Gary Urton
- Title
- Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Pre-Columbian Studies
- gurton@fas.harvard.edu
- Telephone
- 617-496-8534
- Fax
- 617-496-8041
- Department
- Department of Anthropology
- School
- Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Regions of Interest
- Andean Region, Southern Cone
- Countries of Interest
- Peru, Chile, Bolivia
- Mailing Address
- Department of Anthropology Peabody Museum 11 Divinity Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138
- Office Location
- Research Interest
- Inka archaeology; Andean ethnohistory; Pre-Columbian Andean material culture and social, political, and ritual organizations; Pre-Columbian record-keeping (esp. khipu) and comparative writing systems; cosmology; ethnomathematics; state formation
- Web Page
- http://khipukamayuq.fas.harvard.edu/Researchers.html
- Courses
- Publications
-
a) Books:
1981 At the Crossroads of the Earth and the Sky: An Andean Cosmology. Latin
American Monographs, No. 55. University of Texas Press. Austin.
[1988 - Paperback edition of At the Crossroads... University of Texas Press.]
Spanish edition: En el cruce de rumbos de la tierra y el cielo (2006).
Cusco: Centro Bartolomé de la Casas.
1990 The History of a Myth: Pacariqtambo and the Origin of the Inkas. University of Texas Press. Austin.
Spanish edition: Historia de un Mito: Pacariqtambo y el origen de los
Inkas. (2004). Cusco: Centro Bartolomé de las Casas.
1997 The Social Life of Numbers: A Quechua Ontology of Numbers and Philosophy of Arithmetic. University of Texas Press, Austin.
Spanish edition: La Vida Social de los Números: Una ontología de los
números y la filosofía de la aritmética quechuas. (2003) Cusco: Centro
Bartolomé de las Casas.
1999 Inca Myths. The Legendary Past Series. London: British Museum
Press; and Austin: University of Texas Press.
Translations into: French, Spanish, German, Russian, Korean, Polish,
Japanese, Chinese, Greek.
2003a Signs of the Inka Khipu: Binary Coding in the Andean Knotted-
String Records. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Spanish edition: Signos del Khipu Inka: Codigo Binario. (2005) Cusco:
Centro Bartolomé de las Casas.
2003b Quipu: Contar Anudando en el Imperio Inka / Knotting Accounts in the
Inka Empire. Bi-lingual exhibition catalog for a joint Harvard University /
Museo Chileno de Arte Pre-Colombino (Santiago de Chile) exhibit of khipu
(Quipus):. (August, ’03). Pub. by the MCAP and Harvard University.
b) Edited Volumes:
1982 Ethnoastronomy and Archaeoastronomy in the American Tropics. Edited by Anthony F. Aveni and Gary Urton. Annals of the New York Academy of
Sciences. Vol. 385. New York.
1985 Animal Myths and Metaphors in South America. Edited by G. Urton. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
1996 Structure, Knowledge, and Representation in the Andes: Studies Presented to Reiner Tom Zuidema on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday. Special issue of the Journal of the Steward Anthropological Society.
Volume 24, nos. 1 & 2. Urbana, Illinois.
2002 Narrative Threads: Explorations of Narrativity in Andean Khipus. Edited by J. Quilter and G. Urton. Austin: University of Texas Press.
2002- Identidad y transformación en el Tawantinsuyu y en los Andes Coloniales:
2004 Perspectivas arqueológicas y etnohistóricas. Edited by P. Kaulicke, G. Urton,
and I. Farrington. Boletín de Arqueología PUCP, Vols. 6 (2002), 7 (2003),
and 8 (2004). Lima, Peru: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.
2006 Cultural Astronomy in New World Cosmologies. Edited by Clive Ruggles
and Gary Urton. Boulder: University Press of Colorado (in press).
c) Articles:
1976 (with R. Tom Zuidema) "La constelación de la Llama en los andes peruanos." Allpanchis Phuturinqa 9:59-120.
1978a "Beasts and Geometry: Some Constellations of the Peruvian Quechuas."
Anthropos 73:32-40.
