One of the most distinctive divination methods, practiced in African and other shamanic traditions, is the bone reading. The reader casts a set of bones, stones, shells, or other small objects and interprets the pattern they form on a designated surface, reading the relationships between objects and their proximity to each other as a symbolic map of the questioner's situation. Each object in the set carries specific symbolic associations, and skilled practitioners have often worked with the same set of objects for years, developing a deep understanding of their language.