Professor Works To Unravel Mysteries Of Khipu: Colored, Knotted Strings Used By The Ancient Incas

Science Daily ^ | 1-5-2004 | University At Buffalo

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Ping.

[farmfriend]

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[BlueLancer]

For an interesting take on this, see INCA GOLD by Clive Cussler ...

[N. Theknow]

Professor should be ordered into sensitivity training. Anyone knows that they are now referred to as "strings of color" not colored strings.

[trebb]

Maybe they just liked pretty-colored strings.

[Swordmaker]

I thought that Khipu were primarily an accounting method similar to a abacus but with a permanent record. Tie so many knots in strings that represent placeholders. For example a khipu with six knots in the first string and two in the second would represent 26 llamas. (It was more complex than that, but that is just an example.)

I distinctly recal seeing a program where an Peruvian shepherd demonstrated his khipu accounting system and a Peruvian shopkeeper demonstrated its use as an inventory device.

[NotQuiteCricket]

read later.

[Blue Screen of Death]

I distinctly recal seeing a program where an Peruvian shepherd demonstrated his khipu accounting system and a Peruvian shopkeeper demonstrated its use as an inventory device.

Enron used a similar accounting system.

[Shooter 2.5]

Why don't they just ask all those people who claimed they were reincarnated?

You know the type. The ones that always claimed they were ancient royalty instead of someone who swept the stables.

[chilepepper]

Based on a selective and literal interpretation of colonial sources and a limited understanding of archaeological specimens, many scholars have argued that the khipu was not writing, but rather a mnemonic device similar to a rosary

Errr, so is all writing and so are all symbols.

Writing is just ink squigles (to use an obsolete euphemisim ;)

We (or other intelligence entities that are able to postulate the context in which our symbols are created and used) are the ones who breath life and meaning into these symbols -- the conundrum is that this meaning is a floating crap game and is continously changing, and the "context" which we think we are agreeing on is an illusion -- there are at least subtle and often profound differences in the way we actually interpret words and symbols -- we just THINK we are "communicating with each other" with great precision...

[JimSEA]

It is interesting to me that they were in contact with a culture with a written language but didn't even "borrow" it for their own uses. In other areas of the world this was common (ie: Pali and Chinese use in South and Southeast Asia / Chinese in Korea and Japan)

[ClearCase_guy]

In fact, Brokaw says the first step in understanding the khipu is "to recognize that it was linked to genres of Andean discourse, powerful discursive paradigms"

I though Postmodernism was dead. "Genres of discourse" -- I gotta pick some of that up at the store. It's on the shelf next to the "discursive paradigms".

[Mackey]

"Genres of discourse" -- I gotta pick some of that up at the store. It's on the shelf next to the "discursive paradigms".

You'll find them both in the Obfuscation Department.

[msdrby]

ping

[Old Professer]

"Every day, in every way, I am better and better."

[Duckdog]

How many of my tax dollars are going to this lamness?

[Bernard Marx]

You'll find them both in the Obfuscation Department.

Doesn't Professor Cornel West head that department?

[Bernard Marx]

Errr, so is all writing and so are all symbols.

Yes, but to what degree can mathematical formulae convey the sorts of meanings Shakespeare did in his sonnets? Or vice versa? Having read Korzybski I think I know where you're coming from, but there are ways of comprehending to some degree the meanings that attached to a certain context if there are enough clues. The contemporary use of quipu compared with historical examples might be enough to open some interesting historical windows.

I'm not saying we'll truly understand the shades of meaning intended by the weavers but this kind of research is important if it can cast new light on the Inca and other cultures like the Nazca.