Inka History in Knots

Inka History in Knots
Author :
Publisher : University of Texas Press
Total Pages : 320
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781477312643
ISBN-13 : 1477312641
Rating : 4/5 (641 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Inka History in Knots by : Gary Urton

Download or read book Inka History in Knots written by Gary Urton and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2017-04-04 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inka khipus--spun and plied cords that record information through intricate patterns of knots and colors--constitute the only available primary sources on the Inka empire not mediated by the hands, minds, and motives of the conquering Europeans. As such, they offer direct insight into the worldview of the Inka--a view that differs from European thought as much as khipus differ from alphabetic writing, which the Inka did not possess. Scholars have spent decades attempting to decipher the Inka khipus, and Gary Urton has become the world's leading authority on these artifacts. In Inka History in Knots, Urton marshals a lifetime of study to offer a grand overview of the types of quantative information recorded in khipus and to show how these records can be used as primary sources for an Inka history of the empire that focuses on statistics, demography, and the "longue durée" social processes that characterize a civilization continuously adapting to and exploiting its environment. Whether the Inka khipu keepers were registering census data, recording tribute, or performing many other administrative tasks, Urton asserts that they were key players in the organization and control of subject populations throughout the empire and that khipu record-keeping vitally contributed to the emergence of political complexity in the Andes. This new view of the importance of khipus promises to fundamentally reorient our understanding of the development of the Inka state and the possibilities for writing its history.


Inka History in Knots Related Books

Inka History in Knots
Language: en
Pages: 320
Authors: Gary Urton
Categories: Social Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2017-04-04 - Publisher: University of Texas Press

GET EBOOK

Inka khipus--spun and plied cords that record information through intricate patterns of knots and colors--constitute the only available primary sources on the I
Inka History in Knots
Language: en
Pages: 320
Authors: Gary Urton
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2017-04-04 - Publisher: University of Texas Press

GET EBOOK

The world's leading authority on Inka khipus presents a comprehensive overview of the types of information recorded in these knotted strings, demonstrating how
Inka History in Knots
Language: en
Pages: 293
Authors: Gary Urton
Categories: HISTORY
Type: BOOK - Published: 2017 - Publisher:

GET EBOOK

Inka khipus-spun and plied cords that record information through intricate patterns of knots and colors-constitute the only available primary sources on the Ink
Signs of the Inka Khipu
Language: en
Pages: 217
Authors: Gary Urton
Categories: Social Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2003-08-01 - Publisher: University of Texas Press

GET EBOOK

In an age when computers process immense amounts of information by the manipulation of sequences of 1s and 0s, it remains a frustrating mystery how prehistoric
Letters of a Peruvian Woman
Language: en
Pages: 208
Authors: Françoise de Graffigny
Categories: Fiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 2009-01-08 - Publisher: OUP Oxford

GET EBOOK

'It has taken me a long time, my dearest Aza, to fathom the cause of that contempt in which women are held in this country ...' Zilia, an Inca Virgin of the Sun