Narrative Threads : : Accounting and Recounting in Andean Khipu / / ed. by Gary Urton, Jeffrey Quilter.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Texas Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• MitwirkendeR: Ascher, Marcia,; Ascher, Robert,; Assadourian, Carlos Sempat,; Conklin, William J.,; Harrison, Regina,; Howard, Rosaleen,; Hyland, Sabine P.,; Mackey, Carol,; Platt, Tristan,; Quilter, Jeffrey,; Salomon, Frank,; Urton, Gary,
• HerausgeberIn: Quilter, Jeffrey,; Urton, Gary,
• Place / Publishing House: Austin : : University of Texas Press, , [2021]; ©2002
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Series: Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Series in Latin American and Latino Art and Culture
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (391 p.)

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, twelve 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.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- PREFACE -- PART ONE BACKGROUND FOR THE STUDY OF KHIPU AND QUECHUA NARRATIVES -- ONE An Overview of Spanish Colonial Commentary on Andean Knotted-String Records -- TWO Spinning a Yarn: Landscape, Memory, and Discourse Structure in Quechua Narratives -- PART TWO STRUCTURE AND INFORMATION IN THE KHIPU -- THREE A Khipu Information String Theory -- FOUR Reading Khipu: Labels, Structure, and Format -- FIVE Inka Writing -- PART THREE INTERPRETING CHRONICLERS' ACCOUNTS OF KHIPU -- SIX String Registries: Native Accounting and Memory According to the Colonial Sources -- SEVEN Woven Words: The Royal Khipu of Blas Valera -- EIGHT Recording Signs in Narrative-Accounting Khipu -- NINE Yncap Cimin Quipococ’s Knots -- PART FOUR COLONIAL USES AND TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE KHIPU -- TEN ‘‘Without Deceit or Lies’’: Variable Chinu Readings during a Sixteenth-Century Tribute-Restitution Trial -- ELEVEN Pérez Bocanegra’s Ritual formulario: Khipu Knots and Confession -- PART FIVE CONTEMPORARY KHIPU TRADITIONS -- TWELVE Patrimonial Khipu in a Modern Peruvian Village: An Introduction to the ‘‘Quipocamayos’’ of Tupicocha, Huarochirí -- THIRTEEN The Continuing Khipu Traditions: Principles and Practices -- CONTRIBUTORS -- INDEX