1978b "Orientation in Quechua and Incaic Astronomy." Ethnology 17, no.
2:157-167.
1980 "Celestial Crosses: The Cruciform in Quechua Astronomy." Journal of Latin American Lore 6, no. 1:87-110.
1981a "Animals and Astronomy in the Quechua Universe." Proceedings of the
American Philosophical Society 125, pt. 2:110-127.
1981b "La orientación en la astronomía quechua e inca." In Runakunap Kawsayninkupaq Rurasqankunaqa. La Tecnología en el Mundo Andino. Ed. by Heather Lechtman and Ana María Soldi. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico; pp. 475-490 (Spanish version of Urton, 1978b).
1981c "The Role of Native Cosmologies in Archaeoastronomical Studies: The View from South America." In Archaeoastronomy in the Americas. Ed. by Ray Williamson. Ballena Press; pp. 285-304.
1982 "Astronomy and Calendrics on the Coast of Peru." In Ethnoastronomy and Archaeoastronomy in the American Tropics. Ed. by A. Aveni and G. Urton; pp. 231-248. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. New York.
1983 (with A. Aveni) "Archaeoastronomical Fieldwork on the Coast of Peru." In Calendars in Mesoamerica and Peru: Native American Computations of Time. Ed. by A. Aveni and G. Brotherston, Proceedings of the 44th International Congress of Americanists, Manchester, England (1982); pp. 221-234.
1984 "Chuta: El Espacio de la Práctica Social en Pacariqtambo, Peru." Revista
Andina 2, no. 1:7-56.
1985 "Animal Metaphors and the Life Cycle in an Andean Community." In Animal Myths and Metaphors in South America. Ed. by G. Urton (see above); pp. 251-284.
1986 "Calendrical Cycles and Their Projections in Pacariqtambo, Peru." Journal of Latin American Lore 12, no. 1:45-64.
1987b "South American Ethnoastronomies." In The Encyclopedia of Religion. Ed. by Mircea Eliade, et al; pp. 177-182. Macmillan Press. New York.
1988 "La arquitectura publica como texto social: La historia de un muro de adobe en Pacariqtambo, Peru (1915-1985)." Revista Andina 6, no. 1:225- 261.
1989 "La historia de un mito: Pacariqtambo y el origen de los Incas." Revista
Andina 7, no. 1:129-196. (With commentaries and response: pp. 197- 216).
1990 "Andean Social Organization and the Maintenance of the Nazca Lines." In The Nazca Lines. Ed. by A. F. Aveni. The American Philosophical Society; pp. 175-206.
1991a "The Stranger in Andean Communities." In Cultures et sociétés Andes et Méso-Amérique: Mélanges en hommage a Pierre Duviols. Ed. by Raquel Thiercelin. Vol II:791-810. Université de Provence. Aix-en-Provence.
1991b "Las unidades de análisis en el estudio de la reproducción y transformación de las sociedades andinas." In Reproducción y Transformación de las Sociedades Andinas (Siglos XVI-XX). Ed. by Segundo Moreno Y. and Frank Salomon; Vol. I, pp. 29-46. Ediciones
Abya-Yala, Quito.
1992 "Communalism and Differentiation in an Andean Community." In
Andean Cosmologies through Time: Persistence and Emergence. Ed. by R. Dover, K. Seibold, and J. McDowell; pp. 229-266. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.
1993a "Contesting the Past in the Peruvian Andes." In Mémoire de la Tradition. Ed. by A. Becquelin and A. Molinié; pp. 72-107. Société d'ethnologie; Nanterre, France.
1993b "Moieties and Ceremonialism in the Andes: The Ritual Battles of the
Carnival Season in Southern Peru." In El Mundo Ceremonial Andino,
ed. by Luis Millones and Yoshio Onuki; Senri Ethnological Studies No. 37:117-142. National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan.
1994 "A New Twist in an Old Yarn: Variation in Knot Directionality in the Inka khipus." Baessler-Archiv Neue Folge, Band XLII:1-35.
