This award to the University of Wisconsin supports the research of a cultural anthropologist studying an indigenous Andean form of historical record-keeping. In pre-Hispanic times the Andean peoples recorded information through the medium of knotted cords, called khipus. The investigator has discovered a remote highland community of Quechua Indians who still maintain a set of khipus, which they use as ceremonial objects displayed in order to validate possession of local political office. The investigator has conducted ethnographic research on usage and has photographed these objects, and will analyze the internal structure of the knots, comparing them to other similar objects; computerize the data, perform radio-carbon tests to establish the age of the objects, and carry out numerical and statistical analysis by experts. This research will document a unique and endangered dataset for Andean studies and for the social science of numbers and record-keeping. By studying how present day people use this sort of object to record important information, the study can help shed light on the pre-Hispanic patterns of use and advance our understanding of indigenous, pre-literate record-keeping systems. The new knowledge to be generated from this project could help shed light on the meaning of similar archaeologically recorded speciments.
