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Area of FocusAbout Gary's Work
Gary Urton is a scholar who merges ethnography, ethnohistory, and ethnoscience in the study of ancient Andean culture.
Fluent in Quechua, Urton has made important contributions to a wide range of perplexing issues in Incan mythology, Andean astronomy and cosmology, and the Incan system and philosophy of numerical values and relations. He is now working on unraveling the mystery of khipus (knotted mnemonic Andean devices). These record-keeping instruments were of central importance to the development of the Inca State, but remain largely undeciphered. In total, Urton’s work provides new perspectives on human intelligence and illuminates different ways of thinking about and organizing the world. He is the author of many journal articles and books, including The History of a Myth: Pacariqfambo and the Origin of the Inkas (1990), The Social Life of Numbers (1997), and Inca Myths (1999).
Biography
Urton is the Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Pre-Columbian Studies in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University. He served previously as a professor of anthropology at Colgate University (1978-2002), where he was also the director of the Division of Social Sciences.
Urton received a B.A. (1969) from the University of New Mexico and an M.A. (1971) and a Ph.D. (1979) from the University of Illinois.
Recent News
In June 2020, Harvard University removed Urton from his position as director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Anthropology and placed him on leave. In June 2021, Urton was stripped of his emeritus status following an internal sexual harassment investigation.
Updated June 2021
Published on July 1, 2000
