Bamo Ayi is an anthropologist and scholar of comparative religion. She is deputy director of the Foreign Affairs Department, State Nationalities Commission, and professor of philosophy at Central Nationalities University, Beijing. Stevan Harrell is an anthropologist and translator. He is professor of anthropology at the University of Washington. Ma Lunzy is an ethnologist, historian, author, and curator. He is deputy director of Liangshan Minorities Research Institute.

• Preface to the English EditionAcknowledgmentsPart One: Origins1. Growing up Half Yi / Bamo Ayi2. In the Shadow of the Han / Ma Lunzy3. A White Guy Discovers Anthropology / Stevan HarrellPart Two: China4. Yinchang: My First Fieldwork, 1987-88 / Bamo Ayi5. Getting Started in Southwest China, 1987-88 / Stevan Harrell6. Chasing after Bimo, 1992-93 / Bamo Ayi7. Getting Started Again, 1991 / Stevan Harrell8. First Contact, 1991 / Ma Lunzy9. Almost Real Fieldwork, 1993 / Stevan Harrell10. In the Month of the Snake , 1993 / Ma Lunzy11. Fieldwork with Muga, 1994 / Bamo Ayi12. Getting Further Implicated, 1994 / Stevan Harrell13. The Last Time I Led the Horse, 1994 / Ma Lunzy14. The Bimo in the Modern World, 1994-95 / Bamo AyiPart Three: America15. The First International Yi Conference, 1995 / Ma Lunzy16. Seattle First Free Methodist Church, 1996-97 / Bamo Ayi17. Collecting Mountain Patterns, 1999 / Ma Lunzy18. Conceptualizing Mountain Patterns, 2000 / Bamo Qubumo19. Celebrating Mountain Patterns, 2000 / Stevan HarrellEpilogue: Fieldwork Connections and the Process of Ethnography / Stevan HarrellCast of CharactersChinese and Nuosu GlossaryBibliographyIndex

"This fascinating book is the result of multiparty fieldwork, unfolding over more than two decades. It is a valuable, inspired documentation of cross-cultural collaborative research that will prove especially engaging and informative to all of those who, working across disciplines, grapple with the thorny issue of representing the voices of indigenous peoples and minorities. Readers who are interested in ethnic relations in China will delight in how the book succeeds in situating the special problems faced in the authors' research in the context of contemporary global discussions. . . . It also offers one of the richest, most multifaceted accounts anywhere of Nuosu history, culture, and relations with others."