ABSTRACT

Audrey Richards is characterized by the quality of her fieldwork, and the range and variety of the material she has published. Her first field study on the Bemba is still unmatched in Africa for the detail provided on production and nutrition, and, in addition, the Bemba saga includes outstanding studies in depth of ritual and of political structure. Already in 1935, she was reflecting upon how to analyse changing societies, and in 1940 was writing on Bemba Marriage and Modern Economic Conditions, a pioneering study of change in kinship and ritual. The lines for future research in East Africa were already laid down, and were developed in comparative studies of: chieftainship; the shift from hereditary authority to appointed administrators; village structure; patterns of migrant labour; and, changing patterns of farming.