This book, first published in 2002, analyses the ways in which power is experienced by individuals as agents and objects.

Foreword Gananath Obeyesekere; 1. Introduction: Theorizing power and the self Jeannette Mageo and Bruce Knauft; Part I. Power Differentials in the US: 2. The genocidal continuum: peace time crimes Nancy Scheper-Hughes; 3. Intimate power, public selves: Bakhtin's space of authoring William S. Lachicotte; Part II. Transitional Psychologies: 4. Playing with power: morphing toys and transforming heroes in kids' mass culture Ann Allison; 5. Consciousness of the state and the experience of self: the runaway daughter of a Turkish guest worker Katherine Ewing; Part III. Colonial Encounters: Power/History/Self: 6. Spirit, self, and power: the making of colonial experience in Papua New Guinea Douglas Dalton; 7. Self models and sexual agency Jeannette Mageo; Part IV. Reading Power against the Grain: 8. Eager subjects, reluctant powers: the irrelevance of ideology in a secret New Guinea male cult Harriet Whitehead; 9. Feminist emotions Catherine Lutz.