Throop is remarkably knowledgeable about Yap, strikingly fluent in the local language, and empathically engaged in understanding the lives - and pain - of those with whom he works. This book is a classic of Pacific ethnography, a grounded and subtle contribution to the burgeoning literature on pain and suffering, and an important, person-centered study that is also deeply embedded in rich cultural analysis."--Don Brenneis, University of California, Santa Cruz