While there have been a number of descriptions and interpretations of boys' initiation rituals, Audrey Richards's classic study of initiation rites among the Bemba remains one of the few studies to deal in detail with the initiation of girls into adult life. Dr Richards observed the entire chisungu or female initiation rite, an almost continuous series of complex ceremonies lasting for a month. Her detailed description of the elements of the ritual, and her analysis of it in terms of the culture of matrilineal society, have made this a classic ethnographic and theoretical text. Celebrating the attainment of sexual and social maturity, the puberty rituals reflect tribal attitudes to sex, fertility, marriage, and the rearing of children. We see how women's ceremonies portray and try to enforce the social obligations of marriage and the setting up of the kinship group, and the conflicts of interest that are involved.

奧德麗•理查茲（1899-1984），英國人類學傢，其著作代錶瞭20世紀中期人類學的發展成果，同時她也是對當時各種理論的批判者和反思者之一。她擔任過英國的非洲研究學會第二任會長；1967年，作為英國社會人類學傢被選為英國國傢學術院院士。

張舉文，美國Willamette University教授兼東亞係係主任、美國民俗學會執行理事會理事。他翻譯的《過渡禮儀》的譯文收到廣泛肯定。