- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: University of Texas Press; 1 edition (1 Oct 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0292769032
- ISBN-13: 978-0292769038
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 17 x 2.8 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,891,708 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
Narrative Threads
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"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
Product Description
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 Inka's records consisted of devices made of knotted and dyed strings - called khipu - on which they recorded information pertaining to the organisation and history of their empire. Despite more than a century of research on these remarkable devices, the khipu remain largely un-deciphered. 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.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Knot Words -- Incan Kuipus
26 Aug 2006
Format: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
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
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