Encyclopedia of the Incas

SOURCES: THE CHALLENGES OF STUDYING A NONLITERATE CIVILIZATION
Unlike other pristine states of the ancient world (i.e., Mesopotamia, Egypt,
China, and the Maya of Mesoamerica), the Incas did not invent a system of
writing. They did, however, develop a unique and extraordinarily complex
record-keeping system based on quipus—knotted-string devices made of spun
and plied threads of cotton or camelid (llama and alpaca) fibers. Most of the
information these devices retain remains opaque to us today. While we know
from postconquest Spanish accounts that quipus were used to register all manner
of administrative information for the Inca state (e.g., census and tribute records),
and while we are able to interpret the quantities of items knotted into the cords,
researchers have not succeeded in determining how the names and identities of
the various categories of information were registered. Therefore, unlike
researchers investigating any of the other great ancient civilizations, who can
read what those people said about themselves, scholars cannot draw on firsthand
accounts written by the Incas; rather, Inca specialists are forced to rely on two
other sources of information: archaeology and the accounts written by Spaniards
following their invasion of Tahuantinsuyu, as the Incas called their land,
beginning in 1532.
These sources have advantages as well as problems. Though the archaeological
record (e.g., the built environment, such as the remains of houses and roads, and
material remains, such as ceramics, metal works, textiles, etc.) bears witness to
Inca activities and achievements, they do not “speak for themselves.” While
these empirical resources provide a base of materials for analysis, nonetheless,
artifacts must be interpreted, and the analysis of the archaeological record is
fraught with uncertainty and ambiguity. What is the absolute age of an object?
Why was it produced, how was it used, and when and why was it discarded?
These questions and many others open up the past to different viewpoints and
interpretations.
Documents about the Incas and their past written by Spaniards in the years
following the conquest often have the ring of authority. Caution, however, must
always be exercised when reading such accounts. First, since they were usually
based on the testimony of informants about events that took place before the
conquest, we will never know what really occurred or how the events, forces,
and consequences of the conquest may have affected Native testimony in early
Colonial times. Second, not only Native Andean informants, but also Spanish
authors of Colonial documents may have had reason to skew an account,