As
we have seen from one of our previous entries, José de Acosta showed some very
uncultivated attitudes towards the Incas and their technological characteristics. In
this extract however, we find him actually praising their use of khipus. Khipus
are knots that functioned like imperial public archives during the time of the Tawantinsuyu in the Andes. Today there
is no definite consensus as to how these surviving khipus be read or
interpreted. Here Acosta paints us a vivid picture, who knows, perhaps this
century khipus will be deciphered and the Andes will have recovered yet another
aspect of their fantastic culture that only seems to continue flowering in the
21st century, while Europe and its cultural domain slowly sags away
and putrefies like an uncultivated house plant; secure in its dwelling, but
ever decomposing over time.
Vale.
José de
Acosta, Natural and Moral History of The
Indies
From chapter 7
[on the nature of khipus]
“Khipus
are a sort of memorial or register made of segments, in which various knots and
various colours mean various things. It’s incredible the level they have
attained with them, as much as books can speak of stories, and laws and ceremonies,
and commerce records, all this the khipus can carry out, so precisely, that
it’s worthy of admiration. It was necessary in order to have these khipus or
memorial, qualified officials who are called today khipu kamayuq[1],
who are obligated to keep an account of everything, like the public scribes
here[2],
and thus full credit should be given to them. For in varied topics, like war,
government, tributes, ceremonies, land, there were various [types of] khipu or
segments. And in each handful of these, [were] so many knots and little
tangles, and minutely tied threads; some coloured, others green, some blue,
others white, in a word, in so many variations, that just as we ourselves
extract an infinity of words from twenty four letters seasoned in different
manners, thus in their knots and colours did they extract innumerable meanings
for things. And this is of such a way in Peru that it occurs, that after two or
three years, when they take up residency with a corrector[3],
the Indians appear with their minute and revised accounts, saying that in such
a village he was given six eggs, and that he didn’t pay for them, or in such a
house [he didn’t pay for] a chicken, and that over yonder [was given] two
bunches of herbs for his horses, and paid nothing but for only a few tomins[4],
and that he ended up owning such an amount; and for all of this, having carried
out the checking there on site with the number of knots and bunches of threads
which as witnesses and certain record. I saw one bunch of these threads, in
which an Indian woman had brought recorded a general confession of her life,
and they did their confession with them, as I would have done with pen and
paper, and I inquired still about a few threads that seemed different to me,
and were particular circumstances that required the sinner to wholly
confess.
Besides
these thread khipus, they have
another variety with pebbles, with which they precisely learn the words that
they wish to commit to memory. And it is a sight to behold the old men already
frail with a wheel made from pebbles, learn the Pater Noster, and another one for the Ave Maria, another for the Credo,
and know which pebble speaks of the one
conceived by the Holy Spirit[5],
and which reads he suffered under Pontius
Pilate[6],
and you have but to see them correcting themselves when they make a
mistake, and the whole correction consists of [them] gazing upon their pebbles,
which in my case, so as to make me forget all that I know from memory, one of
those wheels would suffice[7]. Of this [kind] there are usually not a small
amount [found] in the church cemeteries, for this motive; of observing them
[with] another type of khipu in which
they use kernels of corn, which is a charming thing. Because a fastidious
calculation, in which a good computer would have to use ink and quill, so as to
see how it adds up for them in the midst of so many [calculations], as much as
with a taxation (subtracting one amount from here and adding another from over
yonder) as with the other throngs of calculations by the hundred, these Indians
will pick up their kernels and place one there, three over yonder, eight I
don’t know where; they’ll lay one kernel from this spot, change three from
somewhere else, and in effect, end up with their accounts precisely [in order]
without a tilde out of place[8];
and they know how to put in order what is outstanding for each person to pay or
give much better than we ourselves could achieve using ink and quill. If this
not be [an example of] genius and these men are beasts, let him be the judge of
that, whoever he may be, for what I judge to be the case is that in all in
which they apply themselves, they are far ahead of us”.
[1] Lit.
“those responsible for the khipu”.
[2] In Spain.
[3] A type of
colonist paid by the Spanish crown to inculcate European customs in America,
such as language and religion, as if to “correct” them of their pagan ways. If we are
to believe the drawings of Waman Poma de Ayala, they would also not have been
averse to handing out physical punishment/abuse to natives, probably when they
felt like it.
[4] gold coin
used in Spain during the middle ages. The
DRAE defines it thusly: «Cincuentava parte del marco oro, equivalente a ocho
tomines o a unos 46 dg.». [“One fiftieth of a part of the golden mark,
equivalent to eight tomins or around 46 decigrams”].
[5] Matt.
1:20; Lk. 1:35.
[6] From the
Credo, IV.
