Journal of Interdisciplinary History

Traditionally, writing has served as a benchmark of civilization that divided human societies into two groups, those with and those without history. Furthermore, according to most scholars, the development of extended, complex sociopolitical organizations is not possible without writing. In the sixteenth century, indigenous American states, such as the Aztec and Inca empires, have always presented certain problems in this regard. Although these sociopolitical organizations were highly complex, they did not possess writing as normally deªned. The Aztecs used a form of pictography, but the Incas did not have a medium that corresponded so easily with writing. This problem may be solved in one of two ways: (1) by modifying the theory about the necessity of writing for the development of complex political systems; or (2) by claiming that the Andeans had their own form of writing. The second solution normally, although not always, includes a redeªnition of writing. Both solutions must take into account the system of knotted, colored strings known as the khipu (also spelled quipu), and both, in their various articulations, require their own deªnitions of the nature of the medium-that is to say, the nature of khipu semiosis.

American Anthropologist

Khipus are knotted-cord devices once used in the Andes for communication and recording information. Although numbers can be read on many khipus, it is unknown how other forms of data may have been recorded on the strings. Scholars currently debate whether elements of cord construction, such as the direction of ply, signified meaning on khipus and, if so, how. Testimony from an Aymara-speaking khipu maker, collected in 1895 by Max Uhle and recovered from Uhle's unpublished field notes, combined with the analysis of his actual khipu provides the first direct evidence that ply was a signifying element in khipus. Moreover, the evidence suggests that ply signified through a principle of markedness in which S ply corresponded to the unmarked (more valued) category while Z ply corresponded to the marked (less valued) category.

2022

A study of the changing orthography for the Inka knotted-string recording device, the quipu/khipu.

2020

I-This course will explore one of the most remarkable, complex, and mysterious artifacts of the ancient Americas: the khipu (or quipu; Quechua-"knot"), the knotted-string devices used for record keeping in the Inca empire of pre-Columbian South America. The Spanish conquistadores and priests described this recording technology and its use in Inka administration in some detail; however, none of the Spanish commentators really understood how khipu recording and reading were performed. Recent studies (using an innovative mix of ethnography, ethnohistory, and computation/databasing) have revealed new insights into this hitherto mysterious system of record keeping, especially its grounding in the principle of binary coding. During the course of the semester, we will investigate such issues as: What were the precursors to Inca cord-keeping technology? Did khipu recording represent a system of writing? What were the principal sign-values used by khipu-keepers (known as khipukamayuqs-"knot makers/animators") to record information in these devices? How standardized were recording methods across the empire? To what extent did the structures and principles of khipu recording mimic the structures and organization of the Inka Empire itself? How did khipu recording compare to the writing/recording systems of other ancient civilizations, such as those of ancient Egypt, Sumeria, China and the Maya? And what became of the practice of recording on knotted cords following the Spanish conquest? Students will have the opportunity to make khipus, in order to understand how these remarkable objects were made and used, and we will study khipu samples in the Peabody Museum. Students will write a research paper on a topic worked out in consultation with the professor.

Computer Music Journal

A khipu is an artifact used in the ancient Inca Empire and previous Andean societies to process and transmit statistical and narrative information. It is known as one of the first textile computers, a tangible interface encrypted in knots and strings made of cotton and wool. This system was widely used until the Spanish colonization that banned and destroyed many of the existing khipus. This article presents the creation process of the Electronic_Khipu_, a new interface for musical expression. It takes the form of a MIDI controller, inspired by the original Incan device. The Khipu has been converted into an instrument for interaction and experimental sound generation by weaving knots with conductive rubber cords, thereby encoding musical compositions. The article goes on to document the implementation of the electronic instrument and evaluate its use in live performances. The research also explores the work of significant artists in this conceptual line who, from a decolonial perspe...

Latin American Antiquity, 2005

Accounts from the Spanish chronicles regarding Inka record-keeping practices by means of the knotted string devices called khipu (“knot”) indicate that these accounts were compiled in a system of “checks and balances.” Each community in the empire had a minimum of four khipu accountants, all of whom are said by the chronicler Garcilaso de la Vega to have kept the same records. This study examines several examples of matching khipu accounts identified among sets of two or three khipu. The identification of matching khipu accounts has been facilitated by the recent development of a khipu database at Harvard University. It is argued that certain three-term numerical sequences recorded in one set of three matching khipu from Chachapoyas, northern Peru, represent a type of numerical signifier that may have served as identity labels of the information recorded in this set of khipu. The long-range objective of this research is to investigate the information recorded on khipu from various p...

Autoctonía. Revista de Ciencias Sociales e Historia, 2017

Khipus are knotted-string devices that were used in the Inka Empire for communication and for recording information. We recently analyzed the names and associated khipu cords in a newly discovered hybrid khipu/alphabetic text from the Central Andes. Results indicate a significant relationship in the text between knot direction and a form of social organization known as moieties, in which S-knots correspond to the upper (Hanan) moiety and Z-knots correspond to the lower (Urin) moiety. This relationship suggests that knot direction was used to indicate moiety in Andean khipus and, as such, may represent the first decipherment of a structural element in khipus since the decoding of the number system in the 1920s.