Marie Lecomte-Tilouine is research director at CNRS, and member of the Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Sociale, CNRS/EHESS/Collège de France, Paris, France. She has coordinated several collective programs of research in Nepal and the Western Himalayas and she is now heading a program on the “Stones fallen from the Sky”, included in the PEPR Origins. Her books include, Hindu Kingship, Ethnic Revival and Maoist Rebellion in Nepal, 2009; (ed.) Bards and Mediums: History, Culture and Politics in the Central himalayan Kingdoms, Almora, 2009; (ed.) Revolution in Nepal, 2013; (ed.) Nature, Culture and Religion at the Crossroads of Asia, 2017; and Sacrifice and violence, forthcoming. Anne de Sales is senior researcher emerita at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and member of the Laboratoire d’Ethnologie et de Sociologie Comparative/CNRS/Paris Nanterre Université. She has participated in or coordinated several collective research projects in the anthropology of Nepal and the Himalayas. Her publications include a monograph on an ethnic minority, the Kham-Magar, and numerous articles on shamanic practices and oral literature. Her publications have also addressed a range of anthropological issues concerning the impact of the Maoist insurrection on rural areas.