Chicken bones relate to this story because Ethan says in the book when he is spying on Amma one night, that it looks as if she is using chicken bones and throwing them on the ground to summon her ancestors to help protect and give advice to her to help protect Ethan and Lena. Amma also uses them to summon Ethan's dead mother so she can talk to Ethan and tell him to help save Macon from the Orb.