What are the two indigenous domesticated sources of meat in the Andes?
1 Answer
Before European contact, domesticated animals in the Andes civilizations were camelids (Llama and Alpaca), and Guinea-Pigs.
Explanation:
You might want to read Jared Diamond's book "Guns, Germs, and Steel", but his point that humans tended to domesticate any animal that was capable of being domesticated is quite valid. In the Andes of what is now Peru and Bolivia, the only local animals that could be domesticated were Camelids (Llamas and Alpacas) and Guinea-Pigs.
Llamas and Alpacas were such useful animals that -- like dairy cattle -- they might only be butchered for meat at the end of their working life. Guinea-Pigs had no other purpose but to be eaten. Wild game was scarce in the Andes, and hunting was largely reserved for nobles, and of course, the Pacific coast has rich fishing grounds.
