Jeffrey Quilter and Gary Urton (editors) 2002. Narrative Threads. University of Texas, Austin.
Narrative Threads is a collection of articles, all based on papers given at a round table discussion at Dumbarton Oaks in 1997. Dumbarton Oaks, for those of you who don't know, is a place where invited scholars debate and discuss and work in private on similar or related topics. This particular topic, that of translating the ancient Inka communication system called the quipu, is of more than passing interest; and the resulting text is characterized by exciting complexity and challenging ideas.
As I detailed in my article called Knotty Problems, the quipu is a "writing" system at least 500 years old and composed entirely of strings and knotted cords, one that likely included genealogical, astronomical, economic, and (possibly!) literary records of the Inka, and perhaps their predecessors. But it is a communication system without a Rosetta stone, and Narrative Threads is an exploration of the possible avenues of discovery.
As I detailed in my article called Knotty Problems, the quipu is a "writing" system at least 500 years old and composed entirely of strings and knotted cords, one that likely included genealogical, astronomical, economic, and (possibly!) literary records of the Inka, and perhaps their predecessors. But it is a communication system without a Rosetta stone, and Narrative Threads is an exploration of the possible avenues of discovery.
Thirteen scholars, including archaeologists and others from fields as varied as anthropology and mathematics, address the quipu question. One of the best things about this book, in my opinion, is that each of the thirteen writers in Narrative Threads applies his or her own background and ideas to the challenge separately. Since the study is a relatively new one, and since there is no established method of decipherment of corded symbols, the authors are free to apply ethnography and mathematics and historical documentation and information theory and a wide variety of other ideas in as many pathways as there are authors. The result is a compelling argument that the strings and knots and colors certainly have meaning, whether or not they will be eventually translated.
While the book is intended primarily for scholars who've studied Peru and South American archaeology, as a generalist I found it stimulating and provocative. I look forward to a long and interesting search for the code of the ancient Inka peoples.
While the book is intended primarily for scholars who've studied Peru and South American archaeology, as a generalist I found it stimulating and provocative. I look forward to a long and interesting search for the code of the ancient Inka peoples.
