Coming of age is understood here as a status change in the human life cycle comprising the transition of the social person from childhood to full adulthood. While in some parts of the world coming of age is marked by a rite of passage which displays the tripartite structure of separation, transition (liminality), and aggregation as defined by A. van Gennep (1960) and Victor Turner (1970), in the regions discussed here the status change for women is to be understood typically as a process consisting of several stages and unmarked by a communal celebration.

Although the three vast regions …