Monday, April 30, 2007

ASCHER-ASCHER DATABOOK #1 Now Completely Converted to XLS form (AS010-AS200)

Folks,

Just to report. I've now completely converted the Ascher-Ascher Databook 1 to XLS form. So data for the Khipus AS010-AS200 are now available at:

http://www.geocities.com/denniskriz/khipu/data/MASTERBOOK-Ascher-Ascher-Database.xls

There are still data for 15 more khipus (AS201-AS215) available in Databook 2.

Dennis
(moderator)

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Twenty five more Khipus (up to AS175) added to XLS File of Ascher-Ascher Database

Hi folks,

Just want to report that I've added 25 more khipus (up to AS175) to the XLS master file of the Ascher-Ascher databook. Only 40 more to go!

http://www.geocities.com/denniskriz/khipu/data/MASTERBOOK-Ascher-Ascher-Database.xls

Dennis
(moderator)

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Data for Twenty more Khipus (through AS150) added to Master XLS file for the Ascher-Ascher Database

Hi folks,

Just want to report that I was able to add 20 more Khipus (now through AS150) to the Master XLS book that I've been constructing from the Ascher-Ascher database. The project is now 2/3 done.

The XLS databook is available for download at:

http://www.geocities.com/denniskriz/khipu/data/MASTERBOOK-Ascher-Ascher-Database.xls

Dennis
(moderator)

Excerpt from Lydia Chen's book Chinese Knotting

Folks,

An excerpt from Lydia Chen's book Chinese Knotting (Periplus Editions 2003), pg 25-26:

"Unfortunately, Chinese knotting, ancient as it may be, was never the subject of scholarly treatises. Instead, it remained in the background, a marginal art that was often overlooked. All we have in our hands today are fine examples of knotting from the late Ching and early Republican periods, creations of our grandparents and their parents The complexity of these knots and the ingenuity of their designs bespeak the culmination of a long, unbroken artistic tradition. Secondhand traces of this ancient folk tradition appear hear and there, and the inferences drawn from these tantalizing bits of evidence suggest that the origin of Chinese knotting predates even the possibility of written record.

"The first hint of the earliest Chinese knots dates back to the paleolithic age, seventy to a hundred thousand years ago. Artifacts found from that era in a cave at Choukoutien include several awl-shaped instruments with holes at one end. Archaeologists maintain that they were used for sewing, implying that thread and some rudimentary form of knotting must have existed at that time.

"Tenuous as this remote and humble beginning may be, there is no doubt that later inhabitants of the Yellow River basin had need of highly developed knotting techniques. In a commentary on the trigrams of the Book of Changes, we discover that "in prehistoric times, events were recorded by tying knots; in later ages, books were used for this." In the second century A.D., the Han scholar Cheng Hsuan expanded on this passage to say that great events were recorded with large knots and smaller knots signified events of lessor importance. Of course, no samples from prehistory exist.

"The only indigenous evidence of this practice consists of simple pictorial representations of the symbolic use of knotting in the Warring States period, from the fourth to the second century B.C. Number symbols on the surface of bronzeware from that age clearly reflect the earlier practice of making records with knotted cord. For example, the numbers 10, 20, 30 and 40 were tied [see actually text for diagram]. The Similarity between the rope figures and the script forms is striking. On the other hand, these knots represent rather simple abstract concepts. The design of the necessarily more complex and intricate knots that were tied to record events during Chinese prehistory must be left to the imagination. But turning to a satellite culture, the Ryukyu Islands [including Okinawa] off China's southeastern coast, we can find concrete examples of knotted ropes that are used to keep records. Perhaps these reflect the ancient Chinese knots that were used in a similar way. Examples from the Ryukyu Islands and the numbers on ancient Chinese bronzes tend to lend credence to the assertion that at least a part of the Chinese written language evolved from these knotted cords. At the very least, they establish the fact that knotting was an abstracted form of symbolic communication that predates the Book of Changes"


Dennis
(moderator)

Lao Tzu on Chinese Knotting

Folks,

Another link on Chinese knotting, this one including a quote from the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu on the past use of knotting in place of writing in ancient China.

http://www.chineseknotting.org/laotzu80.html


Dennis
(moderator)

Warazan - Straw reckoning devices of Okinawa

In a slide presentation at a recent symposium at MIT on khipus, Jean-Jacques Quisquater of the Universite Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, noted that the ancient use of devices similar to khipus had been reported throughout the Asian-Pacific world including across the islands of Polynesia and in Okinawa.

