Jørgen Håland/Flicker

In the Andes mountains of South America folk belief includes providing deceased members of the community with a khipu, a rope object with knotted cords that conveys information. Khipu were long used during the Inkan Empire and were still made after the Spanish conquest. In the case of the deceased and their funerary khipu, the knots on the khipu represent prayers that help the dead person negotiate the afterlife. But there is a dark side to this khipu-assisted afterlife, too.

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