Knotted Cord Research Articles

Khipus, Khipu Boards, and Sacred Texts: Toward a Philology of Andean Knotted Cords

Although the knotted cord texts known askhipushave been created in the Andes for over a millennium (ca. AD 950–1950), their historical philology has been little understood. This study, based on original archival and ethnographic research, analyzes hybrid khipu/alphabetic texts known as “khipu boards,” examining their development in colonial Peru, and their role in twentieth-century Andean rituals. Particular attention is paid to a previously unknown sacred manuscript, the Entablo, from the community of San Pedro de Casta, Peru, which describes how villagers used khipu boards in their annual religious ceremonies until the 1950s. This study reveals new insights into the social and symbolic nature of post-Inka khipus as texts, particularly with reference to gender, place, and knowledge.

Évelyne, Scenes, and Rosalie

Évelyne, Scenes, and Rosalie Renée Larrier In December 2004, on a break from the African American and Diasporic Research in Europe: Comparative and Interdisciplinary Approaches conference in Paris, I browsed through the Musée Dapper bookstore (which, unfortunately, closed in 2017). A brightly colored book cover featuring a regal black woman in profile and a red detachable band proclaiming the Prix Soroptimist de la romancière francophone award caught my eye. It was Évelyne Trouillot’s Rosalie l’Infâme, which I devoured that very night.1 What a powerful introduction to her work! It is significant that Philippe Davaine’s artistic rendering depicts narrator Lisette as a close-cropped, natural-hair wearing woman who completely dominates the sailing ship in the background, intimating that she and her ancestors survived the Middle Passage and Atlantic slavery. That a small portrait of Trouillot graces the upper left-hand corner of the back of the book articulates, complements, and reinforces that message, linking the two women to and through centuries of history in a similar way that the knotted cord bonds Brigitte to Lisette. Likewise, Trouillot’s oeuvre connects her to predecessor Marie Vieux Chauvet, contemporary Marie-Célie Agnant, and successor Edwidge Danticat, who wrote the foreword to M. A. Salvadon’s translation The Infamous Rosalie.2 While these Haitian-born writers have all spent years away from the island nation, Trouillot was the only one to return definitively, so that her literary identity has never been debated. Nevertheless, these writers are particularly mindful about representing Haitian women’s and girls’ experiences, and accordingly, creating women-centered texts. Trouillot’s novels, short stories, plays, and children’s and young people’s literature in French and Creole, most of which are published in Port-au-Prince and available abroad, privilege multigenerational relationships with political, social, historical, and gender resonances. [End Page 3] Fast forward to October 2017, to Scenes at 20: Inspirations, Riffs, and Reverberations, the two-day symposium at Rutgers University celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Saidiya V. Hartman’s Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self -Making in Nineteenth-Century America.3 Listening to the presenters, I began to reflect on the ways in which Rosalie and Scenes are in dialogue, noting that the similarities extended beyond the title of Hartman’s brilliant, pioneering scholarly study. Motivated to explore further, I revisited both texts, concluding that Rosalie l’Infâme, a novel set in mid-eighteenth century colonial Saint-Domingue, could be read in the context of Hartman’s historical analysis of the American South, where slavery also prevailed. Examining the various forms of domination in daily life, a phenomenon she calls the “terror of the mundane and quotidian,”4 Hartman focuses in particular on covert performances of power, those that involve sexuality, such as interactions between white men and enslaved women that range from coercive arrangements to rape; questions of subjectivity and agency; and resistance and freedom. In Rosalie, the enslaved women adopt various strategies to survive that involve exchanging their bodies for a semblance or measure of agency: Gracieuse with Fayot to avoid working in the fields; Clarisse and Louise to free their children. Brigitte’s is a special case. Although she finally succumbs to Montreuil’s pressure, after his repeated threats and having her niece Ayouba beaten twice, she does achieve agency by sparing others, some of whom are not related to her. In addition to later negotiating the escape of her sister Charlotte and Ayouba, Brigitte uses her medical knowledge not only to abort her three fetuses, but to kill sixty-nine newborns in order to save them from a life of enslavement, her declared mission. In addition, certain scenes reconstruct Hartman’s notion of the simultaneous performance of pleasure and pain. One such incident takes place on the slave ship Rosalie during the Middle Passage. While the white sailors are amused at a Hausa woman dancing to the beat of a drum, the African captives understand that hers is a dance of death, and, indeed, she jumps into the sea. Another example is the spectacle of Sarah parading her stylishly dressed female servants through the town market, masking the physical violence...

