Haunted by the Archaic Shaman critically engages the general discourse on shamanism by using ethnographic data gathered among different ethnic groups in the Nepal Himalayas to address several key conceptual issues and problems in the scholarly field of shamanic studies. Sidky not only tackles topics that appear beyond resolution to many, such as defining shamanism and delimiting its geographical scope, but also challenges on empirical and theoretical grounds several widely held ideas that have assumed the status of incontrovertible facts, such as the antiquity of shamanism and its place in the rise of human religiosity. This book makes a significant theoretical contribution to the field of shamanic studies and the anthropology of religion.

"Sidky's commitment to scientific, verifiable conclusions is, likewise, admirable…. And though it does not resolve the knotty questions of how to define and practice ethnography, it offers an instructive example of how one very conscientious scholar has dealt with them." - Journal of Folklore Research