The Lettered Mountain

Andean peoples joined the world of alphabetic literacy nearly 500 years ago, yet the history of their literacy has remained hidden until now. In The Lettered Mountain, Frank Salomon and Mercedes Ni#xF1;o-Murcia expand notions of literacy and challenge stereotypes of Andean #x1C;orality#x1D; by analyzing the writings of mountain villagers from Inka times to the Internet era. Their historical ethnography is based on extensive research in the village of Tupicocha, in the central Peruvian province of Huarochir#xED;. The region has a special place in the history of Latin American letters as the home of the unique early-seventeenth-century Quechua-language book explaining Peru#x19;s ancient gods and priesthoods. Granted access to Tupicocha#x19;s surprisingly rich internal archives, Salomon and Ni#xF1;o-Murcia found that legacy reflected in a distinctive version of lettered life developed prior to the arrival of state schools. In their detailed ethnography, writing emerges as a vital practice underlying specifically Andean sacred culture and self-governance. At the same time, the authors find that Andean relations with the nation-state have been disadvantaged by state writing standards developed in dialogue with European academies but not with the rural literate tradition.

Frank Salomon is the John V. Mura Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Iowa. He is the author of The Cord Keepers: Khipus and Cultural Life in a Peruvian Village also Published Duke University Press Mercedes Nino Murcia is the Chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and Associate Director of the Division Of World Languages Literatures and Cultures at the University of Iowa. She is a co-editor of Bilingualism and identity Spanish at the Crossroads with Other Languages.