There is a pattern of thought based on 3 in South America. In Zuidema that is made quite clear, by the 'map' over Cuzco and all those ideas involving the system of ceque.

Given 'black' and 'white' as opposites, then we can mix them and get 'black + white', and there will be 3 sorts:

"It might be appropriate at this point to enter into the problem of the ayllu and the evidence pointing to a tripartition with it. According to Holguín (1607, cap. LII) the ayllu is a kinship group.

In Aymara, ayllu means penis, which míght be an indication of the patrilinear character of the ayllu. In Quechua there is a related word ullu for penis.

In Quechua, however, the word ayllu is the name of a particular kind of weapon, called bolas, or boladora, in Spanish. In Peru this weapon consisted of three metal or stone balls joined together by leather thongs.

The connection beween the three different meanings of the word ayllu: a social group, the male genitals, and the bolas, can be illustrated by a number of examples, as for instance a number of Aymara words from the stem urco. Bertonio (1612) gives the following examples:

'1) Urcoña: the stone grinder for grinding corn;

2) Urcoña cchanca: a very strong, triple thread;

3) Urcoña: a rope from which pieces of string hang down, used for hunting vicuñas and deer (i.e. bolas);

4) Urcoña, or chacha urco: a strong man, the captain on whose courage others depend;

5) Urcorara: a large herd, a body of men or male animals.'

The fourth and fifth headings point to the concept of a social group, and the second and third to a tripartition. The fourth and fifth headings also mention the male characters. In Quechua, urco is a general word indicating the male species.

The second meaning, 'very strong, triple thread', reminds us again of a Quechua word with the same meaning which also points to a connection with the Quechua kinship system. According to Holguín (1608) the Quechua word mullaypa means a rope of esparto, twined of three strands.

This word may be derived from mulla, which means brother's children (of a woman speaker). Translated literally mullaypa would then mean: 'of my brother's children'.

One could perhaps read in these meanings: a rope twined of three strands, and of bolas, a symbolisation of the ayllu as an endogamous group consisting of three matrilineal lineages, linked by MoBroDa marriage." (Zuidema)

These thoughts about bolas etc remind me of one meaning of henua which Churchill couldn't understand: Pupuhi henua, volley:

"I cannot understand this henua. Of course the cannon to which it is applied is modern and alien and became known to the islanders as part of the equipment of the whaler and the explorer. A very simple explanation is to regard fanua as objective, fanafanua as the shooter at the shore; this is doubly negatived, first because fana takes for its object the missile shot and not the mark aimed at, second because Viti requires vanua in a genitive character. And if this metaphor is so simple, why is it confined to Proto-Samoan folk without suggesting itself to their Tongafiti kin? I think the applicability must rest in some meaning of fanua which has nothing to do with land."

And then another thought, by Posnansky, that the Y-formed sceptre in the hands of two of the three daysigns on the Gateway of the Sun might show an éstolica, an instrument for throwing darts.