A funeral farewell ritual called pichqay is held in Quechua culture on the fifth day after death. In the morning, the useable clothes of the deceased person are washed to remove any trace, while the ones that no longer useful are burned. At night, the dry clothes are put on the table, and family and friends gather to say goodbye with chants and the evocation of good memories, sharing a meal.

After this pichqay ritual, the deceased should not be named, as doing so would invoke them (and the soul needs to be free to go).

Source: Francisco Carranza Romero, El mundo de los muertos en la concepción quechua

Susto is a traditional pathology, common in the Andean region, which causes illness and even death. In the Quechua and Aymara cultures, the individual is composed of three souls, one of which is the ajayu, which when the body is released causes illness to the susto. One of the first symptoms of susto is diarrhoea.

The crowning illness appears when a lightning strike falls and the smoke enters the person. Thunder scares the person. This pathology causes coughing, fever and weakess. It can cause death and can only be treated by a traditional therapist through a ritual ceremony.

The orejo or ojeadura is a traditonal pathology that appears when the smell of a dead body (human or animal) enters the person. It is considered a common cause of death among children, which is why pregnant women never go to the cemetery.

In Quechua and Aymara culture, heat is very important so that a birth goes well and the mother doesn’t suffer in the days that follow, considered one of the main causes of death in women. The burial of the placenta after birth is also very important to predict a good future for newborn babies.

The energetic cleaning of the rooms and beds of people who are ill or have died is considered necessary in the Andean area to eliminate negative energy, as the following accounts explain:

• “You have to clean up after an ill person has been in that bed, if not the next person in there gets it and sometimes the bed is nothing but an ill person that gets worse and is not healthy “ (Traditional therapist. El Alto)
• "It would be very good to let them clean up inside the hospital. That would help us. And also with susto, because there are many cases in hospitals and we need to treat susto in them. "(Traditional therapist. Potosí)
• "I’ve become worse since I got here and I think it’s the spirit of the person who was in this bed before me. I feel anxious in the night that isn’t normal, it’s not from here, it’s not mine, maybe the last person in this bed died here. We need healers to clean up here, hospitals need cleaning and they don’t take that into account and it’s important for us to be able to heal. The hospital windows don’t even open. "(Women, 20, staying in gynaecology in Bracamonte hospital)

Source: Susana Ramírez Hita, Calidad de atención en salud. Prácticas y representaciones sociales en las poblaciones quechua y aymara del altiplano boliviano. La Paz: OPS/OMS, 2010.

Quechua uses different terms depending on whether the relationship of kinship is with a woman or a man. In the case of children, for example, two forms of each sex are distinguished: churi and ususi are the son and daughter of a man, the father; these same people, but with respect to women, mothers, are called qhari-wawa and warmi-wawa, respectively. The siblings also have different names depending on whether they are the brother or sister of a man or a woman. In the case of uncles, the brother of the father’s brother (yaya) and the mother’s brother (kaka) are distinguished

churi: son (of a man)

churi: son (of a man)

qhari-wawa: son (of a woman)

ususi: daughter (of a man)

warmi-wawa: daughter (of a woman)

wawqi: brother (of a man)

tura: brother (of a woman)

pana: sister (of a man)

ñaña : sister (of a woman)

The term ñaña, and the male ñaño (derived according to the Spanish scheme) has become a common word in Spanish in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia (states where Quechua is spoken) with the meaning of an ‘intimate friend.’

Children also have distinctions according to age or according to other conditions:

phiwi: eldest son

sullk’a : youngest child

chana, ñuñu, puchu: final child

wawachakusqa : adoptive son of a woman

churichakusqa : adoptive son of man