Enduring Encounters: Reflections on the Literary Works of Évelyne Trouillot

Enduring Encounters: Reflections on the Literary Works of Évelyne Trouillot Annette K. Joseph-Gabriel (bio) Évelyne Trouillot undoubtedly occupies a prominent place in the landscape of Haitian letters. As a novelist, playwright, essayist, author of short stories and children’s books, and a meticulous researcher of Haitian history, her broad range of texts in French and Creole have resonated with readers across the Caribbean and Europe. Her work has been recognized by a slew of prestigious literary awards including the 2004 Prix Soroptimist de la romancière francophone awarded in Grenoble for her novel Rosalie L’infâme, the 2005 Prix Beaumarchais for her play Le Bleu de l’île, and the 2010 Prix Carbet de la Caraïbe et du Tout-Monde for her novel La Mémoire aux abois.1 For North American readers, access to Trouillot’s work has been a more recent phenomenon with the translated novels The Infamous Rosalie and Memory at Bay in 2013 and 2015, respectively.2 It is through translation that Anglophone audiences come to Trouillot’s work and decipher her texts’ dramatization of encounters between past and present, and across racial and class divides in Haiti. But why a special issue on Évelyne Trouillot? And why now? The forthcoming publication of Trouillot’s newest novel, Desirée Congo, presents a unique opportunity to look back at her monumental contribution to Caribbean and African diaspora literature, and to look forward to a new addition to her already expansive body of work.3 There is value in this simultaneous casting back and gazing ahead, perhaps best articulated by the fictional character Charlotte as she confides in her granddaughter Lisette in Rosalie l’infâme: “Un jour, je te le promets, je te parlerai de ces barracoons, un jour où tu auras besoin d’ailes pour te porter au-delà du moment présent. Un jour, où ton besoin sera plus fort que [End Page v] ma peur de retourner là-bas, dans ma mémoire. Pas aujourd’hui.” (“One day, I promise you, I’ll tell you about the barracoons; one day, when you’ll need wings to carry yourself beyond the present moment. One day, when your need will be greater than my fear of going back there in my memory. But not today.”)4 In these image-rich sentences that are characteristic of Trouillot’s literary prowess, Charlotte simultaneously weaves between the past, present, and future tenses as she evokes her painful memories of the barracoon and imagines a day to come when her granddaughter’s marronage will be fueled by a more complete understanding of her past. Charlotte’s reflections on intertwined pasts and presents that lead to revolutionary futures resonate throughout the novel and across Trouillot’s writings. They also resonate beyond Trouillot’s oeuvre and find echoes in the recent posthumous publication of Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” in which Cudjo Lewis, a survivor of the last-known slave ship to transport Africans to the Americas, recounts his memories of the barracoons, the Middle Passage, and his life in slavery.5 Where Trouillot’s character Lisette is the eager listener prodding grandmother Charlotte for the story of their collective origins, Hurston is the anthropologist and folklorist crafting an origin narrative of her own through her interviews with Lewis. This simultaneous casting back and looking forward is the first kind of encounter that the contributions to this issue explore. These abridged engagements ask, What does it mean to write the past, to render it legible in the present? Renée Larrier and Marjorie Salvodon explore this question through their recollections of two key moments in the recent past. For Larrier, it is her first encounter with Trouillot’s work. Using the knotted cord that appears as a central symbol in Rosalie l’infâme—that first novel that Larrier held in her hands in a Parisian bookstore years ago—this essay examines ties between past and present with a focus on Haitian women’s history. It also translates Rosalie l’infâme from Saint-Domingue to the United States South. Salvodon’s reflections take us away from the history of slavery to...

Numeral Graphic Pluralism in the Colonial Andes

What was the meaning, for Inca record keepers, of the knotted cord constructions they produced as administrative records for the Inca state? In particular, how did these administrators think about the knot constructions that (as we now understand) were used to sign numerical values? And what were the consequences for record keeping in the colonial Andes of the encounter between native cord keepers and the Spanish record keepers, with their numeral signs inscribed on parchment or paper? These are the questions that I explore in this paper. While we do not have explicit, first-hand testimony concerning the first two questions, there is a wealth of evidence relating to the interaction between native and European record keepers from the early years of the colony. The paper examines various contexts in which the cord keepers, who continued producing knotted-cord records long after the conquest, would have encountered written numerals and the implications of these encounters for questions of authority and legitimacy in the production of administrative records in the colonial Andes.

