Takie Sugiyama Lebra (February 6, 1930May 26, 2017) was a Japanese

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

and professor. Her “contributions to the anthropology of Japan are regarded as foundational”. She was born in a rural village in

Shizuoka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,637,998 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Prefecture to the northea ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. She attended primary school in Japan, graduating from

Tsuda College is a private women's university based at Kodaira, Tokyo. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious higher educational institutions for women in Japan, contributing to the advancement of women in society for more than a century. History The u ...

in Tokyo in 1951. She graduated from

Gakushuin University is a private university in Mejiro, Toshima Ward, Tokyo. It was re-established after World War II as an affiliate of the Gakushūin School Corporation. The privatized successor to the original Gakushūin University (or "Peers School") was estab ...

in Tokyo with a BA in Political Science in 1954 and then completed her studies at the University of Pittsburgh, receiving an MA in Political Science in 1960 and a PhD in Sociology (also from the University of Pittsburgh) in 1967. Lebra was a professor in the Department of Anthropology at the

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

from 1971 until her retirement in 1996. She also held visiting positions at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

, the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

Oxford Brookes University Oxford Brookes University (formerly known as Oxford Polytechnic (United Kingdom), Polytechnic) is a public university, public university in Oxford, England. It is a new university, having received university status through the Further and High ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, and the

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...

. She was a popular teacher with her courses (especially in Japanese Studies) attracting many students. While teaching in Hawaii, she was a specialist of Japan, of psychological anthropology and of culture and social organization. She was also an author, having written 7 books about Japanese culture and selling over 66,000 copies. She has won multiple awards, including a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright Council for International Exchange, a Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, a Japan Foundation Research Fellowship. She also received awards from the Joint Committee on Japanese Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council. She was a board member for the Society for Psychological Anthropology, the US-Japan Women’s Journal and the Journal of Japanese Studies. Her 1995 book Above the Clouds, Status Culture of the Modern Japanese Nobility was the first ethnographic study of the modern Japanese aristocracy, in which she explained the

Kazoku The was the hereditary peerage of the Empire of Japan, which existed between 1869 and 1947. They succeeded the feudal lords () and court nobles (), but were abolished with the 1947 constitution. Kazoku ( 華族) should not be confused with ' ...

, the hereditary peerage of the Empire of Japan. An obituary sums up her career as follows: “Takie Lebra will be remembered for her feistiness that combined probing intellect with humor. For her many students and colleagues, she demonstrated that the life of the mind should never forget the body, that we are driven as whole creatures that embrace emotions, relationships, institutions, and ideas. She taught that we are only and always too human, and in the end, that may be enough.”

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lebra, Takie, Sugiyama 1930 births 2017 deaths Tsuda University alumni Gakushuin University alumni Japanese anthropologists People from Shizuoka Prefecture