Narrative Threads: Accounting and Recounting in Andean Khipu

13. The Continuing Khipu Traditions: Principles and Practices

The Continuing Khipu Traditions T H I R T E E N Principles and Practices Carol Mackey I N T R O D U C T I O N Few people realize that khipu—knotted cords used to record data—are still used in the highlands of Peru. Khipu were the principal devices used in the pre-Hispanic Andes to process information. Although khipu predate the Inka by at least four hundred years (Conklin 1982), they are associated chiefly with the Inka, who flourished from ca. .. 1400 until 1532, when the Spanish conquistadores toppled their empire. Although the Spanish chroniclers noted that the Inka recorded at least two kinds of information on khipu— statistical and nonstatistical—the primary function of khipu was to record statistical data. The kinds of data that were encoded on statistical khipu included information on astronomy (Guaman Poma de Ayala 1956); weapons (Calancha 1976; Cieza de León 1959); foodstuffs (Cieza 1959); manufactured goods (Cieza 1959; Guaman Poma 1956); and census data (Betanzos 1987; Cieza 1959). The Spaniards, however, also remarked that nonstatistical khipu existed. These were used for recording historical events and oral literature (cf. Cieza 1959). The Spaniards continued to refer to khipu as recording devices during the colonial period (1532 to 1821), while the earliest documented ‘‘modern’’ khipu dates to William Stevenson’s work in 1825. Over the centuries it has been the form rather than the function of khipu that has changed. Modern khipu are still composed of knots placed mainly on camelid fiber, but modern khipu are not standardized as they were in Inka times. The processing of large amounts of data is a complex operation that in- The Continuing Khipu Traditions 3 2 1 cludes the collection, storage, encoding, and retrieval of information. All khipu, whether Inka, colonial, or modern, could accomplish these tasks. Nonetheless, over the centuries, khipu have undergone changes in all of these facets. T H E R O L E O F T H E K H I P U A N D T H E I R M A K E R S Though khipu predate the Inka, the majority of archaeological examples come from that time period. Some 600 years have passed since the Inka rose to power, and during that time khipu have changed in their social role and their structure. This chapter examines the role of modern khipu, the individuals who recorded the data, and the objects they counted. Information about the use of khipu into colonial times comes to us from the Spanish visitas, or inspections (Julien 1991; Murra 1975, 1982; Pease 1990; Rostworowski 1990). We know, for instance, that the Visita General of 1549 followed a standard questionnaire issued from Lima, whose answers were often taken from data extracted from khipu by khipukamayuq, or khipu makers . The Spanish documents, however, do not always mention the use of khipu; but because statistical information was recorded as separate items, just as if counts were being ‘‘read’’ from individual strings on a khipu, it is thought that khipu were indeed being used. As John Murra, writing about the Visita General of 1549, notes, ‘‘they [the Spanish teams sent to evaluate population figures and resources] consulted the local lords and their khipukamayuq, who had continued knotting down the demographic and other quantitative data through almost a decade of armed resistance [to the Spaniards] plus seven years of colonial rule’’ (1982: 239). It appears that well into the sixteenth century men trained as khipukamayuq continued to record data much as they had during Inka times. Khipu users in colonial times were still men of responsibility and position, but it was a marginal position within the new Spanish regime. As Joanne Rappaport (1994) points out, status was accorded to those who had learned to read and to write in Spanish. In 1988 I interviewed Nieves Yucra (Mackey 1990b), one of the last of his generation to use khipu on the island of Taquile, Lake Titicaca. Several young men on the island asked me why I chose to interview Yucra when it was they who knew how to read and write. No special word exists in Spanish for either khipu or for the khipu user —the khipukamayuq. Khipu today are generally referred to by descriptive terms, such as ‘‘hilos de lana’’ (wool strings) or ‘‘hilos con nudos’’ (strings with knots). In the late 1960s, I interviewed eighteen men and one woman who 3...