The research of A. van Gennep (1873-1957) is intended to substantiate the author’s idea, according to which the essence of life (starting from the life of an individual and ending with cosmic phenomena) consists of a consistent change of stages - transitions from one state to another; the end of one stage and the beginning of another form systems of the same order. Having introduced this concept, new for his time, the author substantiated it, drawing on extensive material from the life of peoples literally all over the world, thereby proving the universality of the phenomenon. The book provided the key to organizing the material according to a unified scheme in the author’s subsequent extensive research on the ethnography of France. The theory has caused serious debate among specialists. The book is invariably referred to by researchers from different countries, and there is a translation into English. Published in Russian for the first time.