Narrative Threads: Accounting and Recounting in Andean Khipu (Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Series in Latin American and Latino Art and Culture) [Hardcover]

Jeffrey Quilter (Editor), Gary Urton (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0292769032 | ISBN-13: 978-0292769038 | Publication Date: August 15, 2002 | Edition: 1

The Inka Empire stretched over much of the length and breadth of the South American Andes, encompassed elaborately planned cities linked by a complex network of roads and messengers, and created astonishing works of architecture and artistry and a compelling mythology--all without the aid of a graphic writing system. Instead, the Inkas' records consisted of devices made of knotted and dyed strings--called khipu--on which they recorded information pertaining to the organization and history of their empire. Despite more than a century of research on these remarkable devices, the khipu remain largely undeciphered. In this benchmark book, thirteen international scholars tackle the most vexed question in khipu studies: how did the Inkas record and transmit narrative records by means of knotted strings? The authors approach the problem from a variety of angles. Several essays mine Spanish colonial sources for details about the kinds of narrative encoded in the khipu. Others look at the uses to which khipu were put before and after the Conquest, as well as their current use in some contemporary Andean communities. Still others analyze the formal characteristics of khipu and seek to explain how they encode various kinds of numerical and narrative data.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A veritable encyclopaedia of the khipu, this volume pulls together new and groundbreaking work by the foremost experts, attacking the problem from a wide variety of perspectives and integrating analysis from historical, archaeological, and ethnographic perspectives." Thomas A. Abercrombie, Associate Professor of Anthropology, New York University

Review

A veritable encyclopedia of the khipu, this volume pulls together new and groundbreaking work by the foremost experts, attacking the problem from a wide variety of perspectives and integrating analysis from historical, archaeological, and ethnographic perspectives. (Thomas A. Abercrombie, Associate Professor of Anthropology, New York University )

Product Details

• Hardcover: 391 pages
• Publisher: University of Texas Press; 1 edition (August 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0292769032
• ISBN-13: 978-0292769038
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,413,823 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Knot Words -- Incan Kuipus, August 26, 2006

By 

Smallchief - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Narrative Threads: Accounting and Recounting in Andean Khipu (Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Series in Latin American and Latino Art and Culture) (Hardcover)

Over the past several decades scholars have proven without a doubt that the Mayans had a written language -- and taken great strides in deciphering it. Now, what about the Incas and the other pre-Columbian civilizations of the Andes?

This book consists of 15 essays by a dozen scholars about the Incan quipus (or kuipus if you prefer) -- knotted cords in complex arrangements that, everybody agrees, were used to record numbers and statistics. Did they also convey thought? Or in other words did they comprise a "written" language, albeit a very strange one in that their communications resembled a bird's nest more than a book? Were the quipus a mnemonic device only? Or could a narrative be transmitted from person to person?

These scholarly essays examine different aspects of khipus including their history, construction, mathematical theories of their meanings, and factors which might lead to their decipherment. It seems doubtful that we will learn to "read" khipus unless we have the luck to find one in a context that will suggest its meaning. However, it seems also that they truly did constitute a system of communication akin to writing.

I thought this book was fascinating -- although the essays are written in dry careful scholarly prose that can be forbidding. The Incas are one of the most mysterious of the non-Western civilizations and the study of the khipus is a real-life detective tale. Not the least interesting aspect of this is to realize that the Andean civilizations, isolated from the rest of the world, came up with unique -- often odd to our perception -- inventions and technology that worked for them. The khipu instead of writing is one.

Smallchief