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.

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.

boleadoras

[from George Gaylord Simpson's Attending Marvels: A Patagonian Journal, Macmillan, 1934]

The boleadora was the one great invention of the pre-Columbian Indians of the Argentine. A few boleadora stones may be found at almost any old Indian campsite, and they are common Indian relics throughout the country. We have already found several. The Europeans accepted this invention with great willingness and boleadoras are still in daily and almost universal use.

A boleadora consists of two or three weights or bolas strung together by leather thongs, which are usually plaited from the neck skin of adult guanacos. The Indian bolas were made of stone, with the thongs tied in a groove around them, and these are still occasionally used. Now, however the bola usually consists of a sewed, spherical leather bag with the thong attached at one end. The bag may contain a stone, or pebbles, or shot, or even mud. I have been told of an ostentatious gaucho who had fine ivory bolas, and of an Indian chief who struck it rich somehow and could think of no better way to spend his money than by buying hollow bolas of pure gold (which were, however, stolen from him the week after he got them).

Boleadoras vary a great deal but in this region three main types are recognized: the chulenguera, the avestrucera, and the potrera. As their names imply, these are primarily intended to catch young guanacos (chulengos), ostriches, and horses, respectively, but they are by no means confined to those purposes. In Comodoro I was told that one rancher had recourse to boleadoras to catch his children when a priest unexpectedly arrived at the estancia and he wished to have the children baptized. It is only fair to add, however, that the rancher himself denounced this story as a malicious and willful libel – he says that he did not use boleadoras but a lasso.

Each type of boleadora has one small bota, the maneja, which is held in the hand. The chulenguera and potrera have two larger bolas, in addition to the maneja. Each bola has a thong the length of which is about half the extreme span of the owner's arms, and the ends of these three thongs are tied together. Both types vary in weight following individual preference, but the chulenguera is lighter than the potrera. For very large animals oversized potreras are occasionally made with the three bolas together weighing up to five pounds. The avestrucera has only the maneja and one larger bola and the thong uniting them may be longer than the span of the user's arms.



In practice, a boleadora is whirled above the user's head and then launched at an animal's legs or neck. As it goes through the air, the bolas separate and whirl like chain shot, and if any part of the thongs touches the animal the rest of the boleadora effectually ties the animal up, and some animals will not run with boleadoras around their necks, even though apparently quite able to do so. The Indians hunted on foot with boleadoras, but now in hunting they are almost always thrown from horseback. Ordinarily the boleadoras themselves do not injure the animals at all – they are commonly used for catching valuable horses, as are lassos in our West (and also in parts of South America). For hunting, however, they do bring the animal to a stop so that the hunter can then walk up and cut the animal's throat. This is the common procedure in most of the hunting in Patagonia, and hunters seldom use firearms. Shotguns are used for flying birds, which are too difficult to catch with boleadoras, and most Patagonians have rifles; but, so far as we observed, these are more for display or for the pride of possession than for use, as they seldom have any cartridges for them and much prefer to use boleadoras when possible.

George Gaylord Simpson

indigenous pre-Colombian art

Click here to see samples of indigenous pre-Colombian art, e.g.:

indigent malnutrition

[from Merco Press, 11 February 2011]

Two more babies die of malnutrition in north Argentina: seven in 40 days

Another two babies died of malnutrition in the Argentine northern province of Salta, totalling seven so far this year. They all belong to indigenous colonies in this case from the Wichi community living under subsistence conditions in non fertile areas of the province.

One of the babies that this month would have been one year old died in a government hospital and was diagnosed “extreme dehydration as a consequence of gastroenteritis”.

The other case involves a two year old girl from the Los Baldes colony which apparently presented similar symptoms but no final diagnosis has been disclosed.

The two deaths which bring this year’s total to seven were confirmed by Dr. Enrique Heredia, Salta province government Social Medicine Director.

“We don’t want to brush the dead under the carpet: we now have seven indigenous babies dead in the last fifteen days because of malnutrition”, admitted Heredia.

At the funeral the aunt of the one year old baby Adriana said that “my nephew was healthy and rosy, but then he started loosing weight and was with diarrhoea so my sister took him to hospital. He was hydrated with serum and discharged on the same day”.

“Three hours later he was dead” said Marcos, the father of the child. On Saturday “we were going to celebrate his birthday with a treat of chocolate and party for which the family had been saving for months”.

