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Book SynopsisAudrey Richards (1899-1984) was a leading British anthropologist of the twentieth century and the first woman president of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Based on fieldwork conducted at a time when the discipline was dominated by male anthropologists, Chisungu: A Girl's Initiation Ceremony Among the Bemba of Zambia is widely hailed as a classic of anthropology and African and gender studies.
Underpinned by painstaking research carried out by Richards among the Bemba people in northern Zambia in the 1930s, Chisungu focuses on the initiation ceremonies for young Bemba girls. Pioneering the study of women's rituals and challenging the prevailing theory that rites of passage served merely to transfer individuals from one status to another, Richards writes about the incredibly rich and diverse aspects of ritual that characterised Chisungu: its concern with matriliny; deference to elders; sex and reproduction; the birth of children; ideas about the continu
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"…a classic for the study of initiation rites" - American Anthropologist
"…a pioneer study of a rite de passage" - African Affairs
"For fifty years, Audrey Richards enriched anthropology; her contribution during that time was one of its guiding lights. Throughout her long and fruitful life, as teacher, administrator, and social analyst, she assayed kinship, nutrition, fertility, labor, migration and ritual, in studies that are classics in their field." - American Ethnologist
Table of ContentsForeword to the Routledge Classics Edition Jessica Johnson Introduction Jean La Fontaine Part 1: The Cultural Setting 1. Environment and Activities 2. Ideology and Dogma 3. Social Structure 4. The Marriage Contract 5. Accepted Sex Roles Part 2: The Ceremony 6. The Ritual Type 7. The Actors in the Ceremony 8. The Character of the Rite 9. The Ceremony 10. Calendar of Events at Chisungu Performed at Chinsali Part 3: The Interpretation of the Ceremony 11. Methods of Interpretation 12. Expressed Purposes of the Chisungu 13. Deduced Attitudes 14. The Chisingu in Relation to Tribal Dogma and Values 15. Unconscious Tensions and Conflicts 16. Pragmatic Effects. Appendix A: The Distribution of Chisungu Ceremonies in Central Africa Appendix B: Songs Sung During the Ceremony Bibliography Index
