Toasts With the Inca: Andean Abstraction and Colonial Images on Kuero Vessels (History, Languages, and Cultures of the Spanish and Portuguese Worlds)

Original both in its subject matter and in its methodology, Toasts with the Inca examines the Inca through their use of early colonial wooden drinking cups called keros. While these have survived in substantial numbers, they have received little scholarly attention until now. In this fascinating study of the keros's imagery, Thomas Cummins has reconstructed an entire world of ritual and religious and political relationships that previously have been understood only in fragments.

While most contemporary records speak from the Spanish point of view, these cups give a valuable and rare voice to the Andean people.

"Cummins has exquisite control over the primary sources on the Inca, and a masterful understanding of colonial society. This will be a book that nonspecialists can read as their first encounter with things South American, but it is written with a level of precision that will be appreciated by specialists." --Bruce Mannheim, University of Michigan

"The book's impact will be truly significant because it describes not only a visual world but also a world of human relations among Andean people." --Sabine MacCormack

Thomas B. F. Cummins is Associate Professor of Art History, The University of Chicago.