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Now in English! Traditional games are important dynamics to strengthen the bond between human beings and their environment, improving the ties of brotherhood, coexistence, solidarity and reciprocity between members of the community.
Among the indigenous peoples of South America it also serves for the circulation of knowledge. For example, among the Yukpa of the Sierra de Perijá, the game of string is known as shakü 
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Several versions of the myth that tells the origin of shakü agree that it was the learning of a woman returned from the land of the dead. Following the principles of Yukpa cosmology, knowledge that is important to the dead is also important to the living. I'd like to delve deeper into this at some point here on the Fediverse.
In any case, when one dies, one of the tests to reach the community of the dead is knowing how to make a figure and explain its meaning.
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The game works as a mnemonic mechanism for transmitting knowledge about #biodiversity, since among the more than 100 figures that are shared between children, many are parts of animals or plants.
For example, the kids in this thread are making the jaguar's mouth (yisho yiponta), but there are many other figures, such as the peccary's footprint or the zamuro's mouth.
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Other figures are more arithmetic, such as "the 15", which is an intricate shakü with 15 vertices. And so it is on the 18th, the 20th. (I have a photo in my files, I should upload it later)
It is a way of exercising geometry that young people are very excited about.
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It is a game spread throughout the world and the Amazon, for sure. Here is a visual document from 1911 of the Pemon people (from the Caribbean linguistic family, like Yukpa). At minute 6:25 you can see how they play w/the string.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frvlMiHxvQ0&t=385
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All of this reminds me of some words from D. Haraway about this game, in a different context but one that resonates with what I was thinking. I don't have the exact quote in english but it's something like "Just like in this game, encountering other creatures involves being knotted and intertwined with each other. It is a collaborative and dynamic way of establishing relationships with others, of inhabiting and thinking about the world, questioning human exceptionalism."
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