Human Expressions

After Patricia’s ritual back in week 3 in the Botanical Garden, I was very interested to learn more about khipu, its origin, more details about its significance, and how about making one after learning about its principles. It amazes me how Inca people use khipu to record information. I feel like it’s a very special and secretive way to communicate one’s thoughts but also sharing memories and celebrate accomplishments with others through it. Only those who can read khipu - known as quipucamayocs - can understand the colors and knots’ meaning or in other words interpret khipus (Cronin, 2021). Furthermore, these individuals memorized the oral record which fully explains a particular khipu and, as the job was hereditary, the oral part was passed from generation to generation; so certainly, it was a lot of pressure from the job since forgetfulness or wrong interpretation could be severely punished (Cartwright, 2022).

Unfortunately, I couldn’t go with the class to Fowler’s and listen to the talk live. However, I listened to the recorded talk with Alba then I visited Fowler’s the next day. I must say that it was beautiful walking into the exhibition and see all the different pieces. One thing I wished to see is an interpretation of the khipu in the exhibition, it would have been nice to see and learn why this khipu piece out of all the others was chosen to be displayed in the museum – I would assume it was memorable/historical or one of the first ones to be made.

As I was researching and reading about khipu, I came across an interesting blog titled “Khipus to Keep Away the Living Dead,” in which it mentions that the Incas believe that the khipu allows the soul of the deceased to walk and to overcome the obstacles and challenges in the afterlife (Hyland et al., 2021). Across from the khipu piece in the exhibition, there was another beautiful piece on the wall (see below) that was colorful and grabbed my attention. As I approached it, I noticed that the writings were in the Arabic language. Then I realized that the writings mentioned God’s name multiple times so when I read the item description next to the piece, it says that these writings are taken from Quran which is the central religious text for Islam. It was so beautifully presented and very striking. Going back to the khipu, according to Central Andean folklore, the only reliable way to defeat a condenado – living dead who committed numerous sins when alive - is to grab its khipu. This shows that khipu was not only a communication tool among people but also used religiously and for prayers purposes too. Overall, I can imagine that making a khipu could be comforting for all those reasons.

Overall, this exhibition was so nice to visit. I’ve never been to Fowler’s, so it was a nice excuse to visit it and explore it. Fowler’s Museum at UCLA is known to acknowledge the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (Teeter et al., 2021). It makes me happy that UCLA has this museum and others and respects the Indigenous people and their culture. Finally, speaking of that, I want to share recent news that is unrelated to Khipu or Fowler’s Museum directly, but starting Fall 2022, all University of California will pay Native American full tuition (Shalby, 2022). This is certainly important and symbolic to Native Americans but also beneficial to all students since it leads to greater awareness and compassion.

 

Works cited

Cartwright, Mark. “Quipu.” World History Encyclopedia, World History Encyclopedia, 29 Apr. 2022, https://www.worldhistory.org/Quipu/.

Cronin, Gina. “Quipu: The Ancient Computer of the Inca Civilization.” Peru For Less, 8 June 2021, https://www.peruforless.com/blog/quipu/.

Hyland, Sabine, et al. “Khipus to Keep Away the Living Dead.” Anthropology News, 22 Oct. 2021, https://www.anthropology-news.org/articles/khipus-to-keep-away-the-living-dead/.

Shalby, Colleen. “UC to Pay Full Tuition for Native American Students from Federally Recognized Tribes.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 27 Apr. 2022, https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-04-27/uc-financial-aid-to-pay-for-native-american-student-tuition.

Teeter, Wendy, et al. “Behind the Scenes with the Fowler Museum Archaeology Collections Facility: Actualizing Land Acknowledgments.” Fowler Museum at UCLA, 17 June 2021, https://fowler.ucla.edu/actualizing-land-acknowledgments/.