Gary Urton
Harvard University, Anthropology, Faculty Member
- Gary Urton is Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Pre-Columbian Studies in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard Universi... moreGary Urton is Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Pre-Columbian Studies in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University. His research focuses on a variety of topics in pre-Columbian and early colonial Andean intellectual history, drawing on materials and methods in archaeology, ethnohistory, and ethnology. He is the author of many articles and author/editor of several volumes on Andean/Quechua cultures and Inka civilization. His books include: At the Crossroads of the Earth and the Sky (1981), The History of a Myth (1990), The Social Life of Numbers (1997), Inca Myths (1999), Signs of the Inka Khipu (2003), and Inka History in Knots (2017). All of his books have also been translated and published in Spanish. A MacArthur Fellow (2001-2005) and recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship (2014-15), Urton is the Founder/ Director of the Harvard Khipu Database Project (http://khipukamayuq.fas.harvard.edu/) at Harvard University.edit
Several khipus-Inka knotted-string recording devices-were recently excavated at a storage facility at the Peruvian south coast site of Inkawasi, found buried under agricultural produce (i.e., chili peppers, peanuts, and black beans).... more
Several khipus-Inka knotted-string recording devices-were recently excavated at a storage facility at the Peruvian south coast site of Inkawasi, found buried under agricultural produce (i.e., chili peppers, peanuts, and black beans). These khipus contain a formulaic arrangement of numerical values not encountered on khipus from elsewhere in Tawantinsuyu (the Inka Empire). The formula includes first, a large number, hypothesized to record the sum total of produce included in a deposit, followed by a "fixed number," and then one or more additional numbers. The fixed number plus the additional number(s) sum to the original large number. It is hypothesized that the fixed number represents an amount deducted from the deposit to support storage facility personnel. As such, it represented a tax assessed on deposits, the first evidence we have for a system of taxation on goods in the Inka Empire. It is proposed that the size and complexity of the storage facility at Inkawasi prompted the "invention" of a kind of financing instrument-taxation-not known previously from Inka administration. We also consider , but provisionally set aside, the alternative hypothesis that the fixed values recorded on the Inkawasi khipus could have represented amounts of seeds set aside from deposits for the next year's planting. Durante las excavaciones de un complejo de almacenamiento (Qolqawasi) del sitio de Inkawasi, en la costa sur del Perú, se hallaron varios khipus-instrumentos de registro Inkas empleando cordeles anudados-asociados a diferentes cultivos agrí-colas (e.g., ají, maní y frijoles negros). Estos khipus presentan una disposición de valores numéricos que no se ha encontrado en otras partes del Tawantinsuyo (el Imperio Inka). Esta secuencia incluye un valor alto, el cual correspondería a la cantidad total de un determinado producto depositado en un almacén (qolqa), seguido de un "valor fijo" y uno o más números adicio-nales. Si se suman el valor fijo y los números adicionales, se obtiene al valor alto. Proponemos que el valor fijo representa un monto que era deducido de los productos almacenados en las qolqas para el mantenimiento del personal encargado y el fun-cionamiento de los almacenes. Ante esta evidencia de un posible impuesto a los productos almacenados, estaríamos ante las primeras manifestaciones de un sistema tributario sobre bienes en el Imperio Inka. Proponemos que, ante el tamaño y com-plejidad de las instalaciones de almacenamiento, en Inkawasi existió la necesidad de "inventar" un tipo de instrumento finan-ciero-el impuesto-desconocido previamente en estudios de la administración Inka. También podemos considerar como hipótesis alternativa que los valores fijos de los khipus de Inkawasi representen una cierta cantidad de semillas no depositadas en los almacenes que habrían sido empleadas para la siembra de la siguiente cosecha.
