Why the world has so many Guineas

https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2017/09/economist-explains-8

by pselbert • 9 years ago

51 28 9 years ago

governate• 9 years ago

This is one of those words you just avoid using, as an American, because it’s an insult to persons of Italian descent in the United States. That may be due to an association with some of the trivia related in this article?

kwhitefoot• 9 years ago

So how do you go about buying a guinea pig?

oblio• 9 years ago

Could I have that cute 2 months old Cavia porcellus, please?

mrweasel• 9 years ago

Denmark solved that problem by calling them "Marsvin" - Sea pigs. We then choose to also use that exact same name for harbour porpoise (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harbour_porpoise)

krallja• 9 years ago

Ask for a cavy.

ethagknight• 9 years ago

Are you thinking of “guido”?

jghn• 9 years ago

No, that's a separate slur for Italians. "Guinea" is also a slur for Italians: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs_by_ethnic...

eighthnate• 9 years ago

Guinea is also an offensive derogatory term for italians in the US.

a3n• 9 years ago

I don't get why this was downvoted. Maybe not enough old people here to remember when this was an actively used slur?

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=guinea&defid...

mikestew• 9 years ago

I’m old enough to tell you what I was doing when Kennedy was assassinated, grew up in the former world headquarters of the KKK (Indiana), and this is news to me. I vaguely recall that the term could be derogatory, but forgot who was supposed to be insulted.

jerrre• 9 years ago

I like the question, hadn't thought about it before and now I want to know. The article doesn't give me much answers though. Mostly seems to clarify the question.

jondubois2• 9 years ago

I would highly recommend Guineafowl. It's one of the very few birds I tried that tastes better than chicken.

mercer• 9 years ago

better than duck?

simonh• 9 years ago

They’re quite different, like comparing pork and beef. Guinnea Fowl is a white meat like Chicken but is more flavourful and gamey, a bit more like bronze turkey. You get a little more meat than on a duck but it’s not as fatty so can be a little dry depending how you cook it.

KozmoNau7• 9 years ago

Trick question, nothing is better than duck.

jondubois2• 9 years ago

I find Guineafowl better. Some people describe it as gamey but maybe it depends where you get it from (wild vs farmed) and which part of the animal you consume (legs and wings are usually gamey-er).

Both times I tried Gineafowl breast (in two different countries), it tasted like chicken but more fine, moist and buttery with a unique flavour. Sometimes chicken breast has a dry, almost grainy consistency; Gineafowl was more oily.

It did have its own slight unique flavor but I wouldn't describe it as 'gamey'; I think that even Duck is more gamey than Gineafowl.

On the gamey-ness scale of all the ornithological specimens I tried I would say:

Chicken < Gineafowl < Turkey < Duck < Quail < Pigeon < Partridge < Pheasant

If you're used to eating turkey a lot, I suspect that you might find Gineafowl to be more gamey than turkey but I think it's close.

lostlogin• 9 years ago

Glad they are useful for something. They have a ridiculous and annoying call and run in front of me as I bike.

grecy• 9 years ago

I spent a month exploring the country Guinea last year and absolutely loved it. Extremely friendly people, amazing landscapes and by far the best hiking in West Africa. Tons of waterfalls that make your jaw drop, tons of culture and extremely cheap. I loved that country!

Since Ebola virtually no tourists go there, and Lonely Planet does not even cover it due to "a general lack of interest" ! HA. They could not be more wrong.

Stories and photos: http://theroadchoseme.com/category/guinea

jpatokal• 9 years ago

Lonely Planet does cover Guinea? https://www.lonelyplanet.com/guinea

That said, they used to pride themselves on covering the entire world, including countries that weren't really commercially viable, but with the decimation of printed guidebook sales they've been pulling back for quite some time. IIRC the first place to get the axe was Micronesia, which gets next to no tourists, completely lacks the beaches that are the main driver of Pacific island tourism, and is frightfully expensive to get to and travel in.

(Source: I used to work there, but it's been a few years.)

ThinkingGuy• 9 years ago

These days, if I want a quick overview of an unfamiliar country, from a traveler's perspective, I tend to go to Wikivoyage:

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Guinea

xchip• 9 years ago

TL;DR

The article doesn't really answer the question, it just mentions how many different Guineas exist.

simplicitea• 9 years ago

It does; it stems from Portugal meaning black people according to the article. If I understood it correctly, it's some mashup of colony and black people. It's an artifact of early modern colonialism and zenophobia.

caio1982• 9 years ago

I can't access the article but it sounds bullshit to me; although the portuguese didn't mind at all being super racist towards their colonies. Guinea comes from portuguese Guiné, which has (so far) an unknown origin but historically described a long portion of sub-saharan costal land in Africa. In the region there used to be local powers called that because it would mean "warrior chiefs" or something in a local language. It's not exactly known if they were from Mali (whose city of Djenné traded with portuguese folks) or from Gana (another name related to the story and with uncertain origin).

dogruck• 9 years ago

Wikipedia has a good explanation of the etymology: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea_(region)#Etymology

Summary: It comes from an old Portuguese word for a subset of dark skinned North African people.

firefoxd• 9 years ago

I'm from Guinea... The one in west Africa...hmmm right there are two of them there. So Guinea Conakry it is.

I don't know the Western origin of the word Guinea but I remember someone jokingly telling a story when we were kids. He used to say when the french colonists docked at the coast, they saw nobody. They went deep into the land and found a river. On that river, they saw women washing their clothes. "What do you call this land?" The french asked. The word land sounded like their word for "men".

"Only women here..." (word for women in Soso is Guinée) "distracting you while the men steal your boats"

So there you go, Guinée/Guinea means Women.

Why the world has so many Guineas

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