| Society-KOREA "Korea was one of the earliest of the present-day nations of the world to emerge and remain clearly on the map of history. By the end of the seventh century it was essentially the same country it is today, in population, underlying culture, language, and general geographical extent" (Reischauer and Fairbank 1960: 411). The country of Korea is located in northeastern Asia on a peninsula extending some 600 miles from Manchuria into the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea (lat. 33 degrees 12 min.-43 degrees 2 min. N by long. 124 degrees 13 min.-130 degrees 54 min. E). Since 1948 the Korean nation has been divided into two political and geographical entities: North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea; and South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea, with the 38th parallel serving as the line of demarcation. The total area of Korea is 84,822 square miles, of which 38,022 square miles are in the South and 46,800 square miles are in the North. The climate throughout most of the peninsula is hot and humid in summer, cold and dry in winter. The Korean language is classified by the Voegelins within the Altaic language family although they note conflicting views on this matter. There seems to be general agreement that there are seven main dialects of Korean, and that the dialect boundaries generally correspond to the traditional provincial boundaries (Voegelin 1977: 18-19). Evidently all of these dialects are mutually intelligible except perhaps for that of Cheju Island; however, there may be sufficient divergence to cause some initial communication difficulties. As a result of long-continued Chinese influence, a large proportion of the Korean vocabulary (52 percent) consists of words borrowed from the Chinese language, while only a small percent consists of other foreign words. During the period of Japanese occupation (1910-1945), the Japanese language was introduced into the educational system-but with relatively little success. After 1945, English became a second language in the South. In 1974, the population of North Korea was estimated to be 15,510,000, while that of South Korea was estimated at 33,465,000, a combined total of 48,975,000 (Information Please Almanac 1975: 223-24). These figures indicate a much higher population density per square mile in the South than in the North (800.1 vs. 331.4). A key ecological factor is that all of Korea is mountainous, with only a fifth of the land suitable for cultivation. The best cultivable areas are the broad river valleys and wide coastal plans found along the western and southern coasts. According to Reischauer and Fairbank (1960: 400), "The greater agricultural productivity of southern and western Korea, together with their greater accessibility to China and also to Japan, has made these regions the dominant parts of the peninsula throughout history." Regional economic differences have continued into the modern period. After World War II, South Korea, with 43 percent of the land area of the peninsula and over two-thirds of its population, was predominantly agricultural, the major crops being rice, barley, sweet potatoes, and yams. North Korea on the other hand, with 57 percent of the land area but less than one-third of the population, had by far the larger part of the peninsula's industry plus ample hydroelectric resources. Since 1963, however, there has been marked industrial expansion in South Korea, including the rapid development of manufacturing, mining, transportation, and electric power. Many basic aspects of modern Korean culture and social organization are best understood if seen against the background of Korean culture history. Only the briefest outline is possible here, but a good succinct treatment is presented in Reischauer and Fairbank (1960: 394-449); while a more extensive, but highly readable, account is given in Osgood (1951: 133-346). Until the fourth century B.C., Korea was occupied by small, pre-agricultural, tribal groups migrating from northern Asia. Then, Chinese influences, which were to have a profound and continuing impact on Korean history and culture, began to penetrate the peninsula. Partly as a result of these influences, the first truly Korean state, that of Koguryo, was established in the first century B.C. Koguryo was later to see the rise of two rival states, Paekche and Silla. These states formed the famed "Three Kingdoms" of Korean history. Eventually, Silla conquered its rivals and the first political unification of Korea was achieved under the Silla dynasty in the seventh century A.D. It was during the period of this dynasty that Mahayana Buddhism and its related art forms diffused from China into Korea. The Silla dynasty gave way to the Koryo dynasty (918-1392), which, after a period of Mongol domination, was replaced by the Yi dynasty (1392-1910). The Yi dynasty, which lasted over 500 years until the Japanese annexation in 1910, saw the development of many socio-cultural patterns that continue to have a significant influence in modern Korean life. Among the main factors were (1) the establishment of the national capitol at Seoul; (2) the introduction of Confucianism, accompanied by the decline of Buddhism; (3) the invention of a precise phonetic system for writing the Korean language (later called han'gul); (4) the creation of a strong, bureaucratic central government; and, perhaps most importantly, (5) the full elaboration of a pervasive and complex system of social stratification. The stratification system consisted of a hierarchical series of status groups, usually referred to as "classes" in the literature, sanctioned and supported by Confucian precepts. At the top of the hierarchy, immediately below the King and his royal clan, were the yangban or upperclass, consisting of civil and military officials and the large landowners. There was a sharp social cleavage between the yangban and their fellow Koreans. They were distinguished from the rest of the population by high prestige, power, wealth, dress, social behavior, and education which was primarily in Confucian classics and etiquette. Next in order were the chungin or "middle people," a small group composed of petty