Research Interests: History, Economic History, Latin American Studies, Economics, Anthropology, and 15 moreAndean Archaeology, Writing Systems & Decipherment, Accounting, Accounting History, History of Science, Taxation, Latin American History, History of Accounting Thought, Colonial Latin American History, Andean studies, The history of mathematics, South American Archaeology, Khipus (quipus) colonial Peru, History of Accountancy, and Documentary Sources for Andean History
Several khipus-Inka knotted-string recording devices-were recently excavated at a storage facility at the Peruvian south coast site of Inkawasi, found buried under agricultural produce (i.e., chili peppers, peanuts, and black beans).... more
Several khipus-Inka knotted-string recording devices-were recently excavated at a storage facility at the Peruvian south coast site of Inkawasi, found buried under agricultural produce (i.e., chili peppers, peanuts, and black beans). These khipus contain a formulaic arrangement of numerical values not encountered on khipus from elsewhere in Tawantinsuyu (the Inka Empire). The formula includes first, a large number, hypothesized to record the sum total of produce included in a deposit, followed by a "fixed number," and then one or more additional numbers. The fixed number plus the additional number(s) sum to the original large number. It is hypothesized that the fixed number represents an amount deducted from the deposit to support storage facility personnel. As such, it represented a tax assessed on deposits, the first evidence we have for a system of taxation on goods in the Inka Empire. It is proposed that the size and complexity of the storage facility at Inkawasi prompted the "invention" of a kind of financing instrument-taxation-not known previously from Inka administration. We also consider , but provisionally set aside, the alternative hypothesis that the fixed values recorded on the Inkawasi khipus could have represented amounts of seeds set aside from deposits for the next year's planting. Durante las excavaciones de un complejo de almacenamiento (Qolqawasi) del sitio de Inkawasi, en la costa sur del Perú, se hallaron varios khipus-instrumentos de registro Inkas empleando cordeles anudados-asociados a diferentes cultivos agrí-colas (e.g., ají, maní y frijoles negros). Estos khipus presentan una disposición de valores numéricos que no se ha encontrado en otras partes del Tawantinsuyo (el Imperio Inka). Esta secuencia incluye un valor alto, el cual correspondería a la cantidad total de un determinado producto depositado en un almacén (qolqa), seguido de un "valor fijo" y uno o más números adicio-nales. Si se suman el valor fijo y los números adicionales, se obtiene al valor alto. Proponemos que el valor fijo representa un monto que era deducido de los productos almacenados en las qolqas para el mantenimiento del personal encargado y el fun-cionamiento de los almacenes. Ante esta evidencia de un posible impuesto a los productos almacenados, estaríamos ante las primeras manifestaciones de un sistema tributario sobre bienes en el Imperio Inka. Proponemos que, ante el tamaño y com-plejidad de las instalaciones de almacenamiento, en Inkawasi existió la necesidad de "inventar" un tipo de instrumento finan-ciero-el impuesto-desconocido previamente en estudios de la administración Inka. También podemos considerar como hipótesis alternativa que los valores fijos de los khipus de Inkawasi representen una cierta cantidad de semillas no depositadas en los almacenes que habrían sido empleadas para la siembra de la siguiente cosecha.
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Research Interests: History, Ancient History, Economic History, Economics, Anthropology, and 14 morePolitical Economy, Archival Studies, Andean Archaeology, Textiles, Accounting, Archives, Ancient economies (Archaeology), Andes, Writing systems, Recordkeeping and Archives, Ancient economy, Khipus (quipus) colonial Peru, Pre-Columbian, Inca, Andes, Peru, South America, Archaeology, Anthropology, and Ancient writing
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The only available indigenous preconquest information pertaining to Inka recordings of numbers and values is locked up in still only partially deciphered knotted cord khipus. This study first discusses how numerical data were registered... more
The only available indigenous preconquest information pertaining to Inka recordings of numbers and values is locked up in still only partially deciphered knotted cord khipus. This study first discusses how numerical data were registered in general and then analyzes the organization of numerical data and color coding in a complexly formatted khipu from the south coast of Peru. This case allows for an exploration of the registration of status and prestige differences as an example of the construction of value in a social context. The discussion turns to possible means of recording three basic formulations of value in Inka political economy: exchange and market-based value; value expressed in comparative terms; and intrinsic value. Focus in the latter value form is on sacred places (wakas) in the landscape, including a consideration of ethnographic material illustrating by example one discursive practice by which places become sanctified through attachment to (supposed) ancestral events. The study ends with speculation on the possible semiotic connection between place value in constructions of landscapes and in the Inka positional (base 10) numeration system.
