The Cord Keepers ：Khipus and Cultural Life in a Peruvian Village ( Latin America Otherwise )

Publication subTitle ：Khipus and Cultural Life in a Peruvian Village

Publication series ：Latin America Otherwise

Author： Frank L. Salomon  

Publisher： Duke University Press‎

Publication year： 2004

E-ISBN: 9780822386179

P-ISBN(Paperback): 9780822333906

P-ISBN(Hardback):  9780822333791

Subject： K778.8 National Shi

Keyword： Quipu -- Peru -- Huarochirâi (Province) -- History., Quechua Indians -- Peru -- Huarochirâi (Province) -- History., Quechua philosophy -- Peru -- Huarochirâi (Province) -- Quechua Indians -- Peru -- Huarochirâi (Province) -- Social life and customs.,Huarochirâi (Peru : Province) -- Social life and customs., Quipu -- Peru -- Huarochirí (Province) -- History., Quechua Indians -- Peru -- Huarochirí (Province) -- History.,Huarochirí (Peru : Province) -- History., Huarochirí (Per

Language： ENG

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Description

None of the world’s “lost writings” have proven more perplexing than the mysterious script in which the Inka Empire kept its records. Ancient Andean peoples encoded knowledge in knotted cords of cotton or wool called khipus. In The Cord Keepers, the distinguished anthropologist Frank Salomon breaks new ground with a close ethnography of one Andean village where villagers, surprisingly, have conserved a set of these enigmatic cords to the present day. The “quipocamayos,” as the villagers call them, form a sacred patrimony. Keying his reading to the internal life of the ancient kin groups that own the khipus, Salomon suggests that the multicolored cords, with their knots and lavishly woven ornaments, did not mimic speech as most systems of writing do, but instead were anchored in nonverbal codes. The Cord Keepers makes a compelling argument for a close intrinsic link between rituals and visual-sign systems. It indicates that, while Andean graphic representation may differ radically from familiar ideas of writing, it may not lie beyond the reach of scholarly interpretation.

In 1994, Salomon witnessed the use of khipus as civic regalia on the heights of Tupicocha, in Peru’s central Huarochirí region. By observing the rich ritual surrounding them, studying the village’s written records from past centuries, and analyzing the khipus themselves, Salomon opens a fresh chapter in the quest for khipu decip

Chapter

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations and Maps

List of Tables

About the Series

Preface

The Unread Legacy: An Introduction to Tupicocha’s Khipu Problem, and Anthropology’s

1. Universes of the Legible and Theories of Writing

2. A Flowery Script: The Social and Documentary Order of Modern Tupicocha Village

3. Living by the ‘‘Book of the Thousand’’: Community, Ayllu, and Customary Governance

4. The Tupicochan Staff Code

5. The Khipu Art after the Inkas

6. The Patrimonial Quipocamayos of Tupicocha

7. Ayllu Cords and Ayllu Books

8. The Half-Life and Afterlife of an Andean Medium: How Modern Villagers Interpret Quipocamayos

9. Toward Synthetic Interpretation

Conclusions

Notes

Glossary

References

Index

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