was a Japanese anthropologist.

Overviews

Yamaguchi was born in

Bihoro, Hokkaidō is a town located in Okhotsk Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. The name is derived from the Ainu word ''piporo'', meaning "place of much water". Largely agricultural, the town is best known for the Bihoro Pass, which has views over Lake Kusshar ...

. A key figure in the introduction of

structural anthropology Structural anthropology is a school of sociocultural anthropology based on Claude Lévi-Strauss' 1949 idea that immutable deep structures exist in all cultures, and consequently, that all cultural practices have homologous counterparts in other ...

to Japan, Yamaguchi was also noted for his engagements with political questions such as the Japanese emperor system and assimilation policies. Yamaguchi was also noted as a writer on the concepts of hermaphroditism and the trickster, and performed fieldwork in Asia, Africa, and elsewhere.

Selected bibliography

*「人類学的思考」("anthropological investigation") *「文化と両義性」("culture and duality") *「文化の詩学」("The Poetics of Culture") *「アフリカの神話的世界」("The African Mythical World") *「同化的世界」("An Assimilating World") *「知の遠近法」("Perspectives of Knowledge") *「仕掛けとしての文化」 *「文化人類学への招待」("An Invitation to Cultural Anthropology") *「同化の民俗学」("The Ethnology of Assimilation") *「天皇制の文化人類学」("The Cultural Anthropology of the Emperor System") *「「挫折」の昭和史」("A History of Failure in the Showa Period") *「「敗者」の精神史」("A Psychological History of Losers') *「敗者学のすすめ」("For a study of the losing side") *「はみだし（ステップ・アウト）の方法」("Stepping Outside") *「内田魯山山脈」 *「山口昌男ラビリンス」("Yamaguchi Masao Labyrinth") *「経営者の精神史」("A Psychological History of the Manager")

References

1931 births 2013 deaths People from Hokkaido Japanese anthropologists University of Tokyo alumni Academic staff of the University of Shizuoka Recipients of the Order of the Sacred Treasure, 3rd class {{Japan-scientist-stub