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Students of the Inka khipu (or quipu, Quechua for " knot "), the knotted-string devices used for record keeping in the Inka Empire, have long been frustrated by our inability to interpret the information recorded on these devices,... more
Students of the Inka khipu (or quipu, Quechua for " knot "), the knotted-string devices used for record keeping in the Inka Empire, have long been frustrated by our inability to interpret the information recorded on these devices, especially since Spanish chroniclers say that any indigenous, first-hand information on Inka history was registered on khipus. This article argues, first, that we are now able to interpret many Inka administrative khipus, and second, that when we succeed in compiling numerous administrative interpretations, or readings, they can be assembled into an indigenous history of the Inka Empire. It is further argued that such a history would follow the contours of an Annales history, the style of history writing that privileged administrative records, such as censuses and tribute records, over those focusing on the lives and deeds of individuals. The article then questions how the Inkas conceived of and structured history. Their history may not have been structured like Western linear history, but rather in cyclical form, with events repeated over time (comparison is made to the Gada system of Ethiopia).
Research Interests: History, Cultural History, Latin American Studies, Anthropology, Historical Archaeology, and 12 moreAndean Archaeology, Cultural Heritage, Writing Systems & Decipherment, Writing systems, Inca Archaeology, Colonial Latin American History, Andean studies, Quipu, Inkas, Khipus (quipus) colonial Peru, Anthropological History of Humanity, and Anthropological History
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Reference Information: Clindaniel, Jon and Gary Urton. 2017. “Quipus de Pachacamac: hacia la estandarización de las convenciones de signos en el Tawantinsuyu.” In Pachacamac: El Oráculo en el horizonte marino del sol poniente, edited by... more
Reference Information:
Clindaniel, Jon and Gary Urton. 2017. “Quipus de Pachacamac: hacia la estandarización de las convenciones de signos en el Tawantinsuyu.” In Pachacamac: El Oráculo en el horizonte marino del sol poniente, edited by Denise Pozzi-Escot, 274-287. Lima: Banco de Credito del Perú.
Code/Data used in Analysis:
http://www.jonclindaniel.com/code
Clindaniel, Jon and Gary Urton. 2017. “Quipus de Pachacamac: hacia la estandarización de las convenciones de signos en el Tawantinsuyu.” In Pachacamac: El Oráculo en el horizonte marino del sol poniente, edited by Denise Pozzi-Escot, 274-287. Lima: Banco de Credito del Perú.
Code/Data used in Analysis:
http://www.jonclindaniel.com/code
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This article focuses on a linked pair of " documents " from mid-seventeenth-century coastal Peru. The analysis first examines a revisita (an administrative " revisit ") carried out in 1670 in settlements around the town of San Pedro de... more
This article focuses on a linked pair of " documents " from mid-seventeenth-century coastal Peru. The analysis first examines a revisita (an administrative " revisit ") carried out in 1670 in settlements around the town of San Pedro de Corongo, in the lower Santa River Valley. The revisit describes a census of the population of what are described as six pachacas (" one-hundreds ") administrative/census units that usually coincided with ayllus (the Andean clanlike sociopolitical groups). The document identifies 132 tributaries distributed across the six ayllus, all but two of whom are identified by name. Tribute is assessed on this new census count. The information in the revisit is then compared to the organization of a group of six khipus (knotted-string recording devices) that were said to have been recovered from a burial in the Santa Valley. The six khipus are organized into a total of 133 color-coded groups of six cords. The knot values on the first cords of the six-cord groups total the same value as the tribute assessed in the revisit document, and it is argued on these grounds that the khipus and the revisit document pertain to the same administrative procedure. The attachment knots of the first cords of the six-cord groups vary in a binary fashion by attachment type (i.e., tied either " verso " or " recto "). It is argued that this construction feature divides the tributaries identified in the revisit into moieties; therefore, the khipus constitute a gloss on the social organization of the population identified in the revisit document. It is suggested that the names of the tributaries may be signed by color coding in the khipus.