Meantime in the Tartagal hospital in one of the poorest areas of Salta, six babies are being treated for diarrhoea and vomiting and another dozen remain under observation.

Heredia said that sanitary staff in ten different teams had already arrived to Tartagal and would begin checking the aborigine population.

who do you trust with a fragile ecosystem?

[from Merco Press, 11/30/10]

Museum suspends expedition to meet uncontacted tribes in the Paraguayan Chaco

London's Natural History Museum has suspended a planned expedition to a remote region of Paraguay after protests that it might disturb one of the world's last uncontacted tribes.

Anthropologists estimate that around 150 Ayoreos are still living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

Campaigners had warned that the expedition to the Chaco region was likely to encounter the Ayoreo people. Contact might expose them to infectious diseases that could wipe them out.

The 100-strong expedition was due to set off in the next few days in search of new species of plants and insects.

The Natural History Museum said the trip would now be delayed while its partners, the Paraguayan environment ministry, consulted further with indigenous representatives. It said it took concerns about uncontacted tribes extremely seriously.

The museum added that the expedition to record the rich biodiversity of the Dry Chaco region was important to the future management of the fragile ecosystem.

The trip is one of the largest the museum has organised in many years.

The Chaco, a semi-arid lowland area of forest and thorn scrub that stretches into Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil, is one of the last great wildernesses of South America.

It is the only place in the continent outside the Amazon where uncontacted tribes are known to live. Anthropologists estimate that around 150 Ayoreos in six or seven groups are still living a traditional hunter-gatherer existence in the region.

The nomadic groups live in voluntary isolation, rejecting all contact with outside society. Hundreds of others have left the area in recent years as the natural vegetation has been cleared by farmers and cattle-ranchers.

It is through these settled Ayoreos that the uncontacted groups have made it known that they wish to be left alone.

Anthropologists and indigenous campaigners fear that accidental contact with the expedition would put the Ayoreo at risk of infectious diseases that could wipe them out, and drastically disrupt their traditional lifestyle.

police/indigens clash

[from Latin American Herald Tribune, 11/30/10]

Clash Between Police, Indians in Argentina Leaves 3 Dead

BUENOS AIRES – The death toll from clashes between police and Toba Indian protesters in the northern Argentine province of Formosa has risen to three after authorities said a second indigenous man was killed.

The violence erupted Tuesday near Colonia La Primavera, a town 170 kilometers (105 miles) north of the provincial capital, when police tried to clear a road that Indians had blockaded to demand the return of land.

Felix Diaz, the Toba leader who headed the protests, on Wednesday accused the police of having repelled the protest with the “intention of killing.”

“They never showed us a dispersal order. They didn’t even want to chat. They came with the intention of killing,” Diaz told the media.

“Knowing that there is a right that protects us regarding the lands from July 25, we’d been cutting the route up until (Tuesday). In those four months, we never had the chance to be visited by an official and (on Tuesday) what we always expected occurred: the violent eviction by the police,” Diaz said.

“The provincial government has a lot to do with this because it never answered our request for dialogue,” he said. “Justice in Formosa does not work.”

But provincial interior minister Jorge Gonzalez said that the clash came when around 100 police entered a camp very near the roadway and came upon a similar number of Tobas.

He said the Indians opened fire on the police, killing officer Heber Falcon, after which further violence occurred that resulted in the death of Toba activist Sixto Gomez.

Authorities on Thursday said that another Indian identified as Roberto Lopez, 52, also perished in the fighting.

Another Toba Indian is reportedly in a coma, while a police officer is hospitalized in serious condition.

More than two dozen Indians arrested over the clashes have been released in recent hours by order of Judge Santos Gabriel Garzon, judiciary officials said Thursday.

Garzon “ordered the release of 27 detainees (on Wednesday) and (Thursday morning) set free the last of the Indians, accused of groping a police woman,” the officials said.

Following the clash, the Toba Indians lifted their long-running blockade of a provincial road near Colonia La Primavera.

Members of that community had been barricading the road for four months to demand the return of lands they say belong to them and from which they were evicted by the Formosa government to make room for a college campus.

The National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism has investigated allegations of abuse of authority in connection with the conflict, while a federal court had ordered the Indians to end the roadblocks.