Böcker av Frank Salomon

"This book interrogates theories in the anthropology of religion through examining the ritual practices of the Andean community of Rapaz"--

Based on the analysis of community records in a Peruvian village, The Lettered Mountain tells how Andean peasants thought to be illiterate appropriated the Roman alphabet long ago.

The Inkan empire did not have writing as it is usually understood. The Inkas kept track of information - including their social and political organization - on khipus, knotted cords of cotton or wool. This book offers a reading of the khipus of one Andean village, where villagers have conserved a set of these enigmatic cords to the present day.

Frank Salomon draws on large stores of sources to reconstruct the political and economic institutions of pre-Inca societies, providing remarkable insight into the functioning of these 'chiefdoms', and emphasizing their importance for the understanding of rank, inequality, privilege and central power in stateless societies.

The English translation of an important source document for Andean history.