[7] That is,
he wouldn’t need to memorize things anymore, he’d have his memory at his
fingertips, just by using the pebbles.
[8] Basically
he means with all the t’s and i’s crossed and dotted.
[texto original]
José de Acosta, Historia
natural y moral de las indias.
cap. VII.
[sobre los quipos]
«Son quipos, unos memoriales o
registros hechos de ramales, en que diversos ñudos y diversas colores,
significan diversas cosas. Es increíble lo que en este modo alcanzaron, cuanto
los libros pueden decir de historias, y leyes y ceremonias, y cuentas de
negocios, todo eso suplen los quipos tan puntualmente[1],
que admira. Había para tener estos quipos o memoriales, oficiales diputados que
se llaman hoy día quipo camayo, los
cuales eran obligados a dar cuenta de cada cosa, como los escribanos públicos
acá, y así se les había de dar entero crédito. Porque para diversos géneros
como de guerra, de gobierno, de tributos, de ceremonias, de tierras, había
diversos quipos o ramales. Y en cada manojo de éstos, tantos ñudos y ñudicos, y
hilillos atados; unos colorados, otros verdes, otros azules, otros blancos,
finalmente tantas diferencias, que así como nosotros de veinte y cuatro letras
guisándolas en diferentes maneras sacamos tanta infinidad de vocablos, así
éstos de sus ñudos y colores, sacaban innumerables significaciones de cosas. Es
esto de manera que[2]
hoy día acaece en el Perú[3], a
cabo de dos y tres años, cuando van a tomar residencia a un corregidor, salir
los indios con sus cuentas menudas y averiguadas, diciendo[4] que
en tal pueblo le dieron seis huevos, y no los pagó, y en tal casa una gallina,
y acullá dos haces de yerba para sus caballos, y no pagó sino tantos tomines, y
queda debiendo tantos; y para todo esto, hecha la averiguación allí al pie de
la obra con cuantidad de ñudos y manojos de cuerdas que dan por testigos y
escritura cierta. Yo vi un manojo de estos hilos, en que una india traía
escrita una confesión general de toda su vida, y por ellos se confesaba, como
yo lo hiciera por papel escrito, y aún pregunté de algunos hilillos que me
parecieron algo diferentes, y eran ciertas circunstancias que requería el
pecado para confesarle enteramente. Fuera de estos quipos de hilo, tienen otros
de pedrezuelas, por donde puntualmente aprenden las palabras que quieren tomar
de memoria. Y es cosa de ver a viejos ya caducos con una rueda hecha de
pedrezuelas, aprender el Padre Nuestro, y con otra el Ave María, y con otra el
Credo, y saber cuál piedra es que fue
concebido de Espíritu Santo, y cuál que padeció
debajo del poder de Poncio Pilato[5],
y no hay más que verlos enmendar cuando yerran, y toda la enmienda consiste en
mirar sus pedrezuelas, que a mí para hacerme olvidar cuanto sé de coro[6],
me bastará una rueda de aquellas. De esta[s]
suele haber no pocas en los cementerios [7]de
las iglesias, para este efecto; pues verles otra suerte de quipos que usan de
granos de maíz, es cosa que encanta. Porque una cuenta muy embarazosa, en que
tendrá un muy buen contador que hacer por pluma y tinta, para ver a cómo les
cabe entre tantos, tanto de contribución, sacando tanto de acullá y añadiendo
tanto de acá, con otras cien retartalillas[8],
tomarán estos indios sus granos y pondrán [9]uno
aquí, tres acullá, ocho no sé dónde; pasarán un grano de aquí, trocarán tres de
acullá, y en efecto ellos salen con su cuenta hecha puntualísimamente, sin
errar un tilde; y mucho mejor se saben ellos poner en cuenta y razón[10]
de lo que cabe a cada uno de pagar o dar, que sabremos nosotros dárselo por
pluma y tinta averiguado. Si esto no es ingenio y si estos hombres son bestias,
júzguelo quien quisiere, que lo que yo juzgo de cierto, es que en aquello a que
se aplican nos hacen grandes ventajas».
-José de Acosta, Historia natural y moral de las indias,
1590.
[1] «puntualmente»: con precisión.
[2] «de manera que»: de suerte que,
tal que.
[3] 1590: «Pirú».
[4] 1590: «pidiendo».
[5] Del Credo IV: «Jesucristo padeció bajo el poder de Poncio Pilato, fue crucificado, muerto
y sepultado».
[6] «de coro»: de memoria.
[7] 1590: «cimenterios».
[8] «retartalillas»: 1. f. pl.
Retahíla de palabras, charlatanería (DRAE).
[9] 1590: «pornán».
[10] « poner en cuenta y razón» poner
en orden.
Gallery:
A khipu, a writing system waiting to
be rediscovered and
used again in the 21st century?
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