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and even though diviners are fairly evenly distributed throughout Lobi country. Thus a diviner has less time for his work in the fields or for his other activities than a Lobi who is not a diviner. That the diviner earns practically nothing for his divinatory services makes the situation even worse. He receives five cowries (about half a cent) per consultation when he divines at home and twenty cowries at another location chosen by the client. Furthermore, a diviner enjoys neither high social status nor any particular privileges; he gains in prestige only if his divination is particularly good, just as any Lobi does who performs some activity better than the others, be it farming, carving, or dancing. Finally, a diviner very seldom divines for himself. Should he have some serious problem, he too must seek the help of a diviner. All this means that a diviner dedicates much time to other people without really benefiting from it himself. That is why a Lobi tries to avoid the call from his thil. Nonetheless, I have never heard of a Lobi successfully defying his wathil. |
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Partly responsible for the low status of the diviner and his lack of compensation is the fact that divining requires no special education. The future diviner has already sat in on numerous consultations as a client, has watched various diviners during their relatively simple rituals, and has even taken an active part in them. He knows how to greet the thila, how to question them, and how to verify the results of the questioning. He must pass only one test consultation with a senior diviner: finding out what this aged diviner is thinking about and what is the reason for the consultation. As soon as he has passed the test he is a diviner and maymust, in factreceive clients. |
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Both diviner and client are called buor in Lobiri, a terminological equality that is in keeping with what has just been said. The diviner does not distinguish himself from his peers through a larger income, a higher social status, or a wider technical knowledge. Usually he becomes a diviner simply to avoid further retribution from his wathil. |
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Reasons for Consulting a Diviner |
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When does a Lobi seek out a diviner? The only general answer I received from the Lobi was that "we go to the diviner when we are so afraid of something that we just don't know what else to do." By slightly modifying a formula of Herskovits (1938, vol. 2:305), we can apply it here and say that such a fear is unleashed by events that are "counter to the most common-place routine of everyday behavior." Besides deaths, serious illnesses, injuries, and accidents, such events include any important and inexplicable disturbances of daily life. The Lobi turn to a diviner when, for example, their harvest is worse than a neighbor's, when a man tries in vain to capture a woman, when a woman cannot have children, when pots continually break during the firing, or even when a person is disturbed by a bad dream. |
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Not only can the behavior of people lead to a consultation; the unusual behavior of animals can, too. For example, domestic animals may die in great numbers |
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