; and for Colombians and Peruvians love and relationships had the biggest impact.

“Even though we share the same language and may have similar histories, we are not the same,” González said of the results. There is no one indicator of happiness, he said. Instead, it seems, “every country has its own way of looking at life.”

lithium cartel

[from MercoPress, 1 July 2011]

Argentina is promoting the idea of an OPEC-like cartel for lithium

Argentina is promoting the idea of an OPEC-like cartel for itself, Bolivia and Chile, which together control 85% of the world's reserves of lithium, a key component in electric car batteries.

“In the near future and with our production at such a high level, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile will control the lithium market,” said Rodolfo Tecchi, the director of the technology and science promotion division of the Argentine Ministry of Science and Technology. “They could do it with a sort of OPEC-like arrangement,” he added.

The three countries, which Forbes magazine calls the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” would establish “control mechanisms for the sale of lithium carbonate, avoiding the lower prices that come with overproduction” he indicated.

Not everyone in the industry agrees, including the head of the Argentina chamber of mining industries in the province of Salta, Facundo Huidobro.

“The idea is a bit premature,” said Huidobro. “We have to make sure that investments have been made”.

Salta, along with the northern provinces of Jujuy and Catamarca, contain Argentina's largest lithium deposits.

Argentina has about 10% of the world's reserves, after Chile, with 25% in Atacama, in the north of the country, and Bolivia, which holds about half the world's supply in Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat.

Sales of lithium by Chile, on the other hand, represent 44% of worldwide revenue, followed by Australia, with 25%, China with 13% and Argentina with 11%.

A ton of lithium, worth $2,500 in 2004, now sells for around $6,000.

While lithium is also used for cell-phone and computer batteries, experts expect its greatest use will be in electric cars.

Aymarán new year

[from MercoPress, 21 June 2011]

Andean Aymará people celebrate the coming of New Year 5519

Accompanied by Andean highlands rituals in the citadel of Tiwanacu, to the north of Bolivia’s capital La Paz the indigenous Aymará will celebrate on Tuesday the coming of the Aymará New Year, 5519.

The citadel of Tiwanacu & the Gate of the Sun

People will converge at Tiwanacu as morning light dawns at 06:42 Bolivian time when sun rays will filter through the “Gate of the Sun” worked in stone, and one of the main icons of the Andean citadel.

“The cosmic rays radiate much positive energy, an omen that the coming year is going to be a good one” proclaimed Cesar Cocarico, governor of La Paz County and member of the Aymara culture, the most extended to the west of Bolivia, south of Peru and north of Chile and Argentina.

In all Aymará villages in South America ceremonies and rituals will be held to celebrate the coming of Willka Kuti which means the Return of the Sun.

Bolivia’s first indigenous president Evo Morales to further promote the Indian roots of the country declared June 21st a national holiday which in the calendar figures as the “Andean and Amazon Year”, thus guaranteeing celebrations by the 36 different indigenous groups of the country.

The arrival of the year 5519 coincides with the winter solstice in the southern hemisphere. In the west of Bolivia the celebration is “Willka Kuti” (Return of the Sun) while to the east takes place the welcome of “dawn’s morning star”.

Tiwanacu

But the main ceremony takes place at the Tiwanacu citadel with shows of Andean music and an incredible display of indigenous wind instruments which animate the celebration before the sun turns up in the freezing dawn with temperatures fringing 6 degrees below zero.

The Tiwanacu citadel dates back 1.400 years BC and is made up of seven main constructions Kalasasaya, Pirámide de Akapana, Kanta Tallita, Kerikala, Putuni, Puma Punku and Templete, which is semi tunnelled.

Bolivian anthropologists point out that the citadel is not only a grandiose monument because of its stone constructions, but also because of its farming techniques with the “Sucakollo”, an artisanal watering system based on stone canals which follow the terraces displayed one above the other.

