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Internal feeling states have commonly been assumed to be the primary referents of emotion words in Western thought, both social-scientific (Cardiner, Metcalf, and Beebe-Center 1937; Solomon 1976Solomon , 1978 and lay (Davitz 1969). In these views, the function of the emotion word is to label an internal state and perhaps to communicate that state to others. To an important extent, however, scientific conceptions of emotion and person are rooted in In these societies, emotion words are seen as statements about the relationship between a person and an event (particularly those involving another person), rather than as statements about introspection on one's internal states. In addition, physiological descriptions of emotion do not frequently occur naturally and in some cases are extremely difficult to elicit (Cerber 1975:183).A study of emotion words on the Micronesian atoll of lfaluk indicates that these words are defined and sorted by informants based on the situations in which the emotion usually occurs. The way in which people talk about emotion words is related to broader ethnotheories about the nature of the self. The world view and values within which emotion words have meaning are therefore emphasized. The clusters and dimensions that emerge from card sorting by lfalukian informants display both some universal features of semantic meaning and some culturally specific foci that are related to the central values and ethnotheories of many Ifaluk. Although the differences between emotion words and emotions are clear, both cultural differences and universals in the meaning of emotion words can provide important evidence about the nature of emotion itself (Lutz 1981 b). ethnographic background and methodThe lfaluk are a Malayo-Polynesian group inhabiting a one-half square mile coral atoll in the Western Pacific.' The 430 members of this densely populated society subsist on taro,The cognitive organization of the domain of emotion words on the island of lfaluk is examined. Native speakers define and sort emotion words based on the situation in which the relevant emotion typically occurs. English emotion words, bv contrast, are usuallv organized on phvsiological principles. Universal dimensions of meaning found in other studies of psvchological language and culture are also found here, however, and these dimensions, being themselves multidimensional, are interpreted in light of the lfalukian ethos. [cognitive anthropology, emotion, ethnopsychology, psychological anthropology, Ifaluk]

Interest in the study of emotion and affectivity has been building in anthropology for several years. This area of human experience is a kind of "last bastion" of ethnographic research, investigating at it does human inner states. The paradox of emotions is that everyone recognizes that humans express them, but no one can know exactly what the experience of emotion is for others. If humans could know the emotional experience of others, poetry, narrative and music would undoubtedly be much different than they are. This collection of papers approaches the understanding of emotion through "discourse." The authors eschew earlier approaches: "essentializing" emotions, or "relativizing" them both culturally and historically. They view these approaches as flawed because they detach emotions from the flow of social life. Instead they:

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