Significant threads: The nature of data

In a previous paper we used the backdrop of the Inca Empire for consideration of an appropriate locus for the discipline of informatics. The term informatics is used as a convenient umbrella term to stand for the overlapping disciplinary areas of Information Systems, Information Management and Information Technology. In this paper we consider one element from this case in more detail: that of the quipu. This enigmatic group of artefacts, consisting of complex assemblages of knotted cord, has been the subject of much debate. In this paper we interpret the case of the quipu as a non-familiar example of a data structure. This interpretation allows us to propose a number of essential or universal characteristics of data. It also permits us to provide greater clarity to the distinction between data and information.

Note Taking as an Art of Transmission

Note taking constitutes a central but often hidden phase in the transmission of knowledge. Notes recorded from reading or experience typically contribute to one’s conversation and compositions, fromwhich others can draw in turn in their own thinking and writing, thus perpetuating a cycle of transmission and transformation of knowledge, ideas, and experiences. The transmission served by personal notes most often operates within one individual’s experience—from a moment of reading and note taking to a later moment when the notes are read and sometimes rearranged and used in articulating a thought. But personal notes can also be sharedwith others, on a limited scale with family and friends and on a wider scale through publication, notably in genres that compile useful reading notes for others. A history of note taking has significance beyond the study of individual sets of extant notes by shedding light on aspects of note taking that were widely shared, notably through being taught in schools or used in particular professional contexts. Notes can take many forms—oral, written, or electronic. At its deepest level, whatever the medium, note taking involves variations on and combinations of a few basic maneuvers, which I propose to identify as the four Ss: storing, sorting, summarizing, and selecting. Human memory is the storage medium with the longest history, and it remains crucial today despite our reliance on other devices, from ink on paper to computers. The range of storage media operative in different historical contexts includes the marked stone token, the clay tablet, the knotted cord or quipu, the pa-

The Inka Quipu: Positional Notation on a Knotted Cord

WE INHERITED A MARVELOUS SYSTEM of numeration from India by way of the Arab world. The Indo-Arabic (also called Hindu-Arabic, or, simply, Arabic) system of number notation is considered one of the most important inventions in the history of humankind. The amazingly efficient system encompasses the following features: (1) distinct symbols for the numbers from 1 to 9, (2) a symbol for 0, (3) place value for successive powers of base ten, and (4) the ability to write any numeral with just ten symbols.

Umbilical cord knots

Background. Umbilical cord knots may represent a hazard to the fetus, particularly as regards intrauterine death and fetal distress or asphyxia in labor. The object of this study was to analyze the impact of associated umbilical cord encirclements and cord length on fetal outcome and fetal weight deviation.Methods. Among 22,012 births occurring in Akershus Central Hospital, there were 216 instances of umbilical cord knots. Fetal outcome, fetal weight deviation, associated umbilical cord encirclements and cord length were assessed.Results. Neonates with a knotted cord are more often large‐for‐gestational age compared to other babies, and have longer umbilical cords. There is a 10 times higher chance of intrauterine fetal death with a knotted cord, but if this does not occur then there is no increased risk of obstetrical intervention and Apgar scores are the same as in other babies and other fetuses.Conclusion. There is an association between umbilical cord knots and umbilical cord encirclements. Knotting of the cord is not by itself lethal. Pregnancies with knotted cords have characteristics different from those with ordinary umbilical cord encirclements.

A Truly Knotted Cord

A Truly Knotted Cord

A Note on the Kamal

An important nautical manuscript in the Bibliothéque Nationale, Paris, containing a number of separate sections on Portuguese navigation methods, and written in the early sixteenth century, has been translated into modern Portuguese and edited by Professor Albuquerque of Coimbra. It is the Livro de Marinharia of André Pires, a Portuguese pilot only known by this collection, of a small part of which he was the actual author. The 13th section, which is quite short, deals with the ‘Balestilha of the Moors’, i.e. the kamal. The use of this title confirms the point, for which there is some other evidence, that although the quadrant and the (sea) astrolabe were the official navigating instruments on Portuguese ships, the cross-staff or balestilha was known and used. The principle of the kamal was, of course, that of the cross-staff. A wooden rectangular tablet was held up with one edge on the horizon, the other on the heavenly body. A knotted cord running from the centre of the tablet was held taut between the observer's teeth, and all he had to know was the meaning of the knot in his mouth in terms of ports and landmarks. The first knot—nearest the tablet—measured the ‘altura’ of Mascat, which was east-west with Diulcende, on the coast of Diul in India. The fifth knot marked the altura of the Curia Muria Is., east—west with Dabul, and so on.

