ABSTRACT
Audrey Richards's Chisungu: A girls' initiation ceremony among the Bemba of Northern Rhodesia is a major landmark in the analysis not only of rites de passage but of ritual in general. It is scrupulous in the presentation of ethnographic detail on the ceremony and its implications for Bemba society, yet far reaching in its general theoretical conclusions. While the Gisu, some of whose ritual I shall discuss here, are a patrilineal malecentred people, whose great ritual complex is based on the initiation of youths not girls, many of my insights into the meaning of that ritual derived from this classic analysis of the Bemba. It would not be feasible, within the confines of this paper, to attempt a full analysis of male initiation rites among the Gisu, and anything less would be a poor compliment. However, an interpretation of the rites de passage of women is both suitable as a tribute to the author of Chisungu and sheds light on some important elements of Gisu society and, indeed, on the initiation of men.