1996a "Inca Religion." In The Oxford Companion to Archaeology. Ed. by Brian M. Fagan; pp. 344-345. Oxford University Press.
1996b "The Body of Meaning in Chavín Art." RES (Journal of Anthropology and Aesthetics) 29/30:237-255.
1996c "R. Tom Zuidema, Dutch Structuralism, and the Application of the 'Leiden Orientation' to Andean Studies." In Structure, Knowledge and Representation in the Andes: Studies Presented to Reiner Tom Zuidema on the Occasion of his 70th Birthday. Edited by Gary Urton. Special issue of the Journal of the Steward Anthropological Society 24, Nos. 1 & 2: 1-36.
1998 "From Knots to Narratives: Reconstructing the Art of Historical Record-
Keeping in the Andes from Spanish Transcriptions of Inka Khipus."
Ethnohistory 45, no. 3:409-438
2001 "A Calendrical and Demographic Tomb Text from Northern Peru." Latin American Antiquity Vol. 12, no. 2:127-147.
2002a “Codificación binaria en los khipus incaicos.” Revista Andina 35:9-68.
2002b "Recording Signs in Narrative-Accounting Khipus" . In Narrative Threads:
Accounting and Recounting in Andean Khipu. Edited by J. Quilter & G.
Urton; pp. 171-96. Univ. of Texas Press.
2004a “Concordancias y afinidades en archivos de registros de khipus
procedentes de Chachapoyas e Ica, Perú.” In Identidad y transformación
en el Tawantinsuyu y en los Andes Coloniales. Ed. by P. Kaulicke, G.
Urton and I. Farrington; pp. 289-303. Boletín de Arqueología PUCP Vol.
8.
2004b “Identidades sociales y lecturas alternativas en los Khipus de la Laguna
de los Cóndores.” SIAN, Revista Arqueológica 9, no. 15. Nuevos Rumbos
en los Estudios Chachapoya; Primera Conferencia Internacional sobre el
Arte, la Arqueología y la Etnohistoria de los Chachapoya (Leymebamba,
Amazonas, 9-10 August, 2003). Trujillo, Peru.
2005a (by G. Urton and Carrie J. Brezine) “Khipu Accounting in Ancient Peru.”
Science 309:1065-1067.
2005b “Khipu Archives: Duplicate Accounts and Identity Labels in the Inka
Knotted-String Records.” Latin American Antiquity 16, no. 2:147-167.
2006a “Carlos Radicati di Primeglio: Patrocinador de los estudios sobre los
quipus.” Introduction to Carlos Radicati di Primeglio, Estudios sobre los
quipus. Compilation and introduction by Gary Urton. Clásicos San-
marquinos; pp. 39-54. Lima: Fondo Editorial Universidad Nacional Mayor
de San Marcos and COFIDE.
2006b “Censos registrados en cordeles con “Amarres”: Padrones Poblacionales
Pre-Hispánicos y Coloniales Tempranos en los Khipu Inka.” Revista Andina 42:153-196.
nd.a (by G. Urton and Carrie J. Brezine) “Information Control in the Palace
of Puruchuco: An Accounting Hierarchy in a Khipu Archive from Coastal
Peru.” In Expressions of Power in the Inka Empire, ed. by R. Burger, C.
Morris, and Matos Mar. Dumbarton Oaks (in press; 2006).
nd.b “A Multi-Year Tukapu Calendar.” In Cultural Astronomy in New World Cosmologies, ed. by Clive Ruggles and Gary Urton, University Press of Colorado (in press).
nd.c “Census Accounting With Strings Attached:Pre-Hispanic and Early Colonial
Population Counts on Inka Khipu.” In Re-Evaluating the Accuracy of Early
Amerindian Population Counts. Ed. by Noble David Cook. (in press).
nd.d “The Inca Khipu.” Handbook of Andean Archaeology. Edited by Helaine
Silverman and William Isbell. (12 ms. pp.; in press).
nd.e “Ancient Writing: The Inca Quipu.” In Archaeology Now: Great Discoveries
of Our Time, edited by Brian Fagan. London: Thames and Hudson (3 pp.;
in press).