An Orphan, Three Terrorists, and the Origin of Patrimonial Khipus

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About the presentation: The lower Lurín Valley of central coastal Peru is the area most abundant in archaeological khipus (knotted-cord records). The montane upper Lurín is the area most abundant in ethnographic khipus. Is this more than a coincidence? The Quechua-language mythohistory of the Lurín Valley written c.1608 limelights high-Andean herders as protagonist Yauyos. Fighting down the Lurín Valley they master lower- and mid-valley yunca settlements, even to the outliers of the great shrine-city Pachacámac, where their Inka allies built religious hegemony. Yet the Huarochirí Manuscript is only superficially an epic of conquest. Now that the archaeology of the Lurín and nearby rivers has become profuse, we ask, who conquered whom? Was khipu use imposed on late prehispanic Yauyos by the Incas of Pachacámac? I will argue instead for a more complex, earlier history.

About the presenter: Frank Salomon, ethnographer and historian of the Andes, is the author of At the Mountains’ Altar: Anthropology of Religion in an Andean Community (2017). His other books include Native Lords of Quito in the Age of the Incas (1986), The Huarochiri Manuscript, a Testament of Ancient and Colonial Andean Religion (1991), Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas – South America (1999), The Cord Keepers (2004), La revisita de Sisicaya en 1588. Huarochirí veinte años antes de ‘Dioses y hombres’ with Susan Grossboll, and Tinyas y juywas de Rapaz: Arte verbal en las alturas de Lima (2023) with Luis Andrade Ciudad. He has been President of the American Society for Ethnohistory and the recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award. He is the John V. Murra Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Co-sponsored by the Andean Student Organization.