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They used Quipu to catalog most administrative information (taxes, census, military, etc) - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quipu https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik

They used Quipu to catalog most administrative information (taxes, census, military, etc) - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quipu https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quipu Quipu's are actually pretty cool - it's basically a proto-flamegraph and could even potentially be used alphabetically, but we wouldn't really know as there just aren't that many left after the brutal Spanish invasion of the Inca empire and the subsequent inquisition.

mmooss 2y ago
Yes I'm aware of them - and they add to my wonder: Why were the Inca so innovative? As I understand them, quipu did not transmit words, so how do you communicate, for example, rope bridge construction and maintenance information over great distances and time.
- krisoft 2y ago
  > quipu did not transmit words, so how do you communicate, for example, rope bridge construction and maintenance information over great distances and time. Your question has been answered before in this thread. You communicate rope bridge construction and maintenance via apprenticeship. There is a master rope bridge builder who teaches personaly by demonstration and telling an apprentice rope bridge builder, then supervises their work for a bit before the apprentice is declared a master themselves. You do not need written communication for this. In fact even to this day this is how much of the skills are communicated. I learned lost wax casting from a dude in a workshop who shown me what should be the proper consistency of the malachite-gypsum-water mixture before you slop it on your wax pieces. I didn’t learn it from a book, even though i know how to read and read a lot. Similarly i learned from a master (a different one) during personal supervision on how silver glows when it is just perfect temp to flow into a cast. Also learned from a master how to see that the metal I’m working is becoming brittle from work hardening, and what can I do to avoid or even use that effect to my benefit. None of this is rope bridge building, just illustrations that knowledge, even very important knowledge, is transmitted to this day without writing. Why is it so hard to imagine that the Incas did the same?
  - mmooss 2y ago
    What a bizarre conversation - I could understand one person not quite fathoming the question, but all these people insisting is really odd. This thread doesn't explain the Incas at all for reasons I explained (but which should be obvious). What I'm asking are well-established, prominent subjects of research. And then people playing down literacy ... is this that anti-modernism trend - the Middle Ages were fine, secret prehistorical societies had advanced technology, who needs literacy, etc.? It's just hard to fathom.
    - antiraza 2y ago
      I'm not sure I'm (I'll speak only for myself in this thread) am 'playing down literacy'. It's great, we should have more of it. No questions asked. Maybe there's a tone interpretation issue in the thread... 'How did the Incas do this' -- is that asking for the detailed specifics of their management culture and systems (mostly unknowable -- likely the subject of a many past and future academic careers), or is it a statement of incredulity. I think myself and most of the other commenters have interpreted the latter, whether that was your intention or not. What I'm pointing out is that, if you've seen much of the developing world, or lived anywhere except the fully formed bubble of a 'modern developed society,' you will have had the opportunity to observe that 'life... (and by extension, civilization)... find a way.' The Egyptian pharoahs ruled for over 3000 years. That number is unfathomable in the context of modern society. Yes they had a written language, but the vast majority of that empire very likely did not know how to read it. The millions that lived through that era integrated, obeyed and functioned into that power structure for more than 1.5x the time since we all agreed on a numbering structure for 'years since some arbitrary point in the past.' Christianity, and Hinduism, and Islam, and frankly every major religion spread, and brought most of humanity into their fold without most of its adherents being able to read. There wasn't a formal written bible until hundreds of years after the religion itself was formed. It passed through dozens of generations before being formalized. All this is to say: I don't know how the Incas did it, in terms of the granular specifics of their culture and systems, but that they did it, somehow, and using methods quite normal for most of history, is far from implausible.
      - 2y ago
- mark336 2y ago
  The kamayocs spread the knowledge orally from master to protege

mmooss 2y ago

Yes I'm aware of them - and they add to my wonder: Why were the Inca so innovative? As I understand them, quipu did not transmit words, so how do you communicate, for example, rope bridge construction and maintenance information over great distances and time.

krisoft 2y ago
> quipu did not transmit words, so how do you communicate, for example, rope bridge construction and maintenance information over great distances and time. Your question has been answered before in this thread. You communicate rope bridge construction and maintenance via apprenticeship. There is a master rope bridge builder who teaches personaly by demonstration and telling an apprentice rope bridge builder, then supervises their work for a bit before the apprentice is declared a master themselves. You do not need written communication for this. In fact even to this day this is how much of the skills are communicated. I learned lost wax casting from a dude in a workshop who shown me what should be the proper consistency of the malachite-gypsum-water mixture before you slop it on your wax pieces. I didn’t learn it from a book, even though i know how to read and read a lot. Similarly i learned from a master (a different one) during personal supervision on how silver glows when it is just perfect temp to flow into a cast. Also learned from a master how to see that the metal I’m working is becoming brittle from work hardening, and what can I do to avoid or even use that effect to my benefit. None of this is rope bridge building, just illustrations that knowledge, even very important knowledge, is transmitted to this day without writing. Why is it so hard to imagine that the Incas did the same?
- mmooss 2y ago
  What a bizarre conversation - I could understand one person not quite fathoming the question, but all these people insisting is really odd. This thread doesn't explain the Incas at all for reasons I explained (but which should be obvious). What I'm asking are well-established, prominent subjects of research. And then people playing down literacy ... is this that anti-modernism trend - the Middle Ages were fine, secret prehistorical societies had advanced technology, who needs literacy, etc.? It's just hard to fathom.
  - antiraza 2y ago
    I'm not sure I'm (I'll speak only for myself in this thread) am 'playing down literacy'. It's great, we should have more of it. No questions asked. Maybe there's a tone interpretation issue in the thread... 'How did the Incas do this' -- is that asking for the detailed specifics of their management culture and systems (mostly unknowable -- likely the subject of a many past and future academic careers), or is it a statement of incredulity. I think myself and most of the other commenters have interpreted the latter, whether that was your intention or not. What I'm pointing out is that, if you've seen much of the developing world, or lived anywhere except the fully formed bubble of a 'modern developed society,' you will have had the opportunity to observe that 'life... (and by extension, civilization)... find a way.' The Egyptian pharoahs ruled for over 3000 years. That number is unfathomable in the context of modern society. Yes they had a written language, but the vast majority of that empire very likely did not know how to read it. The millions that lived through that era integrated, obeyed and functioned into that power structure for more than 1.5x the time since we all agreed on a numbering structure for 'years since some arbitrary point in the past.' Christianity, and Hinduism, and Islam, and frankly every major religion spread, and brought most of humanity into their fold without most of its adherents being able to read. There wasn't a formal written bible until hundreds of years after the religion itself was formed. It passed through dozens of generations before being formalized. All this is to say: I don't know how the Incas did it, in terms of the granular specifics of their culture and systems, but that they did it, somehow, and using methods quite normal for most of history, is far from implausible.
    - 2y ago
mark336 2y ago
The kamayocs spread the knowledge orally from master to protege