From a half-century of ethnographic, archaeological and ethnohistorical research in the central Andes of South America, Gary Urton draws on a diverse range of sources and experiences to explore a variety of topics concerning Andean practices and forms of organization from the time of the Inka Empire (Tawantinsuyu) to the present day.

The book is organized into three of the main topics of Urton’s research in the Andes. In Part I (Khipu Cultures), Urton presents unique information on Andean record-keeping traditions from the central coast of Peru in pre-Inka times, and the first-ever analysis of the khipus from Colesuyu, the so-called «fifth quarter» of Tawantinsuyu. Part II (Time, Calendars and Astronomy) contains a chapter on an extraordinary five-year tocapu textile calendar organized into continuous eight-week periods, as well as a chapter comparing Andean and European astronomy and cosmology in the decades leading up to Copernicus’s development of the theory of heliocentrism. Part III (Structure, Society, Action) includes studies of the history of an adobe wall in Pacariqtambo, Perú, from 1915 to the present; the symbolism of a money pouch made from a weasel; and reflections on the teaching of structuralism by Urton’s mentor, R.T. Zuidema.