the Quechua of Cuzco) which Spanish Colonial civil and church authorities
promoted.
Further Reading
Adelaar, Willem, and Pieter Muysken. “The Quechuan Language Family.” In The Languages of the Andes,
edited by Willem Adelaar with Pieter Muysken, 195–233. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2004.
Cerrón-Palomino, Rodolfo. “Esbozo gramatical.” In Lingüística quechua, edited by Rodolfo Cerrón-
Palomino, 249–319. Cuzco: Bartolomé de Las Casas, 1987.
———. “Quechua.” In Voces del Ande, 33–49. Lima: Fondo Editorial de la Pontificia Universidad Católica
del Perú, 2008.
Itier, César. “What was the Lengua General of Colonial Peru?” In History and Language in the Andes,
edited by Paul Heggarty and Adrian J. Pearce, 63–85. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
Parker, Gary. Trabajos de lingüística histórica quechua. Edited by Rodolfo Cerrón-Palomino. Lima: Fondo
Editorial de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 2013.
Santo Tomás, Domingo de. Gramática o arte de la lengua general de los Indios de los reynos del Perú.
Introductory study and notes by Rodolfo Cerrón-Palomino. Monumenta Linguistica Andina, no. 5.
Cuzco: Centro de Estudios Regionales Andinos “Bartolomé de las Casas,” 1995 [1560].
Torero, Alfredo. “La familia lingüística quechua.” In Idiomas de los Andes. Lingüística e Historia, 55–108.
Lima: Editorial Horizonte and Instituto Francés de Estudios Andinos, 2002.
■RODOLFO CERRÓN-PALOMINO (TRANSLATED BY BARBARA FRASER)
QUIPU
Quipu (knot) was the term used for the knotted-string device employed in record
keeping throughout the Inca Empire. Spanish chronicles and documents from the
Colonial era contain a host of information on the uses of these devices in
Tahuantinsuyu, the Inca Empire, both on the basis of testimony from surviving
officials—called quipucamayocs (knot makers/organizers)—who used these
devices in state administration before the Spanish conquest, as well as from
observations of their continued use in early Colonial times. The Spanish sources
inform us that quipus were used primarily in the recording of administrative
information, including the keeping of census and tribute records, although they
were apparently also used to record information for the recitation/performance of
narrative accounts, such as myths, life histories of the Inca kings, and so forth
(see Music). Modern study of surviving quipus, of which there are some 870
samples in museum collections around the world, began in earnest early in the
twentieth century.
Quipus are composed of a number of spun and twisted threads, called pendant
cords, or strings, attached by means of half-hitch knots to a thicker cord, the
latter of which is termed the primary cord. Quipus carry as few as one and as
many as 1,500 pendant cords; the average number of pendant cords on samples,