MERCEDES NINO-MURCIA, FRANK SALOMON: The Lettered Mountain: A Peruvian Village’s Way with Writing. Durham: Duke University Press, 2011.

Abstract

A tiny town in the Peruvian highlands of Hurochiri, a day’s drive from Lima, Tupicocha, is on its way to becoming famous. Tupicochanos display a collection of patrimonial khipus once a year that seem to hold the key to understanding “Inca writing.” In The Cord Keepers (2006), Frank Salomon offered a dazzling, original interpretation of Tupicocha’s khipus as records of labor and reciprocity deployed by Andean agro-pastoral communities to adapt to their local rugged landscapes.