ABSTRACT
The anthropologist struggling to interpret a complex ceremony has to use a number of different approaches. It is obvious that a complete interpretation of every act in a ceremony is unlikely to be given by the whole community or even by the ritual experts in it. The anthropologists’ interpretations of religion and magic are naturally based largely on sociological concepts, and they tend to emphasize the function of ritual in maintaining a particular institution, such as the family, or a reciprocal exchange system, such as the Kula ring. In the case of the chisungu ceremony, for instance, we shall ask how far the relations between husband and wife, as they are enforced by law, extolled in fable, and otherwise represented as desirable by the community are also symbolized in the ceremony. For whatever conscious or unconscious reasons, the Bemba girl and her family approach the time of puberty with apprehension and anxiety.