In Okinawa, such devices, made of straw, have been called warazan and were in use by the islands' native people until fairly recently (the beginning of the 20th century).

A picture of a warazan, along with a synopsis of a year 2000 talk in Germany by Professor Kurayoshi Takara of the Ryûkyû University in Japan is given here:

http://www.arithmeum.uni-bonn.de/en/events/20

A Google search for an e-mail address for "Kurayoshi Takara" yielded nothing.

However, I found that Professor Gregory Smits from Penn State University had recently translated an article by Dr. Takara. So I asked him if he could be of assistance with regard to finding Dr. Takara or otherwise finding more information on these Okinawan devices.

Dr. Smits also had no luck in finding an e-mail address for Dr. Takara. However, he was able to give some further information on warazan (also called barazan), writing me in an e-mail (that he subsequently gave me permission to publish below):

"[Warazan] were made from of plants, with rice straw being the preferred material. Counting was done via the joints of the stalks, using a variety of methods. On the island of Okinawa warazan were used mainly for calculations, contracts, and collecting debts. In Miyako and Yaeyama, warazan (called barazan) were mainly used to record tax collection and related matters such as labor service. They were also sued to record gifts received at formal ceremonies. After the "head tax" was abolished in these islands in 1903, the use of warazan soon stopped. The diffusion of basic education was the other factor. Ryukyuan elites were familiar with mathematics and did not use warazan. In other words, these counting tools were an aid to those without formal education."

Asked for a citation or two regarding warazan in the scholarly literature, Dr. Smits noted that regretably almost everything published on the subject in the scholarly literature has been written only in Japanese.

However, Dr. Smits was kind enough to offer two such Japanese citations, "the first a short article and the second a book consisting of the collected writings on the subject by Tashiro Yasusada (and published posthumously by one of Tashiro’s colleagues)":

Ishigaki Hirotaka, “Warazan,” Okinawa daihyakka jiten, v. 3 (Okinawa taimusu sha, 1983), p. 1004.

Tashiro Yasusada, Okinawa ketsujou kou [Thoughts on knotted cords in Okinawa] , (Youtokusha, 1945, 1977).

Thank you Dr. Smits!

Dennis
(moderator)

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Quote from the Ta Chuan a traditional (500-220 BCE) commentary on the I Ching on the use of knotted cords in Chinese antiquity

Ta Chuan Section II - 13

"In the highest antiquity, government was carried on successfully by the use of knotted cords to preserve the memory of things. In subsequent ages, for these the sages substituted written characters and bonds. By means of these the doings of all the officers could be regulated, and the affairs of all people accurately examined. The idea of this was taken, probably, from the hexagram Kuai"

Dennis
(moderator)

More about the Ta Chuan at: http://www.wisdom-books.com/ProductDetail.asp?PID=10619

China - 100,000 years of knot-making tradition?

Folks,

Below are two links on Chinese knot making tradition.

In the first, the claim is made that ornamental knot-making was part of native Chinese culture for at least 100,000 years. The second claims that the first form of record keeping in China made use of knotted cords.

http://www.mresource.com/Fiber/COEPart2/background
_information.htm


http://www.jaars.org/museum/alphabet/people/fu-hsi.htm

Dennis
(moderator)

Monday, April 16, 2007

Data for Thirty more Khipus (up to AS130) available in XLS form

Folks,

I've been able to convert data for 30 more khipus from the ASCHER-ASCHER DATABASE into XLS form.

The master-book of data converted thus far (AS010-AS130) is available at:

http://www.geocities.com/denniskriz/khipu/data/MASTERBOOK-Ascher-Ascher-Database.xls

Dennis
(moderator)

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Half-way there with ASCHER-ASCHER Databook Transcription (AS010 to AS100 now available in XLS form)

Folks,

Well I've reached 100 point (or more or less halfway point) in transcribing the khipu data in the ASCHER-ASCHER Khipu Database from image PDF to XLS form.

Note that once one has the data in XLS (spreadsheet form) one can do all sorts of datamining operations on the data collected both by using one's spreadsheet's SORT and FILTER functions, and by simply writing one's own programs.

And there _are_ some very interesting khipus to explore in the database. Some have flags, some have markers, some clearly use knots (and knot sequences) outside of the decimal system that was proposed by Leyland Locke to explain how knipus were used as counting devices.

So there are good things to explore in the database even now.

