Gary Urton
Gary Urton is a prominent scholar in the field of Andean Studies with a particular focus on Inca Civilization and its quipu system. Here are key details about his life and work:
- Education: Urton earned his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in Anthropology. His academic journey has been marked by a deep interest in the cultural and historical aspects of the Andean region.
- Career:
- He has been a Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University, where he has continued his research on the quipu, the knotted string device used by the Inca for recording information.
- Urton has also served as the Director of Harvard's Khipu Database Project, which aims to catalog and study the quipus.
- Research Focus:
- His research primarily revolves around understanding the quipu as a form of writing or record-keeping system. Urton argues that quipus were not only numerical but also had narrative capabilities, potentially encoding historical and administrative information.
- He explores how these devices were used to manage the vast and complex Inca Empire, looking into aspects like census data, tax records, and even possibly narratives and myths.
- Publications:
- At the Crossroads of the Earth and the Sky: An Andean Cosmology (1981) - This book delves into the cosmology and religious practices of the Andean peoples.
- The Social Life of Numbers: A Quechua Ontology of Numbers and Philosophy of Arithmetic (1997) - Here, Urton examines the cultural context of numbers in Andean societies.
- Signs of the Inka Khipu: Binary Coding in the Andean Knotted-String Records (2003) - This work focuses on the binary coding system of the quipu.
- Inka History in Knots: Reading Khipus as Primary Sources (2017) - A more recent publication where Urton posits that khipus might have been used for more than just numerical data, possibly containing narrative information.
- Contributions:
- Urton's work has been instrumental in challenging and expanding the understanding of pre-Columbian Andean civilization, particularly in terms of their methods of recording and preserving knowledge.
- He has contributed to discussions on the continuity and adaptation of Andean cultures post-contact with Europeans.
- Awards and Recognition:
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