Acknowledgments; Preface; Chapter 1: Meeting the Laibon Lonyoki; Chapter 2: Living with Nomads; Chapter 3: The Dark Valley; Chapter 4: The Long Hunger; Chapter 5: Epilogue: The Gourd Is Passed; List of Characters, Words, and Places; Suggested Readings; About the Author
Summary
Elliot Fratkin shares the story of his early anthropological fieldwork in Kenya in the 1970s. Using his fieldnotes and letters home to bring to life the voices of those he met, Fratkin invites the reader to experience his cross-cultural friendships with the enigmatic laibon (a diviner and healer of the Samburu and Maasai peoples) Lonyoki, his family, and the people of the nomadic community of Lukumai. Fratkin participated in the daily lives of the Ariaal livestock herders and accompanied the laibon as he performed divination and healing rituals throughout Marsabit and Samburu Districts. After
