| 1 | Name: | Professor Chie Nakane | |
| Institution: | University of Tokyo | ||
| Year Elected: | 1977 | ||
| Class: | 4. Humanities | ||
| Subdivision: | 403. Cultural Anthropology | ||
| Residency: | International | ||
| Living? : | Deceased | ||
| Birth Date: | 1926 | ||
| Death Date: | October 12, 2021 | ||
Social anthropologist Chie Nakane is a respected scholar who has spent a lifetime studying human societies and chronicling her theories. One of the first women to graduate from the University of Tokyo, Ms. Nakane was the University's first female professor and the first female member of the Japan Academy. Now a professor emeritus, she traces her profound interest in social anthropology to her teenage years when she returned to Japan after living in China and was struck by the cultural and social differences between the two countries. After receiving her M.A. in 1950, she embarked on a career investigating Asian societies, including those of Japan, India, China and her special area of expertise, Tibet. In 1987, she won a Japan Foundation Award for this comparative research. Ms. Nakane's incisive study of Japan is presented in her seminal book, Japanese Society, which offers insight into what distinguishes Japanese society from other complex societies. Published in 1970, the book characterizes Japan as being built on a vertical organizational principle where a hierarchical order based on rank prevails. Ms. Nakane's other works include Kinship and Economic Organization in Rural Japan (1967) and Human Relationships in Japan (1972). | |||