Description: "Anthropologist Goodman (Denison Univ.) is best known for her widely read books ontrance, possession, ecstasy and altered states of consciousness (e.g. Where the Spirits Ride theWind, CH, Feb'91; How About Demons?, 1988). Decades ago she was among the only serious students ofglossolalia, or speaking-in-tongues. None had studied the phenomenon among speakers ofexotic languages when in 1969 Goodman began observing a Maya Pentecostal group in Yucatan. HereGoodman publishes field diaries documenting in rich and moving detail her almost two decades ofcontact with that small but active congregation. Goodman seems to have edited out the roughness offield writings so that the text is highly readable. The resulting work provides an exceedingly rarewindow on the tumultuous life history of a sect among whom trances and visions are commonplace, andwho at one juncture tensely awaited the imminent second coming of Christ (hence the book's title).On a more personal level, the author intends her book as a chronicle of her deep and developingrelationships with Maya village women, thus contributing to the still growing genre of reflexivewritings by women anthropologists. This is a very stimulating, valuable, and unique book for alllevels/collections." -P. R. Sullivan, independent scholar, 2002may CHOICE

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