ABSTRACT
In many cultures people find difficulty in thinking about the role of animals. The authors have therefore decided to avoid beginning the examination of the guinea-pig's role in the cultural world of peasants by treating it as an exception where the common rule domestic space: name: no sacrifice is not observed. The guinea-pig acquires new meanings, too, when the people analyze the social context to which it belongs when the people compare it, for example, with other edible animals, such as cows, lambs and pigs, and with non-edible animals, such as dogs and cats. The model of cultural complexity, therefore, needs to clearly distinguish those social contexts in which guinea-pigs are used from those in which they are not. Likewise, when a family goes on a pilgrimage, with the aim of fulfilling a promise or of calling on the Virgin or on saints, it is common to make an 'offering' of guinea-pigs.
