[Gpdd] Miscellaneous Origin of Guinea pigs

[Mary Mentz]

This is all the information I can find on guinea pigs and there name and
origin.
The common guinea pig was first domesticated by the Inca of South America,
in what is now Peru. They continue to be an important food source,
subsisting off a family's vegetable scraps as a half pet/half future meal.
Guinea pigs are the dish of honor at some Peruvian wedding feasts and play
the role of evil-spirit collector in traditional healing rituals. 

Dutch and English traders brought guinea pigs to Europe, where they quickly
became popular as exotic pets. How they came to be thought of as "pigs" isn
t known exactly, but it is thought that some of the sounds they make
reminded people of pigs. This didn't happen only in English; the German word
for them is Meerschweinchen, literally "Little Sea Pigs" and the Dutch used
to call it guinees biggetje (Guinean piglet). 

The origin of "guinea" in the title guinea pig is harder to explain. One
theory is that the animals were brought to Europe by way of Guinea and
people came to think they had come from there. Another theory is they were
sold as the closest thing to a pig you could get for a guinea, an old
British coin with a value of 21 shillings (1.05 GBP in the modern decimal
currency). Since the Dutch name refers to Guinea rather than to the British
coin and the fact that the first guinea pig was described in 1554 by the
Swiss naturalist Konrad Gesner (more than a hundred years before the first
guinea was struck), the former theory may be more likely. 
 

 
 
Mary Mentz
Marynwill2006 at earthlink.net
www.teddybear201.blinkz.com