article

The description of the kingdom of Corea

Transactions of the Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society • 9 • Published In 1918 • Pages: 129-148

By: Hamel, Hendrik.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document

In 1653 a group of Dutch sailors on a ship bound for Nagasaki was wrecked on Cheju Island. Except for a Christian priest with the Japanese army of Konishi, himself a convert, these were the first Europeans of record to live in Korea and return to their native land. One of them, Hendrik Hamel, has provided an interesting account of the shipwreck, subsequent thirteen-year captivity, and a description of the kingdom of Korea. Only his account of Korean culture at this time has been excerpted for the Files. This account, useful because of its early appearance relative to to other European descriptions of Korea, gives an overall summary of Korean culture at this time. Much of this account indicates the slow rate of change in a culture which sought to preserve its isolation from its predatory neighbors, as mourning, marriage, legal, and political customs seem to be identical with reports written 200 or more years later.

SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF

Culture summary

cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)

Korea

HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document

1998

RegionThe area the document pertains to

Asia

Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region

East Asia

Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs

article

Evaluation

Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.

Foreign Resident

Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.

5: Excellent Primary Data

AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection

ER; Elden Johnson ; 1952

Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document

1653-1666

Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to

1653

Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)

Cheju Island, Korea

NotesAdditional notes

[by] Hendrik Hamel

This document consists of excerpts

LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings

Koreans