Gary Urton is the Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Pre-Columbian Studies at Harvard University. He was previously Professor of Anthropology at Colgate University from 1978 to 2001. Dr. Urton is a specialist in Andean archaeology, particularly the quipu(khipu) numerical recording system used in the Inca empire in the 15th and 16th centuries. He is the most prominent advocate of the theory that the quipus encode linguistic as well as numerical information. From 2001 to 2005 he was a MacArthur Fellow.

1 The Mythic Dimensions of Inka History
1

2 The Pacariqtambo Origin Myth in the Spanish Chronicles
18

3 The Role of the Urban and Provincial Elite in Historicizing Inka Mythohistory
41

4 Ethnographic and Ethnohistorical Dimensions for a Local Interpretation of the Inka Origin Myth
71

5 The Rituals and Ritual History of Divine Births and Boundaries
96

6 Conclusions
120

The Callapiña Document
129

Notes
141

Bibliography 151

Index
163

"This work is unique. There is no other similarly detailed study in the literature of Andean history or anthropology." --John Hyslop, author of Inka Settlement Planning and other studies of Inka history and culture

This work is unique. There is no other similarly detailed study in the literature of Andean history or anthropology. (John Hyslop, author of Inka Settlement Planning and other studies of Inka history and culture)