Audrey Richards' Chisungu, published by Faber and Faber in 1956, is a landmark ethnographic study of the Chisungu girls' initiation ceremony among the Bemba of what was then Northern Rhodesia, based on Richards' own fieldwork observing the rite. Richards was a leading figure in British social anthropology. Its strength is that it is one of the first detailed firsthand ethnographic accounts of a female initiation rite in the discipline's history and remains a standard citation in the anthropology of ritual. Its limit is that it describes the ceremony as practiced among the Bemba in the 1930s, so a claim about the rite's later or present-day form needs a more recent source.
Facts
Assessment
Reliability Tier1
Published by Faber and Faber in 1956, Audrey Richards' landmark ethnographic study by a leading figure in British social anthropology based on her own fieldwork, treated at the top tier. NotesAudrey Richards's ethnographic study of the Chisungu girls' initiation ceremony among the Bemba.
Citation
AuthorAudrey I. Richards
PublisherFaber and Faber
Publication Year1956
Source TypeEthnography
Claims Backed By This Source (26 claims)
This source backs 26 claims across the atlas. As facts: 23 well-attested. As cited relationships: 1 holds. Plus 2 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Rituals, 11 claims: 9 well-attested, 1 holds, 1 general references.
- Sources, 7 claims: 7 well-attested.
- Articles, 4 claims: 4 well-attested.
- Religions, 4 claims: 3 well-attested, 1 general references.
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