Professor Zuidema studies South American anthropology and ethnohistory. His scholarship on Inca society began in the 1960s with his dissertation on the Ceque System, the organizational framework of space and people that governed the Royal City of Cuzco and, by extension, the whole of the Inca Empire before its destruction by Pizarro in 1532-34. His early book The Ceque System of Cuzco (1964) was translated into Italian (1971) and Spanish (1995), with a new evaluation of the problem. His lectures on Inca civilization, delivered in 1984 at the Collège de France, Paris, led to his book La Civilization Inca au Cuzco (1986) and were also published in both Spanish (1990) and English (1990). His recent publications are all related to Andean concepts of time. He was appointed by Queen Juliana to the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences. He received the François Premier Medal of the Collège de France and doctorates honoris causa from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica, Lima, Peru (1993), the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru (2003), and the University Antonio Abad of Cuzco (2006). The University of Bologna, Italy, where he lectured in recent years, appointed him to a life membership in its Center of Advanced Studies. He received a Mención de Honor from the International Congress of Americanists and a doctorate honoris causa from the University of Cuzco, Peru (2006). In 2008, he received the Order of The Sun of Perú and the rank of Comendador from the President of the Republic of Peru. His book The Inca Calendar was published by the Fondo Editorial del Congreso del Peru in Lima. His latest studies were on pre-Hispanic textiles representing various calendars and models of social organization in space and time. In 2013, he was nominated to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences' Gallery of Excellence celebrating the college’s 100th anniversary.

In memoriam