A is for Alpaca

An alpaca is a domesticated South American mammal, related to the llama and having fine, long wool. It is one of four New World camelids (the family to which camels belong). Alpaca derives from the Aymara language (yeah, if you want more information about that language, follow the link. It is one of only a few native American languages with over a million speakers—actually, Aymara has over two million). The word camel goes all the way back to the Hebrew gamal.

The alpaca is closely related to (in fact, descended from) the vicuña. Here's a picture of these wild animals, who inhabit the high Andes. The word vicuña comes from the Quechua, the language of the ancient Inca empire, which is spoken to this day by over eight million people in six south American countries.


The paco vicuña is a cross between the gentle, domesticated alpaca and the wild vicuña. The fiber from the paco vicuña is of such high quality and so expensive that it was once reserved for Incan royalty. For more information about the paco vicuña, check out this article.


The llama is the best known of the South American camelids. There is a cute story about how the llama got its name. I originally read it in the book Native Tongues by Charles Berlitz. The story goes that when the Spaniards first came to South America and encountered the llama, they asked what it was called (in Spanish “¿Como se llama?”) Supposedly, the natives were confused and repeated the word llama over and over, convincing the questioners that the creature was called a llama!

Whether or not I like this story is immaterial. It seems that the story is apocryphal. Apparently, the Quechua word for llama is a word that sounds like—you guessed it—llama. So when the Spaniards asked the natives “¿Como se llama?” obviously asking what the animal was called, the natives responded, “Llama”!

Speaking of “what is this called” gives me an excuse to write about names and naming. We often think of names as arbitrary labels stuck on things to identify them. In fact, names are often closely associated with the inherent characteristics of the thing named. In Hebrew the phrase we translate “to name” is literally “to call its (his or her) name.” The naming of the animals was the assignment of a Hebrew word reflecting the basic nature of each animal. It wasn’t that the name was an arbitrary designation given by Adam but that Adam called the name (i.e. identified the name) of each animal.

Moreover, when reading about the naming of people in scripture, we find that the process of naming is one of calling into being the inherent nature or character of an individual, either in consonance with an event associated with the birth or as a prayer or prophecy of the future of the individual. In many cultures, names are carefully chosen to provide the maximum possibility of a good and prosperous future.

These are just a few thoughts about naming, a subject about which volumes could be (and have been) written. For just one, check out Marcia Prager's wonderful book The Path of Blessing.

The fourth, lesser known, and wild South American camelid is the guanaco. The name derives from a similar word in Quechua.

A year ago, I posted a little recap of our visit to the Estes Park Wool Market, which we visited last year with our daughter, Hannah. It was a fascinating day. You can read about it here. Over the course of the past year, I have noticed that I receive many hits from people looking for information and/or pictures of the South American camelids. That had something to do with my choosing alpaca as a word to highlight, but also I just think these animals are the most fascinating creatures.
Incidentally, there is still time to make it to the 2008 iteration of the Estes Park Wool Market, which is being held this weekend, June 14-15, 2008.

A is for Aardvark and Aardwolf

Before reading halfway through the first page of my dictionary, I came across an etymology of a not uncommon word from an uncommon language and a word with which I was unfamiliar. We all know of the aardvark, also commonly known as an anteater. I didn't realize the etymology was from the Afrikaans language, a close relative of Dutch. Aard means earth, and vark is from varken, which is pig (it's just a short linguistic leap from Afrikaans/Dutch varken to English pork), making the aardvark an earth pig. Here's a picture of the porcine creature.

In the same entry, I read of another interesting African animal called an aardwolf, a hyena-like mammal. Unlike the hyena, though, the aardwolf is insectivorous, subsisting on a diet almost entirely of insects.

Orig: 5/17/08

Estes Park Wool Market

Last weekend, Kathy and I took our youngest daughter, Hannah, to Estes Park for the annual Wool Market. On exhibit were all manner of wool/fiber-producing animals. There were also workshops and demonstrations of such things as sheep shearing, spinning, and weaving. Everything was fascinating, but the highlight of the afternoon had to be the demonstration of working sheep dogs. We saw how the dogs are trained, as well as the variations in how the different breeds work the sheep.

We saw many varieties of fiber-producing animals, including sheep and goats—and even yaks and angora rabbits. Then there were the camelids, namely the llamas, alpacas, and paco vicunas. The paco vicunas—related to the alpaca—produce very fine wool that goes for $1000 an ounce. At one time it was reserved for Inca royalty. If you'd like more information about these interesting creatures, check out this link.

http://www.alpacaland.com/Paco-Vicuna.htm

As you can see, the baby animals are adorable. Hannah enjoyed seeing them and petting them. Many of the llamas were shorn in ways that made them look like poodles. As the owners or handlers led the llamas into the show arena, the animals looked like overgrown poodles!


We met a man named Switzer, who owns a paco-vicuna and alpaca farm called Switzer Land Farm (the link to his web site is the one above). Ironically (for those of you who know we are originally from Ohio), he was born in Cleveland. The logo for their farm comes from the Switzer Land Trail, a railway that was built to service the mining towns around Boulder at the turn of the 19th century. We had a nice discussion, and we each related how our families had made their way west and settled in Colorado.

One of the surprises at the Estes Park Wool Market was the presence of yaks. Although yak wool is not as fine as that of other wool producers, it is still quite soft and warm. There are fewer than 1,500 yaks in North America, compared to over 250,000 bison and 300,000 alpacas and llamas. For more information about yaks, check out the following web site:

http://www.hpy.bz/

All in all, our day at the Estes Park Wool Market was both enlightening and relaxing. We hope to go again some day. For further information about the event, here's a link:

http://www.estesnet.com/Events/woolmarket.htm