Research Interests: Latin American Studies, Andean Archaeology, Writing Systems & Decipherment, Writing Systems (Languages And Linguistics), Andean Culture, and 6 moreRecordkeeping and Archives, Colonial Administration, Andean History, Khipus (quipus) colonial Peru, Latin American Archaeology, and Postdramatic culture in Spanish language (Andean Latino American countries and Spain), dramatic origins of this culture
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We present a critique of a paper written by two economists, Quamrul Ashraf and Oded Galor, which is forthcoming in the American Economic Review and which was uncritically highlighted in Science magazine. Their paper claims there is a... more
We present a critique of a paper written by two economists, Quamrul Ashraf and Oded Galor, which is forthcoming
in the American Economic Review and which was uncritically highlighted in Science magazine. Their paper claims
there is a causal effect of genetic diversity on economic success, positing that too much or too little genetic diversity
constrains development. In particular, they argue that “the high degree of diversity among African populations and
the low degree of diversity among Native American populations have been a detrimental force in the development
of these regions.” We demonstrate that their argument is seriously flawed on both factual and methodological
grounds. As economists and other social scientists begin exploring newly available genetic data, it is crucial to
remember that nonexperts broadcasting bold claims on the basis of weak data and methods can have profoundly
detrimental social and political effects.
in the American Economic Review and which was uncritically highlighted in Science magazine. Their paper claims
there is a causal effect of genetic diversity on economic success, positing that too much or too little genetic diversity
constrains development. In particular, they argue that “the high degree of diversity among African populations and
the low degree of diversity among Native American populations have been a detrimental force in the development
of these regions.” We demonstrate that their argument is seriously flawed on both factual and methodological
grounds. As economists and other social scientists begin exploring newly available genetic data, it is crucial to
remember that nonexperts broadcasting bold claims on the basis of weak data and methods can have profoundly
detrimental social and political effects.
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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... more
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.
Research Interests: Ancient History, Latin American Studies, Andean Archaeology, Textiles, Writing Systems & Decipherment, and 15 moreLatin American History, Writing systems, Inca Archaeology, Latin American Colonial Literature, Andean Languages, Colonial Latin American History, Andean studies, Quipu, Incas, Khipus (quipus) colonial Peru, Ethnohistory and Andean Antiquities, Andean ethnohistory, Signs and Symbols, Ancient writing, and Andean cultures
This article focuses on a linked pair of " documents " from mid-17 th century coastal Peru. The analysis first examines a revisita (an administrative " revisit ") carried out in 1670 in settlements around the town of San Pedro de Corongo,... more
This article focuses on a linked pair of " documents " from mid-17 th century coastal Peru. The analysis first examines a revisita (an administrative " revisit ") carried out in 1670 in settlements around the town of San Pedro de Corongo, in the lower Santa River Valley. The revisit describes a census of the population of what are described as six pachacas (" one-hundreds "), administrative/census units that usually coincided with ayllus (the Andean clan-like socio-political groups). The document identifies 132 tributaries distributed across the six ayllus, all but two of whom are identified by name. Tribute is assessed on this new census count. The information in the revisit is then compared to the organization of a group of six khipus (knotted-string recording devices) that were said to have been recovered from a burial in the Santa Valley. The six khipus are organized into a total of 133 color coded six-cord groups of cords. The knot values on the first cords of the six-cord groups total the same value as the tribute assessed in the revisit document, and it is argued on these grounds that the khipus and the revisit document pertain to the same administrative procedure. The attachment knots of the first cords of the six
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Named the Best Book in Archaeology, Ancient History, and Biological Anthropology of 2018 by the Association of American Publishers.