To offset the length of time it's taking me to get anywhere with researching how the guinea pig got it's name in English, I started collecting fiction books with guinea pigs as a main character.
Now there's over 170 of the books, listed at: http://www.guineapigs.net.au
Saturday, 23 June 2007
Monday, 18 June 2007
Guinea pigs in art
There is a property in the New Forest area, England, called Breamore House.
If you visit go on a tour through the house, and when you're in the dining room, take a look at the painting above one of the doorways.
The painting is by David de Connick and it has a couple of guinea pigs in it.
From the time I saw that painting I started to note other paintings that included guinea pigs in them. The next place I saw a guinea pig in a painting was in the Museo del Prado. The painting was by Jan Brueghel.
See the collection images found with guinea pigs in them at:
Guinea pigs in art
If you visit go on a tour through the house, and when you're in the dining room, take a look at the painting above one of the doorways.
The painting is by David de Connick and it has a couple of guinea pigs in it.
From the time I saw that painting I started to note other paintings that included guinea pigs in them. The next place I saw a guinea pig in a painting was in the Museo del Prado. The painting was by Jan Brueghel.
See the collection images found with guinea pigs in them at:
Guinea pigs in art
Guinea pig in South America
A couple of books I can recommend to read for
information on the place of guinea pigs in
South American culture, are:
Morales, Edmundo. (1995). The Guinea Pig:
Healing, Food, and Ritual in the Andes.
The University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Archetti, Eduardo P. (1997) Guinea pigs: Food, Symbol and Conflicts of Knowledge in Ecuador. Berg Publications, New York.
information on the place of guinea pigs in
South American culture, are:Morales, Edmundo. (1995). The Guinea Pig:
Healing, Food, and Ritual in the Andes.
The University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Archetti, Eduardo P. (1997) Guinea pigs: Food, Symbol and Conflicts of Knowledge in Ecuador. Berg Publications, New York.
Why guinea pigs?
Why guinea pigs?
I've heard innumerable times: They're for children.
And: I had one when I was a kid. It didn't last long - it died.
I have a couple of guinea pigs and out of interest started reading about them on the Internet. Soon I read the same three ideas on how the name of "guinea pig" came into being. I thought surely someone knows the definitive answer?
I'm a librarian and I thought - I'll do a bit of research and find out for myself, and answer the question.
A couple of years later, and I haven't got any further to finding the answer to why they're called guinea pigs.
The journey has been fascinating - taking me to South America pre-Spanish conquest, to Elizabethan England, to the Renaissance in Europe, to Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel in Antwerp, to Conrad Gessner's history of the quadrapeds and to the Library of Congress in Washington DC in the United States and to the British Library in London, England.
Now I'm back in Brisbane - and still researching.
I've heard innumerable times: They're for children.
And: I had one when I was a kid. It didn't last long - it died.
I have a couple of guinea pigs and out of interest started reading about them on the Internet. Soon I read the same three ideas on how the name of "guinea pig" came into being. I thought surely someone knows the definitive answer?
I'm a librarian and I thought - I'll do a bit of research and find out for myself, and answer the question.
A couple of years later, and I haven't got any further to finding the answer to why they're called guinea pigs.
The journey has been fascinating - taking me to South America pre-Spanish conquest, to Elizabethan England, to the Renaissance in Europe, to Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel in Antwerp, to Conrad Gessner's history of the quadrapeds and to the Library of Congress in Washington DC in the United States and to the British Library in London, England.
Now I'm back in Brisbane - and still researching.
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