Audrey Richards (1899-1984) was one of the outstanding ethnographers of her generation. She completed her PhD at the London School of Economics in 1931, under the supervision of Bronisław Malinowski. She was amongst the first anthropologists to carry out fieldwork in Africa and taught at the University of the Witwatersrand from 1937 to 1940. On her return to England she taught at the London School of Economics and was a key member of the Colonial Social Science Research Council, leading to her becoming director of the newly established East Africa Institute at Makerere University, Uganda in 1950. She returned to England again in 1956 as a Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge, where she later served as vice-principal. She was awarded a CBE in 1955 and became the first woman president of the Royal Anthropological Institute.

• Foreword 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

"…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