Pachamama gets respect

[from John Vidal @ guardian.co.uk, 10 April 2011]

Bolivia enshrines natural world's rights with equal status for Mother Earth

Mamore River [photo from Wired]

Law of Mother Earth expected to prompt radical new conservation and social measures in South American nation

Bolivia is set to pass the world's first laws granting all nature equal rights to humans. The Law of Mother Earth, now agreed by politicians and grassroots social groups, redefines the country's rich mineral deposits as "blessings" and is expected to lead to radical new conservation and social measures to reduce pollution and control industry.

The country, which has been pilloried by the US and Britain in the UN climate talks for demanding steep carbon emission cuts, will establish 11 new rights for nature. They include: the right to life and to exist; the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration; the right to pure water and clean air; the right to balance; the right not to be polluted; and the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered.

Controversially, it will also enshrine the right of nature "to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities".

"It makes world history. Earth is the mother of all", said Vice-President Alvaro García Linera. "It establishes a new relationship between man and nature, the harmony of which must be preserved as a guarantee of its regeneration."

The law, which is part of a complete restructuring of the Bolivian legal system following a change of constitution in 2009, has been heavily influenced by a resurgent indigenous Andean spiritual world view which places the environment and the earth deity known as the Pachamama at the centre of all life. Humans are considered equal to all other entities.

Pachamama

But the abstract new laws are not expected to stop industry in its tracks. While it is not clear yet what actual protection the new rights will give in court to bugs, insects and ecosystems, the government is expected to establish a ministry of mother earth and to appoint an ombudsman. It is also committed to giving communities new legal powers to monitor and control polluting industries.

Bolivia has long suffered from serious environmental problems from the mining of tin, silver, gold and other raw materials. "Existing laws are not strong enough," said Undarico Pinto, leader of the 3.5m-strong Confederación Sindical Única de Trabajadores Campesinos de Bolivia, the biggest social movement, who helped draft the law. "It will make industry more transparent. It will allow people to regulate industry at national, regional and local levels."

Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca said Bolivia's traditional indigenous respect for the Pachamama was vital to prevent climate change. "Our grandparents taught us that we belong to a big family of plants and animals. We believe that everything in the planet forms part of a big family. We indigenous people can contribute to solving the energy, climate, food and financial crises with our values," he said.

Little opposition is expected to the law being passed because President Evo Morales's ruling party, the Movement Towards Socialism, enjoys a comfortable majority in both houses of parliament.

However, the government must tread a fine line between increased regulation of companies and giving way to the powerful social movements who have pressed for the law. Bolivia earns $500m (£305m) a year from mining companies which provides nearly one third of the country's foreign currency.

In the indigenous philosophy, the Pachamama is a living being.

The draft of the new law states: "She is sacred, fertile and the source of life that feeds and cares for all living beings in her womb. She is in permanent balance, harmony and communication with the cosmos. She is comprised of all ecosystems and living beings, and their self-organisation."

Ecuador, which also has powerful indigenous groups, has changed its constitution to give nature "the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution". However, the abstract rights have not led to new laws or stopped oil companies from destroying some of the most biologically rich areas of the Amazon.

Coping with climate change

Bolivia is struggling to cope with rising temperatures, melting glaciers and more extreme weather events including more frequent floods, droughts, frosts and mudslides.

Research by glaciologist Edson Ramirez of San Andres University in the capital city, La Paz, suggests temperatures have been rising steadily for 60 years and started to accelerate in 1979. They are now on course to rise a further 3.5-4C over the next 100 years. This would turn much of Bolivia into a desert.

glaciologist Edson Ramirez [photo by Dado Galdieri]

Most glaciers below 5,000m are expected to disappear completely within 20 years, leaving Bolivia with a much smaller ice cap. Scientists say this will lead to a crisis in farming and water shortages in cities such as La Paz and El Alto.

Evo Morales, Latin America's first indigenous president, has become an outspoken critic in the UN of industrialised countries which are not prepared to hold temperatures to a 1C rise.