{"title":"Gary Urton","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"the-social-life-of-numbers-book-gary-urton-9780292785342","title":"The Social Life of Numbers","description":"Unraveling all the mysteries of the khipu-the knotted string device used by the Inka to record both statistical data and narrative accounts of myths, histories, and genealogies-will require an understanding of how number values and relations may have been used to encode information on social, familial, and political relationships and structures. This is the problem Gary Urton tackles in his pathfinding study of the origin, meaning, and significance of numbers and the philosophical principles underlying the practice of arithmetic among Quechua-speaking peoples of the Andes. Based on fieldwork in communities around Sucre, in south-central Bolivia, Urton argues that the origin and meaning of numbers were and are conceived of by Quechua-speaking peoples in ways similar to their ideas about, and formulations of, gender, age, and social relations. He also demonstrates that their practice of arithmetic is based on a well-articulated body of philosophical principles and values that reflects a continuous attempt to maintain balance, harmony, and equilibrium in the material, social, and moral spheres of community life.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49527356555537,"sku":"GOR013545730","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50346606625041,"sku":"CIN0292785348G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0292785348.jpg?v=1751133421"},{"product_id":"inca-myths-legendary-past-book-gary-urton-9780714117911","title":"Inca Myths (Legendary Past)","description":"Inca myths were primarily a diffuse and fragmentary oral tradition, eventually preserved in writing only in a piecemeal fashion. In this volume, a leading Andean scholar reviews the sources of our current knowledge of Inca mythology.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49595325382929,"sku":"GOR002742404","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53562182566161,"sku":"GOR003185764","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0714117919.jpg?v=1751430263"},{"product_id":"inca-myths-book-gary-urton-9780292785328","title":"Inca Myths","description":"Mary Cowden Clarke (1809 1898) was the daughter of the music publisher Vincent Novello. Charles and Mary Lamb were family friends, and under the inspiration of their Tales from Shakespeare, Mary became a noted Shakespeare scholar, her major work being the Concordance to Shakespeare, which took twelve years to compile, and was to remain a standard work for half a century. From 1856 Clarke and her husband Charles lived in Italy, continuing to publish essays and books, including their joint Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare. This autobiography, published in 1896, contains many anecdotes and memories of the literary and musical circles in which Mary moved throughout her life: the Lambs, John Keats, the Shelleys, Dickens, Leigh Hunt and Mendelssohn all appear. The book is written in a vivid and engaging style, and records a fascinating nineteenth century life. For more information on this author, see http: \/\/orlando.cambridge.org\/public\/svPeople?person_id=clarmc","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49777953702161,"sku":"CIN0292785321G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0292785321.jpg?v=1750781129"},{"product_id":"signs-of-the-inka-khipu-book-gary-urton-9780292785403","title":"Signs of the Inka Khipu","description":"In an age when computers process immense amounts of information by the manipulation of sequences of 1s and 0s, it remains a frustrating mystery how prehistoric Inka recordkeepers encoded a tremendous variety and quantity of data using only knotted and dyed strings. Yet the comparison between computers and khipu may hold an important clue to deciphering the Inka records. In this book, Gary Urton sets forth a pathbreaking theory that the manipulation of fibers in the construction of khipu created physical features that constitute binary-coded sequences which store units of information in a system of binary recordkeeping that was used throughout the Inka empire. Urton begins his theory with the making of khipu, showing how at each step of the process binary, either\/or choices were made. He then investigates the symbolic components of the binary coding system, the amount of information that could have been encoded, procedures that may have been used for reading the khipu, the nature of the khipu signs, and, finally, the nature of the khipu recording system itself-emphasizing relations of markedness and semantic coupling. This research constitutes a major step forward in building a unified theory of the khipu system of information storage and communication based on the sum total of construction features making up these extraordinary objects.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50170489602321,"sku":"CIN0292785402G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50487072293137,"sku":"GOR006259477","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0292785402.jpg?v=1751227823"},{"product_id":"at-the-crossroads-of-the-earth-and-the-sky-book-gary-urton-9780292704046","title":"At the Crossroads of the Earth and the Sky","description":"This is the first study that provides a description and analysis of the astronomical and cosmological system in a contemporary community in the Americas.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51167792267537,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51167792595217,"sku":"CIN0292704046G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0292704046.jpg?v=1751324065"},{"product_id":"inka-history-in-knots-book-gary-urton-9781477311998","title":"Inka History in Knots","description":"Inka khipus-spun and plied cords that record information through intricate patterns of knots and colors-constitute the only available primary sources on the Inka empire not mediated by the hands, minds, and motives of the conquering Europeans. As such, they offer direct insight into the worldview of the Inka-a view that differs from European thought as much as khipus differ from alphabetic writing, which the Inka did not possess. Scholars have spent decades attempting to decipher the Inka khipus, and Gary Urton has become the world's leading authority on these artifacts. In Inka History in Knots, Urton marshals a lifetime of study to offer a grand overview of the types of quantative information recorded in khipus and to show how these records can be used as primary sources for an Inka history of the empire that focuses on statistics, demography, and the \"longue duree\" social processes that characterize a civilization continuously adapting to and exploiting its environment. Whether the Inka khipu keepers were registering census data, recording tribute, or performing many other administrative tasks, Urton asserts that they were key players in the organization and control of subject populations throughout the empire and that khipu record-keeping vitally contributed to the emergence of political complexity in the Andes. This new view of the importance of khipus promises to fundamentally reorient our understanding of the development of the Inka state and the possibilities for writing its history.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51323092140305,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51323094499601,"sku":"CIN1477311998G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1477311998.jpg?v=1751273834"},{"product_id":"the-history-of-a-myth-book-gary-urton-9780292730571","title":"The History of a Myth","description":"In the year 1572, the Spanish chronicler Sarmiento de Gamboa completed one of the earliest official versions of the history of the Inka empire. In his account, he stated that the ancestors of the Inkas originated from a cave at a place to the south of the imperial city of Cuzco called Pacariqtambo. The History of a Myth explores how and why this version of the origin myth (there were others) came to form the basis of an official history. Using a legal document from the 1560s, Urton reveals how the Pacariqtambo origin myth allowed remaining members of the Inka nobility to claim descent from the first Inkas and enjoy special status with their Spanish conquerors. This discovery offers new insight into the social and political factors that determine what becomes \"the facts\" of history. It also emphasizes the ambiguities inherent in history writing when the informants are the conquered subjects of the authors.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51423026741521,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51423027822865,"sku":"CIN0292730578G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0292730578.jpg?v=1751133404"},{"product_id":"at-the-crossroads-of-the-earth-and-the-sky-book-gary-urton-9780292703490","title":"At the Crossroads of the Earth and the Sky","description":"This is the first study that provides a description and analysis of the astronomical and cosmological system in a contemporary community in the Americas.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53129176580369,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53129176776977,"sku":"GOR014760237","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780292703490.jpg?v=1771180980"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-gary-urton.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}