Carol Laderman is Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at City College--CUNY. She is the author of Wives and Midwives (1983) and Taming the Wind of Desire (1991). Marina Roseman, the author of Healing Sounds fromthe Malaysian Rainforest (1991) is Assistant Professor in the Departments of Music, Anthropology, Folklore and Folklife, and Associate Faculty of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.

"The contributors broaden the field of medical anthropology by demonstrating that healing involves the senses in treatments whose efficacy depends in part on dramatic performance." -- American Rehabilitation"...an exceptionally well-integrated and consistently well-written volume...I recommend it to anyone interested in religious practice and the human condition ." -- Religious Studies Review

• Introduction, Carol Laderman, Marina Roseman; Chapter 1 Initiating Performance, Laurel Kendall; Chapter 2 On Failure and Performance, Edward Schieffelin; Chapter 3 Imaginal Performance and Memory in Ritual Healing, Thomas J. Csordas; Chapter 4 The Poetics of Healing in Malay Shamanistic Performances, Carol Laderman; Chapter 5 Presence, Robert R. Desjarlais; Chapter 6 Sounds and Things, Paul Stoller; Chapter 7 The Meaning of Nonsense, the Poetics of Embodiment, and the Production of Power in Warao Healing, Charles L. Briggs; Chapter 8 “Pure Products Go Crazy”, Marina Roseman; Chapter 9 From Diagnosis to Performance, Janet Hoskins; Chapter 10 Dying as Medical Performance, Megan Biesele, Robbie Davis-Floyd;