Includes bibliographical references (pages [289]-308) and index.

Introduction: the question of truth in the historiography and ethnog raphy of Ifa divination -- Truth as an ethnographic object -- Ifa in We st Africa and the prestige of truth -- Afro-American religion and the p olitics of its representation -- Truth in anthropology: from nature and culture to recursive analysis -- Evolutionism, "diffusionism," constru ctivism: the fall of truth -- Toward a recursive analysis of truth -- T ruth beyond doubt: the alterity of divination -- Divination in anthropo logy -- Evans-Pritchard on oracles -- Boyer on divination, causal indic es, and truth -- Divination and indubitability -- Desiderata for an ana lysis of divinatory truth -- Living If�a: the matter of truth -- True encounters -- Divinatory regulation: Javier's initiatory career -- Div ination and the path of initiation -- The matrix of initiation and the propulsion of paths -- Living If�a -- Speaking If�a and the economy of learning -- Secrets -- Mythical transcendence and ritual elicitatio n: the cosmo-praxis of If�a divination -- The problem with the proble m of transcendence -- Myth and transcendence -- Ritual and immanence -- The cosmological problem of divination -- The liturgy of If�a divina tion -- The ontology of motion: power, powder and vertical transformati on -- Ontological non sequiturs -- Motile practice: a choreography of n uts -- Motile discourse: talking of paths -- Motile cosmology: ach�e in divination -- An interlude on the analysis of motility, or, the powe r of powder -- Motile ontology: potential relations and the direction o f motion -- Divinatory metamorphosis: symbolism, interpretation, and th e motility of meaning -- The problem of symbolism and the motility of m eaning -- Interrogating orula -- "Speaking the signo, "interpreting the paths" -- Motile meanings in divination -- The event of truth: coincid ence, revelation, bewilderment -- Coincidence, paths, and the event of truth (or bewilderment) -- Motile truth, representation and their mutua l eclipse -- Skepticism and misunderstanding -- Definition and obligati on: the truth of the oracles -- No lies, no mistakes -- Divination and definition -- Divination and obligation -- Initiation as ontological tr ansformation -- Equivocations -- Conclusion: anthropological truth -- D ivination and anthropology -- Ontography as antidivination -- Epilogue: on humility -- Appendix A: the naming and ranking of divinatory config urations -- Appendix B: "papers of If�a": an example.