  We point out that the existence of global symmetries in a field theory is not
an essential ingredient in its relation with an integrable model. We describe
an obvious construction which, given an integrable spin chain, yields a field
theory whose 1-loop scale transformations are generated by the spin chain
Hamiltonian. We also identify a necessary condition for a given field theory to
be related to an integrable spin chain.
  As an example, we describe an anisotropic and parity-breaking generalization
of the XXZ Heisenberg spin chain and its associated field theory. The system
has no nonabelian global symmetries and generally does not admit a
supersymmetric extension without the introduction of more propagating bosonic
fields. For the case of a 2-state chain we find the spectrum and the
eigenstates. For certain values of its coupling constants the field theory
associated to this general type of chain is the bosonic sector of the
Leigh-Strassler deformation of N=4 SYM theory.
