Overview

A unique study of an Andean community's water rituals and the extraordinary document describing how they should be performed In the dry season in the Andes, water from springs, lakes, reservoirs and melting glaciers feeds irrigation canals that have sustained communities for thousands of years. Managing and maintaining these water infrastructures is essential, and in 1921, in the village of San Pedro de Casta, Peru, local authorities recorded their ritual canal-cleaning duties in a Spanish-language document called the Entablo. It is only the second book (along with the Huarochiri Manuscript) ever seen by scholars in which an Andean community explains its customs and ritual laws in its own words. Sarah Bennison offers a critical introduction to the Entablo, a Spanish transcription of the document, and an English translation. Among its other revelations, the Entablo delves into the use of khipu boards, devices that meld the traditional knotted strings known as khipus with a written alphabet. Only in the Entablo do we learn that there were multiple khipu boards associated with a single canal-cleaning ritual, or that there were separate khipu records for men and women. The Entablo manuscript furnishes unparalleled insights into Andean rituals, religion, and community history at a historical moment when rural highland communities were changing rapidly.

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9781477325421

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Reviews

[This book is] a clearly written and meticulously researched contribution to Latin American studies in general and Andean studies in particular...There is a refreshing disruptiveness to Bennison’s work that propels readers forward as they are made fully aware of the exceptionality of the Entablo Manuscript as a piece of writing created by and for those who have too often been rendered solely as objects of study. * H-Net Environment *

[This book is] a clearly written and meticulously researched contribution to Latin American studies in general and Andean studies in particular...There is a refreshing disruptiveness to Bennison’s work that propels readers forward as they are made fully aware of the exceptionality of the Entablo Manuscript as a piece of writing created by and for those who have too often been rendered solely as objects of study. (H-Net Environment)

Author Information

Sarah Bennison is an interdisciplinary postdoctoral research fellow and an honorary research fellow in social anthropology at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.

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