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Khipu Archives: Duplicate Accounts and Identity Labels in the Inka Knotted String Records

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Khipu Archives: Duplicate Accounts and Identity Labels in the Inka Knotted String Records Khipu Archives: Duplicate Accounts and Identity Labels in the Inka Knotted String Records The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Urton, Gary. 2005. “Khipu Archives: Duplicate Accounts and Identity Labels in the Inka Knotted String Records.” Latin American Antiquity 16 (02) (June): 147–167. doi:10.2307/30042809. Published Version doi:10.2307/30042809 Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:33702053 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA KHIPU ARCHIVES: DUPLICATE ACCOUNTS AND IDENTITY LABELS IN THE INKA KNOTTED STRING RECORDS Gary Urton Accountsfrom the Spanish chronicles regardingInka record-keepingpractices by means of the knottedstring devices called khipu ("knot") indicate that these accounts were compiled in a system of "checks and balances." Each communityin the empire had a minimumoffour khipu accountants, all of whom are said by the chronicler Garcilaso de la Vegato 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 matchingkhipu accounts has beenfacilitated by the recent developmentof a khipu database at Harvard University.It is argued that certain three-termnumerical 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 informationrecorded in this set of khipu. The long-range objective of this research is to investigate the informationrecorded on khipufrom various provenience zones around theformer Inka Empire that may representthe remains of khipu archives. Relatos en las cronicas espaiiolas relativas a la prdicticaInka de mantenimientode registrospor medio de dispositivos de cordeles anudados denominadoskhipu ("nudo") indican que estos eran recopiladosdentro de un sistema de "controlesy ba- lances." Cada comunidaden el imperioposeia un minimode cuatro "contadores"o registradoresde khipu,todos los cuales, segin relata cronista Garcilaso de la Vega,llevaban y mantenianlos mismos registros.Este estudio examinadiversos ejemp- los afines y de concordanciacompartida, identificados entre conjuntosde dos o tres ejemplaresde khipu.La identificacidnde registrosde khipucon afinidady concordanciaha sido considerablementefacilitadapor el recientedesarrollo de una base de datos en la Universidadde Harvard.Se plantea que ciertas secuencias numdricasde tres elementos registradasen un con- junto de tres khipus afines de Chachapoyasen el norte del Peru',representan un tipo de significadornumerico que podrian haberfungido o desempentadocomo r6tulos de identidadde la informacidnregistrada en este conjuntode khipus.El objetivo a largo plazo de esta investigaciones la de averiguar la informacidnregistrada en ejemplaresde khipude diversas zonas del antiguo ImperioInka, que pudiesen representarlos remanentesde archivos de khipu. neintriguing claim made by the chronicler village andfor each sortof calculation,so as of Inka life, Garcilasode la Vega, regard- to avoidfaults that might occur if therewere O ing Inkarecord keeping is thatthe knotted- few,saying that if therewere a numberof them, stringdevices known as khipu("knot") were used they would either all be at fault or none of in a system of checks andbalances. This systemis them [1966 (1609):331;my emphasis]. explainedby Garcilasoas follows: How are we to understandthe meaningof Gar- Although the quipucamayus [khipu- cilaso's claim? For instance, does his statement makers/keepers]were as accurateand honest mean that the four to 30 (or more) khipukeepers as we have said, theirnumber in each village in a given village kept exactly the same records, was in proportionto its population,and how- using the same recording principles and proce- eversmall, it hadat leastfour and so upwards dures?Who would have collated, compared,and to twenty or thirty. They all kept the same (if necessary)corrected the variousaccounts? Was records,and although one accountant or scribe all the informationrecorded on each of thesekhipu wasall thatwould have been necessary to keep duplicatedexactly andcompletely on otherkhipu, them,the Incas preferred to haveplenty in each or mightany two relatedkhipu have contained only Gary Urton N Departmentof Anthropology,Peabody Museum 58B, 11 Divinity Avenue, HarvardUniversity, Cambridge, MA 02138-2019 ([email protected]). Latin AmericanAntiquity, 16(2), 2005, pp. 147-167 Copyright@2005 by the Society for AmericanArchaeology 147 148 LATINAMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 16, No. 2, 2005 partialor perhaps overlapping accounts? If we were