How an Andean "writing without words" works

Recent writings on khipus (Andean knotted-cord records) invoke "writing wit hout words," a near-synonym of Gelb's "semasiography," to argue that some A merican media refer directly to cultural "things" without functioning as a secondary code for speech. Sampson suggests that in principle such a system could constitute a nonverbal "parallel language." However, no ethnography actually shows whether Andean codes do so, much less reconstructs lost ones . This study concerns a Peruvian village which inscribes its staffs of offi ce in a code "without words." Fine-grained ethnography over several inscrip tive cycles shows that staff code does function as a "parallel language." I n doing so, however, it deviates interestingly from Sampson's model, for it functions not to provide speech with a "direct reference" complement but t o detach some areas of practice from the realm of discourse altogether. Con sidered politically, this seemingly exotic method makes sense. Whether one calls it "writing" depends on theoretical commitments in grammatology. High ly inclusivist theories bear further development toward a more omnidirectio nal ethnography of inscription.