- Overview
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Re-establishment and extension of anthropological research on the Korean family and kinship
- Book Intro
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This anthology has the aim of re-establishing and reviving anthropological research on the Korean family and kinship. The authors share two basic assumptions. First, the field of family and kinship is still fundamental and essential in research on Korean society and culture. Second, the anthropological approach has much to contribute to research on the Korean family and kinship.
The scholarly achievements of the late Yi Gwang-gyu, pen-named Song-hyeon, are clearly the starting point of this consciousness and an extension of the field. This book consists of theoretical discussions and case studies that critically examine Yi’s research, connecting it with post-Yi scholarship.
The authors, equipped with critical minds, expect progress in the post-Yi era and pay attention to the tension and dynamics between structure and practice, standard and modification, and continuity and change. This is made possible by the fact that they share the premise of Yi’s achievement as foundational and the standard model. Most of all, they ask important questions that have to be dealt with in the anthropology of the Korean family and kinship through reexamination of Yi’s standard model on the level of history and changing reality. This book was conceived in order to transcend the standard model.
- About the Author
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Jung Hyangjin
twelve co-authorship
Jung Hyang Jin, one of the major authors, received her doctoral degree in anthropology from the University of Minnesota, USA and is working as professor in the Department of Anthropology at Seoul National University. Specializing in psychological anthropology, she has been doing research in the areas of cultural psychology, self and emotion, being humane, education, mental dynamics, familism, and postmodernity. She has conducted fieldwork in America and Korea, and a long-distance study about North Korea. She has published Learning to Be an Individual: Emotion and Person in an American Junior High School (Peter Lang, 2007), and her research on familism includes “Maternal Instinct as Basis of North Korea’s Family System – Focused on Health Care Sector” (Journal of Peace and Unification Studies, 2014) and “Family Comparison and Familism in Room Teacher System – Continuation and Change” (Cross-Cultural Studies, 2014).
Yim Dawn-hee, cultural anthropologist and folklorist, studied archaeology at Seoul National University and received her doctoral degree in folklore at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. She was a judge on the selection committee for the inscription of UNESCO’s world intangible heritage. She played an important role in 17 items of Korea’s intangible cultural heritage being inscribed at UNESCO, such as the Royal Ancestral Ritual for Jongmyo Shrine and its Music (2001), Pansori Epic Chant (2003), Arirang Lyrical Folk Song (2012), Kimjang, Making and Sharing Kimchi Culture (2013), and Nongak, Community Band Music, Dance, and Rituals (2014). She was a visiting professor at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and is now a member of The National Academy of Sciences, Republic of Korea and a chair-professor at Dongguk University. She has co-authored Ancestor Worship and Korean Society and published Joseon Dynasty’s Royal Ancestral Ritual at the Jongmyo Shrine and its Music.
Roger L. Janelli studied Business Administration at Georgetown University and received an MBA, an MA, and a PhD in Anthropology and Folklore from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a professor in the Department of Folklore as well as in the Department of East Asian Language and Culture. He served as chairperson for the Korean Studies Committee of the Social Science Research Council and as director of the Korean Studies Program at Indiana University. He was also visiting professor at Washington University and at Texas University. He published Making Capitalism: The Social and Cultural Construction of a South Korean Conglomerate (Stanford University Press, 1993, co-authored with Yim Dawn-hee). He has also translated The Anthropology of Korea: East Asian Perspectives (National Museum of Ethnology, 1998, co-edited with Shima Mutsuhiko).