analysis, I will reflect on how this materialmay to identify what we thoughtwere matchingkhipu relate to what Garcilasohad to say in the account accounts,how could we be certainthat this resulted cited earlierconcerning the multiplicityof record from two differentindividuals recording the same keepersin Inkaadministration and what these prac- informationas opposedto one khipukeeper copy- tices suggestabout the controland manipulation of ing his own account,or even a studentcopying an informationin the empire. accountof a more experiencedrecord keeper? I should clarifythat when I discuss "matching These arejust a few of the manyquestions that khipu,"I amreferring primarily to correspondences arisefrom a considerationof Garcilaso'sstatements in the numericalinformation encoded (i.e., knot- aboutInka record-keeping practices. While students ted) into the cordsof two or threedifferent khipu. of thekhipu have long been awareof thechecks and As has been understoodsince the earlyyears of the balances aspect of Inka khipu recordkeeping, no last century (Locke 1923), the majorityof Inka one to date has paid much attentionto this critical khipu have knots tied into their stringsin hierar- administrativepractice. I will addressthis lacunain chicaltiers that represent increasingly higher pow- khipu studies by consideringseveral examples of ers in the Inka decimal system of accounting khipuaccounts that seem to containif not the same, (Ascher and Ascher 1997; Urton 1997, 2003). In thenvery similardata, and that may, therefore, rep- additionto such knot-basedindicators of numeri- resent surviving examples of the administrative cal values,however, there are severalother means apparatusand practicesattested to in Garcilaso's wherebythe khipu keepers recorded other, or mod- statement.In the courseof this study,we may also ifying, types of information.These additionalsign be ablefor the firsttime to say somethingfairly con- featuresinclude color (bothof camelidhair and of crete about the use of "identitylabels" in khipu differentlycolored cotton), as well as severalforms accounts.We will encountersuch constructionsin of variationand patterningof khipu construction a set of threeduplicate, or matching,khipu samples features, such as material (primarilycamelid or from Chachapoyas,northern Peru. cotton)differences and directional variation in spin- My interestin pursuingthe topic of checks and ning, plying, knotting,and attachingkhipu cords balancesin the Inkakhipu arose from a rathersur- (see Conklin2002; Urton 1994, 2003). We do not prising developmentin a projectthat I am direct- yet understandwhat specific meanings might have ing at Harvard University, which is aimed at been attachedto any one of these latterelements, creatinga searchablekhipu database.' This project, nor of how they might, singly or in combination, which is underthe day-to-daydirection of Carrie have signedmeanings or values in the khipuinfor- Brezine (a mathematician,weaver, and database mation system.3Therefore, although I will occa- manager),is aimedat producing a databasethat can sionally discuss color similaritiesand differences, be queriedfor patternsamong numerous different my primary-and certainlyinitial-focus herewill khipufeatures, such as numbers,colors, anddirec- be on the examination of numerical matches tional variationsin the spin, ply, attachment,and between khipusamples. knotting of strings.A query of some of the first The largerobjective of this studyis to articulate khiputhat were entered into the database-22 sam- andbegin to developan explicitly archival approach ples discoveredat the Lake of the Condorssite, in to the study of the Inkakhipu. Such an approach, Chachapoyas, northern Peru-revealed an whichwas first(to my knowledge)proposed by the extremelyinteresting match of primarilynumeri- greatItalian-Peruvian student of the khipu,Carlos cal informationamong three different khipu. I will Radicatidi Primeglio(1949-50; see Urton2005),4 laterpresent the details of this match.At the time wouldfocus attentionon bringingtogether for com- of our discovery of khipu matches from Lake of parative analysis samples with common prove- the Condors,I was unawareof otherexamples of nance, or ones that actuallyderive from the same this phenomenonin the khipucorpus. However, I archaeological context. The value of such an subsequentlybecame awareof several additional approachwill be that it will (a) encouragecross- matches,and my objectivehere is to describeand collection study of samples with common prove- analyze the examples that are known to me at the nancein museumsaround the world,(b) encourage presenttime.2 On the basis of
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