Japanese Cultural Anthropologist Kawada Dies at 90

Tokyo, Dec. 24 (Jiji Press)--Japanese cultural anthropologist Junzo Kawada, a recipient of the Order of Culture, died of aspiration pneumonia on Friday. He was 90.

Born in 1934 in Tokyo, Kawada graduated from the University of Tokyo. He served as professor at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Hiroshima City University and Kanagawa University.

Kawada, who conducted fieldwork in Africa, gained attention for his researches, including his study on a nonliterate society there.

Among his books are "Koya kara" (From the field), which received the prestigious Nihon Essayist Club award, "Mumoji Shakai no Rekishi" (History of a nonliterate society), "Koe" (Voice), which won a prize in memory of novelist and poet Toson Shimazaki, and "Koto Densho Ron" (Theory on oral tradition), which was given the Mainichi Publishing Culture Award.

Kawada translated books including "Tristes Tropiques," by anthropologist and ethnologist Claude Levi-Strauss.

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