They make up gifts, are used in customary social and religious ceremonies, and are often invoked in metaphors. They are also used in traditional healing rituals by folk healers (curanderos), who use guinea pigs to diagnose diseases such as jaundice, rheumatism, arthritis, and typhoid fever. The guinea pig is rubbed against the sick person's body and seen as a supernatural medium. Black guinea pigs are considered particularly useful in diagnosis - the animal can be dissected and its entrails examined to determine whether the medicine was effective.
These methods are accepted in many parts of the Andes where Western medicine is either unavailable or not trusted.
