Q&A with The Entablo Manuscript author Sarah Bennison on khipu boards, water governance, and pre-colonial ritual

Description

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 Huarochirí Manuscript) ever seen by scholars in which an Andean community explains its customs and ritual laws in its own words.

In this Q&A, The Entablo Manuscript author Sarah Bennison discusses khipu boards and gender, water scarcity and governance, how Indigenous rituals can guide climate change mitigation, and her advice for ethnographic fieldwork.