“How do we excavate a text?”

A veinticinco años de Reading Inca History

Abstract

This article introduces the dossier “Andean Ethnohistory: Homage to Catherine Julien,” corresponding to the fourth issue of the journal Notas de Antropología de las Américas, focusing on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of Reading Inca History. We begin with Julien’s contribution to the debate on the reliability of colonial chronicles, understood as vehicles of Hispanic interests, but also as spaces of negotiation in which Inca factions sought to legitimize their authority and preserve their past through dynastic genealogies, oral histories, quipus, and other media. We highlight her proposal for an “antithetical reading” of the chronicles and her articulation of narratives, material records, and memory practices.