Religion

H. Sidky is Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio. His research interests include the anthropology of religion, ecological anthropology, anthropological theory/history of anthropological thought, and scientific methods in anthropology. He has conducted ethnographic field research in Afghanistan, northern Pakistan, Nepal, Easter Island, central Australia, and among the Tibetan exile community in northern India. Dr. Sidky is the author of numerous books, including Haunted by the Archaic Shaman: Himalayan Jhakris and the Discourse on Shamanism (2008), Perspectives on Culture: A Critical Introduction to Theory in Cultural Anthropology (2004), Halfway to the Mountain: The Jirels of Eastern Nepal (2004), A Critique of Postmodern Anthropology: In Defense of Disciplinary Origins and Traditions (2003), The Greek Kingdom of Bactria: From Alexander to Eucratides the Great (2000), and Witchcraft, Lycanthropy, Drugs and Disease: An Anthropological Study of the European Witch-Persecutions (Lang, 1997).

• Contents: Anthropology and Religion – Religion, Cognition, and Prehistory – Shamanism – Altered States of Consciousness and Religion – Entheogens and Religious Experience – Witchcraft: Evil in Human Form – Magic and Divination – Religion and the Paranormal – Religion: Organization and Evolutionary Patterns – Religion and Ecology – Ritual: The Practical Dimension of Religion – Myth: The Narrative Dimension of Religion – Symbols: The Representational Dimension of Religion – Revitalization Movements and the Origins of Religion – Fundamentalism – Religion and Violence.