The Rites of Passage

Rating:
Summary: A book worth reading
Review: It suggests a theortical framework for explaining many cultural beliefs.

Rating:
Summary: A good text in anthropology
Review: It suggests a theortical framework for explaining many cultural beliefs.

Rating:
Summary: A book worth reading
Review: This book is worth reading. As an early work (published in 1908), it has influenced many Anthropologists. Amazingly, it was not translated into English from French until 1960, so students (and others) who wished to read it had to be either fluent in French or willing to translate it sentence by sentence.

Although many of its concepts are considered elementary by the unknowing today, it was a revolutionary look at cross-cultural phenomenon, namely the rites surrounding territories, pregnancy/childbirth, childhood, initiation, bethrothal/marriage and funerals.

It is a great basis for a complete understanding of the history of Anthropology.