"Complex spatial and temporal settings define this creative work. . . . Mimica stands out for his linguistic competence and his intense focus on subjectivity. His close reading will likely gain in stature as the region becomes subject to comparative, transformational analysis, a circumstance Mimica’s intense description facilitates. . . . Mimica’s erudition rises on every page."

Pacific Affairs

"This book is an embarrassment of riches both ethnographic and theoretical. The depth and scope of Mimica's ambition are rare. His inimitable writing style carries the reader forward headlong, at times breathlessly. His choice and treatment of topics—Christianity, shamanism, mind, personhood, and subjectivity—are very much of the moment. The presentation and analysis of Yagwoia men's dreams demonstrates why psychoanalysis, skilfully deployed, remains indispensable in ethnography, especially the notion that the outsider, self-aware, steeped in knowledge of and sympathy for the other, is often well-equipped to represent the other's subjectivity. Mimica's fine-grained portraits of individual Yagwoia and their milieux, created over many years, add to the authority of his insights into the Yagwoia life-world."

Gillian Gillison, author of Between culture and fantasy: A New Guinea Highlands mythology

"This is a remarkable text. It is evident that we are in the hands of both a major intellect and a masterful ethnographer. The work is a powerful one."

Michael Lambek, author of The Ethical Condition: Essays on Action, Person, and Value