Dead Media Working Note 00.1

Dead medium: The Inca Quipo

Source: "History of the Inca Empire: An account of the Indians' customs
and their origin together with a treatise on Inca legends, history and
social institutions” by Father Bernabe Cobo
Translated and edited by Roland Hamilton
University of Texas Press 1979 Third reprinting 1991

This book is an excerpt from "Historia del Nuevo Mundo" a much larger
manuscript completed in 1653 by Bernabe Cobo, a Peruvian Jesuit

p 252:

"In place of writing they used some strands of cord or thin wool strings,
like the ones we use to string rosaries; and these strings were called
*quipos.* By these recording devices and registers they conserved the
memory of their acts, and the Inca's overseers and accountants used them
to remember what had been received or consumed. A bunch of these
*quipos* served them as a ledger or notebook. The *quipos* consisted of
diverse strings of different colors, and on each string there were several
knots. These were figures and numbers that meant various things. Today
many bunches of very ancient *quipos* of diverse colors with an infinite
number of knots are found. On explaining their meaning, the Indians that
know them relate many things about ancient times that are contained in
them. There were people designated for this job of accounting. These
officials were called *quipos camayos,* and they were like our historians,
scribes, and accountants, and the Incas had great confidence in them.
"These officials learned with great care this way of making records
and preserving historical facts. However, not all of the Indians were
capable of understanding the *quipos;* only those dedicated to this job
could do it; and those who did not study *quipos* failed to understand
them. Even among the *quipo camayos* themselves, one was unable to
understand the registers and recording devices of others. Each one
understood the *quipos* that he made and what the others told him. There
were different *quipos* for different kinds of things, such as for paying
tribute, lands, ceremonies, and all kinds of matters pertaining to peace
and war. And the *quipo camayos* customarily passed their knowledge on
to those who entered their ranks from one generation to the next. The
*quipo camayos* explained to the newcomers the events of the past that
were contained in the ancient *quipos* as well as the things that were
added to the new *quipos;* and in this way they explain everything that
that transpired in this land during all the time that the Incas governed.
These *quipos* are still used in the *tambos* to keep a record of what
they sell to travellers, for the *mitas,* for herders to keep track of their
livestock, and for other matters. And even though many Indians know how
to read and write and have traded their *quipos* for writing, which is
without comparison a more accurate and easier method, still, in order to
show the great subtlety of this method of preserving history and keeping
accounts for people who had no writing and what they achieved with it, I
wish to give the following example of what happened in our times.

"Two Spaniards left together from the town of Ica to go to the city
of Castro Virreina, and arriving at the *tambo* of Cordoba, which is a
day's travel from Ica, one of them stayed there and the other continued his
trip; at this *tambo* this latter traveller was given an Indian guide to
accompany him to Castro Virreina. This Indian killed the Spaniard on the
road and returned to the *tambo.* After some time passed, since the
Spaniard was very well known, he was missed. The governor of Castro
Virreina, who at that time was Pedro de Cordoba Mejia, a native of Jaen,
made a special investigation to find out what had happened. And in case
the man had been killed, he sent a large number of Indians to look for the
body in the puna and desert. But no sign of him could be found, nor could
anyone find out what had become of him until more than six years after he
had been killed.

"By chance the body of another Spaniard was found in a cave of the
same desert. The governor ordered that this body be brought to the plaza
so that it could be seen, and once it was brought, it looked like the one the
Indian had killed, and, believing that it was he, the governor continued
witht he investigation to discover the killer. Not finding any trace or
evidence against anybody, he was advised to make an effort to find out the
identity of the Indian who was given to the deceased as a guide at the
*tambo* or Cordoba. The Indians would know this in spite of the fiact
that more than six years had passed because by means of the record of the
*quipos* they would have kept memory of it. With this the governor sent
for the caciques and *quipo camayos.* After they were brought to him and
he continued with the investigation, the *quipo camayos* found out by
their *quipos* the identity of the Indian who had been given as a guide to
the aforementioned Spaniard. The Indian guide was brought prisoner
immediately from his town, called Guaytara, and, having given his
declaration in which he denied the crime, he was questioned under torture,
and at once confessed to having killed the man, but explained that the
wrong body had been brought. However, he would show them the place
where he had killed the man and where the body was located. Police
officers went with him to the puna, and they found the body where the
Indian guide had hidden it, and it was in a cave located some distance from
the road. With the great cold and dryness of the paramo, the body had not
decomposed, but it had dried out, and thus it was whole. The first body
that was brought was never identified, nor was the killer. The extent of
the achievement of the record and memory of the *quipos* can be
appreciated by this case."

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