A History of the Khipu

This book presents an interdisciplinary history of the khipu from pre-Hispanic times through 1650, based on archaeological evidence and published and unpublished historical sources.

Galen Brokaw (Author)

9780521197793, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 15 March 2010

320 pages, 49 b/w illus. 2 maps
23.5 x 16.2 x 2.3 cm, 0.59 kg

This book begins by proposing a theoretical model that reconciles orality-literacy studies and media theory in order to avoid the specious dichotomization of societies into those with and those without writing. The more relevant issue is the way in which a given society distributes semiotic functions among the various media that it employs and the forms of economic and political integration within which such media function. This theoretical model then informs a history of the Andean khipu from pre-Columbian times through the first 120 years of the colonial period. The first half of the book examines early Andean media and their socioeconomic and political contexts, culminating with the emergence of Wari and subsequently Inca khipu. The second half of the book documents and analyzes the continued use of khipu by indigenous individuals and communities in their interactions with Spanish officials, chroniclers, and priests. The study corrects many common misconceptions, such as the alleged mass destruction of khipu in the late sixteenth century. Even more importantly, it highlights the dialogue that occurred in the colonial period between the administrative and historiographic discourses of alphabetic Spanish and those of native Andean khipu genres.

Introduction
Part I. Andean Media Prior to the Conquest: 1. Early Andean societies and semiotic practices
2. Middle Horizon media and the emergence of the khipu
3. The khipu and the Inca state
Part II. The Khipu in the Colonial Period, 1532–1650: 4. Khipu historiography and colonial chronicles
5. Spanish visitas and administrative khipu
6. The khipu and the colonial state
7. Ecclesiastical khipu and Spanish evangelization
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], History of the Americas [HBJK]