OLE EVINRUDE AND THE OUTBOARD MOTOR

OLE EVINRUDE AND THE OUTBOARD MOTOR1 BY KENNETH BJ0RK Ole Evinrude was several things at once that carry weight with the American public. A self-made inventor, engineer, and businessman, he also lived the success story par excellence . Though of humble immigrant origin he founded in his adopted country, after years of hardship and disappointment , a new and important industry. Big and genial - a veritable mountain of a man - he graciously attributed all success to his frail wife, Bess, who was also his partner in business. But more important still, he won the enduring gratitude of thousands of hunters, fishermen, and vacationers, who were freed by him from the drudgery of rowing a boat. For Evinrude designed and produced the first practical outboard motor, which must be considered a piece with the automobile and therefore a part of this motor age. He belongs to the saga of the out-of-doors, of sports, and of fun, but he also has written his name large in the story of the American economic revolution. The fact that for a great many people "Evinrude" and "outboard" are synonymous is proof that no detailed description of the outboard is necessary. The many thousands who each summer fish the inland lakes and rivers of America, the hunters who lie in wait of ducks and geese, the crowds who watch the outboard races in the newsreels, or the fishermen in salt water whose livelihood itself in a large measure 1The information contained in this article was derived from a number of sources. Chief among them are the articles " The Put-Put," in Fortune , 18:56^59, 108, 112, 115, 118 (August, 1938), and "He Invented a 4 Fool Novelty' That Founded a New Industry," in American Magazine , 105:37, 148, 151-153 (February, 1928); the biography of Evinrude in the Encyclopedia of American Biography , new series, vol. 5, p. 216-219 (New York, 1936); articles in Tidens tegn (Oslo), July 16, 1934, and Skandinaven (Chicago), July 20, 1934; and an interview with Mr. Ralph Evinrude in Milwaukee on April 22, 1941. 167 168 STUDIES AND RECORDS depends on the performance of their motors - all these know the outboard. For those, however, who may never have seen one, it is a two-cycle, internal-combustion engine that burns a mixture of gasoline and oil and is usually attached by clamps to the rear of a rowboat. One starts the outboard by wrapping a knotted cord around a groove in the flywheel and pulling the free end. In the recent motors, one merely pulls at a handle which internally is connected with the flywheel . Once started, the motor's speed is regulated by a lever. Steering is simple; a tiller arm is easily held in one hand, and when moved from side to side, it turns the whole motor. The noise of the early outboards has been reduced in the new models by placing the exhaust under water, just above the propeller. While some of the largest models will push a boat at the speed of thirty-five miles an hour, the average small model does well if it attains to a speed of ten miles. In price the outboard is within the reach of the average man. Fortune speaks of the "put-puts" or outboards as the petite bourgeoisie of the nautical world, and well it might. One can buy an Evinrude Mate for $34.50, f.o.b. Milwaukee, and prices go up, not too speedily, from this figure. Attached to an ordinary rowboat, the outboard will do what the average person wants it to do - take one across a lake or up a stream to a favorite fishing spot or spin one smoothly over the water on a cooling ride. It is light enough to be carried by hand and compact enough to fit into an automobile trunk. In short, it meets the needs and ability to pay of the typical American who takes a two weeks' vacation and wants to spend this time doing other things than rowing. The inventor of the first practical outboard motor was born April 19, 1877, on a farm about sixty miles north of Oslo, Norway. The father took...

Geryon and the Knotted Cord

Geryon and the Knotted Cord

EXPERIMENTS ON CONTRACTION OF WHITE CONNECTIVE TISSUE FIBRES

1. In heat contraction of mouse‐tail tendon, localised swellings commence at certain points along the tendon. A partially contracted tendon has the appearance of a knotted cord with normal portions of tendon between the knots. Only when contraction is maximal is the whole tendon swollen.2. Immersion of the tendon in solutions of CaCl2 markedly affects the temperature at which contraction is induced. The higher the concentration of calcium salt, the lower the temperature at which the tendon will contract; with 48 per cent. of CaCl2 the tendon will contract at 0°C. The relation between concentration and temperature is approximately linear.3. Immersion in solutions of BaCl2 likewise affects the temperature at which contraction is induced. Thirty per cent. BaCl2 causes contraction at 38°C. The relation between concentration and temperature is again linear.The expenses of this research were defrayed by a grant from the James Cooper Fund of M'Gill University for Research in Experimental Medicine.

The knotted cord and key of the delamares

The knotted cord and key of the delamares Get access C. H. E. Carmichael C. H. E. Carmichael 1New University Club, S.W. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Notes and Queries, Volume s6-X, Issue 256, 22 November 1884, Pages 414–415, https://doi.org/10.1093/nq/s6-X.256.414h Published: 22 November 1884