The growing XLS data file of the ASCHER-ASCHER Khipu Database is available at:

http://www.geocities.com/denniskriz/khipu/data/MASTERBOOK-Ascher-Ascher-Database.xls

Dennis
(moderator)

Monday, April 09, 2007

Wampum (Bead Belts) of the Indians of North America

In her book Quipu - Il Nodo Parlante dei Misteriosi Inca, Clara Miccinelli makes mention that the Iroquois of New England / New York made use of bead belts called wampum for communication.

Examples of Treaty Wampums including the founding treaty creating the Iroquois League of Nations as well as various 17th century Concordats between the Catholic Church and various native peoples of North Eastern North America can be found at the website given here:

http://www.kstrom.net/isk/art/beads/wampum.html

An excellent web-page explaining the way wampums were physically made is given here:

http://www.nativetech.org/wampum/wamphist.htm

Another excellent article on wampums, written in the context of the Cherokee nation (originally inhabiting what is today eastern Tennessee) explains:

http://web.syr.edu/~cfsmith/congress/episodes/
1789/comments/Cher/wampum.html


(1) How wampums were made to carry meaning (the Elders commissioned the wampum from the wampum-makers and then repeated the message that the wampum was to carry to the wampum-makers until they "got it." Thus the wampum has been considered to be a mneumonic device, and

(2) the wide extent to which wampums were used in North America prior to contact with Europeans. The author of the articles claims that they were used by Native American peoples throughout most of today's United States east of the Mississippi River then extending westward through the Missouri and Columbia River systems.

Finally, below are excerpts from an article published by Lois Scozzari, "The significance of wampum to seventeenth century Indians in New England," originally published in the Connecticutt Review. Note that the Wampum of the Indians of New England, like Khipu of the Incas were used as means of communication and were used as grave goods in traditional indian burials:

"An integral and intriguing aspect of wampum use was the sending and receiving of wampum as means of communication. Most Indian groups were able to hand down a rich oral tradition of poetry, oratory, and drama by means of pictographs or other mnemonic devices for recalling important events. Wampum was such a memory device. Designs woven into belts with contrasting color beads, recorded treaties, agreements, important events, and public accounts through figures or geometric patterns.36 Wampum recorded the words and gave them the pledge of sincerity, for without this pledge the talk was just casual.37 Figures lent energy to the language, conveying meaning through symbolism.38 A designated person would be responsible for a belt's keeping and meaning, and for passing it on to the next generation. The color white symbolized peace, while black signified war or mourning, and when a communication evoked anger, the belt was kicked around in contempt.39 Even after European intervention, the New England Indian tribes continued the ceremonial use of wampum when forging treaties, agreements and relationships...

"Despite the threat to their culture, however, native people steadfastly used wampum in the traditional way; sending communication, declaring war, procuring peace, and so on, and the English appeared to take the native lead in this, abiding by and following native custom and ceremony. When Narragansett sachem Miantinamo was captured by the Mohegans under Uncas. in 1643, the Narragansetts quickly sealed a ransom of several packages of wampum requesting that he be delivered to his friends, the English, to decide his fate. The English, howeven for political reasons decided to execute the Sachem.67

"Traditionally, Indian people buried their dead with wampum, wherefore it is their custom to bury them, their bows and arrows and good store of their wampumpeag, and mowbacheis; one to affright that affronting Cereberus, the other to purchase more immense prerogatives in heaven. 68 Desperate economic situations in the decades that followed the Pequot defeat, caused impudent people to ransack their ancestors' graves for some salable trade items or wampum. These deeds revealed how broken down native systems had become to necessitate the forbidden act of grave robbing. Graves of the prestigious were no longer honored by distinct markings or decoration in order to disguise them from robbers. Democratization of graves furthered the loss of Indian identity.69 "

Dennis
(moderator)

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Fifteen more Khipus (AS061-AS075) added to the Master XLS file of the ASCHER-ASCHER DATABASE

Folks,

I've added 15 more khipus (AS61-AS75) to the XLS Masterbook that I've been constructing for the Ascher-Ascher database.

Presently the XLS Masterbook contains khipus AS010-AS075 from the Ascher-Ascher database, and can be downloaded at:

http://www.geocities.com/denniskriz/khipu/data/MASTERBOOK-Ascher-Ascher-Database.xls

I do hope that to have the entire Ascher-Ascher database converted from image PDF to processable XLS form within the year if not in a few months. (It just depends how much time I have ...).

In the meantime, I suggest to those interested to read the "notes/observations" sheet in the XLS masterbook as it catalogs the observations made by the Aschers regarding all the khipus that they analysed. Contained in these notes/observations are both provenance information as well as construction notes that can further help in catagorizing and analyzing the khipus present there.

Dennis
(moderator)