The Herder–Cultivator Relationship as a Paradigm for Archaeological Origins, Linguistic Dispersals, and the Evolution of Record-Keeping in the Andes

This chapter explores an alternative proposal for the linguistic impact of Wari expansion: that it could in fact have been two-fold, dispersing both Quechua and Aymara simultaneously. To this end, it invokes the distinctive Andean institutions of ‘complementary asymmetric dualism’, to explore whether they might not have linguistic correlates too. Specifically, it looks to the wari–llaqwash dyadism between mid-altitude, maize-cultivating wari, hypothesized as speaking Quechua, and higher-altitude, camelid-herding llaqwash speaking Aymara.Anthropolog

Sin, Confession, and the Arts of Book- and Cord-Keeping: An Intercontinental and Transcultural Exploration of Accounting and Governmentality

Anthropolog

Mathematics and Accounting in the Andes Before and After the Spanish Conquest

In an article entitled “Western mathematics: The secret weapon of cultural imperialism,” the author argues that Western European colonizing societies of the 15th to 19th centuries were especially effective in imposing on subordinate populations the values of rationalism and “objectivism” – defined as a way of conceiving of the world as composed of discrete objects that could be abstracted from their contexts – primarily through “mathematico-technological cultural force” embedded in institutions relating to accounting, trade, administration, and education (Bishop, 1990).Anthropolog

From Knots to Narratives: Reconstructing the Art of Historical Record Keeping in the Andes from Spanish Transcriptions of Inka Khipus

Based on a close examination of Spanish translations and transcriptions of "readings" of Inka khipus (knotted-string recording devices) by native "knotkeepers/makers" during the sixteenth century, I make suggestions about the types of information that appear to have been recorded. While memory played an important role in the construction of full narrative renderings of the khipus, the transcriptions nonetheless suggest that the khipu signifiers contained a high level of syntactic and semantic information. It is argued, therefore, that the khipu recording system may have more closely approximated a form of writing than has heretofore been supposed.Anthropolog

From Middle Horizon cord-keeping to the rise of Inka khipus in the central Andes

Recording devices formed of knotted cords, known as khipus, are a well-known feature of imperial administration among the Inka of Andean South America. The origins and antecedents of this recording system are, however, much less clearly documented. Important insights into that ancestry are offered by a group of eight khipus dating from the later part of the Middle Horizon period (AD 600–1000), probably used by the pre-Inka Wari culture of the central Andes. This article reports the AMS dating of four of these early khipus. A feature of the Middle Horizon khipus is the clustering of knots in groups of five, suggesting that they were produced by a people with a base five number system. Later, Inka khipus were organised instead around a decimal place-value system. Hence the Inka appear to have encountered the base five khipus among Wari descendant communities late in the Middle Horizon or early in the Late Intermediate period (AD 1000–1450), subsequently adapting them to a decimal system.Anthropolog

De nudos a narraciones

A la memoria de Thierry Saignes y en homenajea su espíritu entusiasta y abierto a la investigación. El sistema de registro de archivo del imperio incaico, ha sido objeto de un enorme interés de parte de los estudiosos e investigadores que trabajan sobre los Andes, y esto desde principios de este siglo. El “sistema” o combinación de técnicas de registro y conocimiento –en efecto se basó en la manipulación y técnica de anudar las cuerdas, llamadas khipus (literalmente “nudos”), los cuales se co..

El sistema de orientaciones de los incas y de algunos quechuahablantes actuales tal como queda reflejado en su concepto de la astronomía y del universo

No presenta resumen

Khipu Archives: Duplicate Accounts and Identity Labels in the Inka Knotted String Records

Accounts from the Spanish chronicles regarding Inka record-keeping practices by means of the knotted string devices called khipu ("knot") indicate that these accounts were compiled in a system of "checks and balances." Each community in the empire had a minimum of four khipu accountants, all of whom are said by the chronicler Garcilaso de la Vega to have kept the same records. This study examines several examples of matching khipu accounts identified among sets of two or three khipu. The identification of matching khipu accounts has been facilitated by the recent development of a khipu database at Harvard University. It is argued that certain three-term numerical sequences recorded in one set of three matching khipu from Chachapoyas, northern Peru, represent a type of numerical signifier that may have served as identity labels of the information recorded in this set of khipu. The long-range objective of this research is to investigate the information recorded on khipu from various provenience zones around the former Inka Empire that may represent the remains of khipu archives. /// Relatos en las crónicas españolas relativas a la práctica Inka de mantenimiento de registros por medio de dispositivos de cordeles anudados denominados khipu ("nudo") indican que estos eran recopilados dentro de un sistema de "controles y balances." Cada comunidad en el imperio poseía un mínimo de cuatro "contadores" o registradores de khipu, todos los cuales, según relata cronista Garcilaso de la Vega, llevaban y mantenían los mismos registros. Este estudio examina diversos ejemplos afines y de concordancia compartida, identificados entre conjuntos de dos o tres ejemplares de khipu. La identificación de registros de khipu con afinidad y concordancia ha sido considerablemente facilitada por el reciente desarrollo de una base de datos en la Universidad de Harvard. Se plantea que ciertas secuencias numéricas de tres elementos registradas en un conjunto de tres khipus afines de Chachapoyas en el norte del Perú, representan un tipo de significador numérico que podrían haber fungido o desempeñado como rótulos de identidad de la información registrada en este conjunto de khipus. El objetivo a largo plazo de esta investigación es la de averiguar la información registrada en ejemplares de khipu de diversas zonas del antiguo Imperio Inka, que pudiesen representar los remanentes de archivos de khipu.Anthropolog

Animals and Astronomy in the Quechua Universe

Anthropolog