government functionarieslawyers, bookkeepers, interpreters, copyists, astronomers, painters, doctors, etc. Below the chungin came the vast bulk of the society made up of commoners (sangmin). These were the artisans, merchants, and farmers. At the bottom of the scale was a large "low-born" class called ch'onmin, which included slaves and members of such outcaste occupations as actors, kisaeng (female entertainers comparable to the Japanese geishas), female shamans (mudang), basket weavers, and butchers. Generally, mobility between strata was very restricted (cf. Reischauer and Fairbank 1960: 428; and Koh 1959: 70-117). One of the most distinctive characteristics of traditional Korea (which it shared with Imperial China) was that although a striking rural-urban gap existed in terms of standards and styles of living, the kind of sharp cultural discontinuity between village and city that Redfield (1956) emphasizes, does not seem to be really applicable to pre-modern Korean society. The cultural patterns that Redfield differentiates with the concepts of the "great" (urban) and "little" (rural) traditions (Redfield 1956: esp. 70-71) existed together in cities, towns, and villages. "Men of letters moved back and forth frequently from rural to urban settings, while classical learning, the arts, religion, and philosophy flourished under thatched roofs as well as behind city walls" (Brandt 1971: 33-34). According to Brandt, it was only with the adoption of a progress- and change-oriented ideology during the last 50 years or so under Japanese and American influence, that contrasts between rural and urban "designs for living" have been intensified. It is obviously impossible to do justice here to the cultural changes and range of life styles which have developed in Korea since the end of the Yi dynasty. For detailed information, the reader may consult two useful handbooks which have been written on North and South Korea, respectively (cf. Clare et al. 1969; and Shinn et al. 1969). Other major source include Osgood (1951) and Dallet (1874). Most foreign observers have emphasized rural Korea's cultural homogeneity. One village seems very much like another with regard to language, food, architecture, family organization, folklore, technology, and clothes. Nevertheless, there are important provincial and local differences at both the sociocultural and psychocultural levels. At the core of village organization is a segmentary, exogamous, patrilineal lineage system. Meticulous, written lineage genealogies (chokpo) validate a person's membership in a lineage. Each lineage traces its affiliation with one of the traditional status groups or social classes. The importance of this status differential emerges clearly in Kim Taek Kyoo's study of the village of Hahoe Dong (Kim 1964). This village is the traditional ritual center of the Yu lineage, which claims numerous ancestors in high official positions during the Yi dynasty. Fifty-eight percent of the 166 village households are members of this lineage, but the extent of lineage domination is emphasized more strikingly by the fact that its members control 87 percent of the village land, even after land reform. "Discrimination along traditional class lines is still strong: intermarriage between descendants of the Yu aristocrats and commoner residents of the village never occurs, and members of this kinship group retain a monopoly of prestige, wealth, and power" (Brandt 1971: 9). Using this combination of lineage and class composition, Lee Man-Gap (1960) distinguishes three broad categories of village organization: (1) villages where a formerly aristocratic (yangban) lineage is dominant; (2) those where a commoner (sangmin) lineage is dominant; and (3) those where power and wealth are divided. The third dimension of variation has been formulated by Brandt as two opposing ethical or value systems which affect ordinary, everyday behavior. One is formal and explicit; it is largely lineage-oriented and embodies a clearly structured hierarchical system of rank and authority that is closely linked with Korean aristocratic traditions. The contrasting system reflects an egalitarian community ethic; it is informal and has no set code of moral principles, although many aspects of it are expressed in proverbs and other folk sayings. Among the important values are mutual assistance and cooperation among neighbors, hospitality, generosity, and tolerance in dealing with both kin and non-kin. Which ethical system is dominant in a village makes a great deal of difference in the quality of life of the villagers. Culture summary by Robert O. Lagace and John M. Beierle Brandt, Vincent S. R. A Korean village between farm and sea. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1971. 12, 242 p., illus., maps, tables. Clare, Kenneth G. Area handbook for the Republic of Korea. By Kenneth G. Clare et al. Washington, D.C., U. S. Government Printing Office, 1969. Dallet, Charles. Histoire de l'eglise de Coree V. 1. [A history of the church in Korea]. Paris, Victor Palme, 1874. 192, 387 p. charts, map. Information Please Almanac. New York, 1975. Kim Taek Kyoo. The cultural structure of a consanguineous village Ch'ong Ku University, 1964. (In Korean with English summary.) Koh, Hesung Chun. Religion, social structure and economic development in Yi Dynasty Korea. Dissertation (Sociology) Boston University, 1959. Lee Man-Gap. The social structure of Korean villages. Seoul, Korean Research Center, 1960. (In Korean with English summary.) Osgood, Cornelius. The Koreans and their culture. New York, Ronald Press [1951]. 16, 387 p. illus., maps. Redfield, Robert. Peasant society and culture: an anthropological approach to civilization. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1956. Reischauer, Edwin O. East Asia: the great tradition. By Edwin O. Reischauer and John K. Fairbank. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1960. Shinn, Rinn-Sup. Area handbook for North Korea. By Rinn-Sup Shinn et al. Washington, D. C., U. S. Government Printing Office, 1969. Voegelin, D. F. and F. M. Classification and index of the world's languages. New York, Elsevier, 1977. 7854 | |
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