Nest in the Wind: Adventures in Anthropology on a Tropical Island

On a magnificent island in the middle of the Pacific lives a people who eat dogs, grow quarter-ton yams in secret, stage extraordinarily dramatic feasts, have exceptionally relaxed attitudes about sex, and ritually share a potent drink called kava. Nest in the Wind is a very personal record of the field experiences of a female anthropologist who managed a scientific research project on the lush, tropical island of Pohnpei in the early 1970s. Her picture of life on Pohnpei is gripping and accurate: living in a tin shack, speaking a new language, observing manners and following customs, finding food, adopting a son, earning a high title, becoming pregnant, and overcoming spells placed on her. The standard questions of ethnography, including family life, sex, childbirth, economics, politics, religion, medicine, magic and death, are thoroughly addressed, clothed in the easy format of personal experiences with real people.