Among the many who have shaped my work, Philip Huang and David Farquhar taught me, first, that a dialogue must be maintained between fact and theory and, second, the imperative of rewriting. Hal Kahn, G. W. Skinner, and Lyman P. Van Slyke provoked me to think about history and anthropology while tolerating my pedantry and pleas for incomplete grades. Mary Rankin commented extensively on an earlier version of the manuscript and suggested many ways to improve it.