Chapters 17 and 18 Summary

Here again in these chapters, the author increases the range and depth of her experience with The Real People.

"Medicine of Music" This chapter begins with a re-definition of the term music - which in this context, means not medical medicine but "anything good that one contributed to the overall welfare of the group." Ooota comments that in the way of "The Real People," no talent is regarded as greater or less than any other - those who make music are treated with as much respect as those who find water. A day or so later, members of the tribe hold a concert in a canyon, using found objects as instruments - hollowed out gourds, a large rotten branch, thin pieces of shale. The music, writes the author, seems improvised at times and at other times seems to have been around...