Abstract: THIS is a collection of ten essays dealing with various aspects of symbolism and ritual among the Ndembu of Zambia, Central Africa. Nine have been published previously; the tenth—over a quarter of the text—is a new and richly detailed account of male initiation. The volume contains the greater part of Professor Turner's published work on religion. Using data of extraordinary richness, it presents some of the most provocative and suggestive theories recently advanced in the study of ritual behaviour and symbolism. Complemented by his earlier accounts of Ndembu social structure, this provides one of the few post-war studies sure to rank as an ethnographic classic. These essays were written over a period of ten years, and thus display a course of gradual analytical development. It is unfortunate that Professor Turner has made no attempt to consolidate his theories in the brief introduction; but the first chapter does present many of his central ideas so that the reader may follow the basic line of argument. Turner is concerned with two interdependent questions: (1) What are the peculiar properties of symbols which give them their enduring force in both the conception and the ritual enactment of moral values ? (2) What are the relations between symbolic behaviour and ideology and the broader problems of social relations ? In both his definition and his scheme for investigation Turner insists upon the essential ambiguity of symbols and of their associated ritual behaviour. For him, symbols condense and unify complex and disparate themes, synthesizing both ideological and sensory items through a process he terms polarization. Turner accounts for this by means of certain universal psycho-physiological processes through which socialization and ideation are effected in each individual. For him, the appetitive and sensory aspects of men are tamed in the interest of society. Psycho-physiological forces find expression through symbolic acts, yet are kept within socially safe bounds by the very formal structures which specific symbols involve. Thus, the moral code of society is vitalized by its association with sensory cues and libidinous urges; and these socially destructive urges of individuals are constrained within socially workable bounds, even as they are vented in repressed form. These repressed forms of expression account for further cathartic effects of ritual. The artifice of culture and ritual supports yet constrains chaotic, natural man according to a model parallel to the current work of LeVi-Strauss, though Turner's theories lead through Christian and Freudian channels rather than toward the former's own type of relativistic pessimism. Turner emphasizes symbols as expressions of forces; LeVi-Strauss emphasizes their nominal qualities but both see symbols as links between the natural and cultural aspects of men. Turner is more sophisticated psychologically and utilizes data with greater detail and reliability than LeVi-Strauss. On the other hand, he lacks appreciation of those logical and formal qualities which all symbolic systems also possess. We have a superb account of the detailed operation of Ndembu symbols within narrow ritual fields of action, but no broad account ofNdembu cosmology and its relation to any of these symbolic sub-systems.