essay
Family and religion in contemporary Korea
Religion and family in East Asia • (11) • Published In 1984 • Pages: 185-199
By: Yi, Kwang-gyu.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This is a study of Korean religion at the family level. Lee describes the various kinds of Korean households, and a typical layout of a home. He discusses the various gods associated with the home and the ways they are worshipped, a task usually preformed by the housewife. The gods include an ancestor god (CHO-SONG), House Master God (SONG-JU), Fire God (CHO-WANG), House Site God (T'O-JU), God of Wealth (OB), a storage area god (CHAE-SUK), God of the Toilet (CHU-DANG), and a God of the Gate (SU-MUN-JANG). Other gods which visit the home are the Goddess of Child and the Goddess of Wind. Also, Lee discusses the family ancestor worship rituals, which are conducted by the male head of the household. When a person dies, one soul remains in the home, where it resides on the household altar in a small box called a HON-BACK. Lee describes in detail the most important household ancestor rite, performed on the anniversary of a person's death. Although household gods have disappeared in the modern home, Lee says that the concern for family prosperity remains, and is expressed in other ways.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Dwellings
- Household
- Cult of the dead
- Eschatology
- Spirits and gods
- Prayers and sacrifices
- 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
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypesThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Indigenous Person
- 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
- Ian Skoggard ; 1997
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- not specified
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1950-1980
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Republic of Korea
- NotesAdditional notes
- Kwang Kyu Lee
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 199)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 82641261
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Koreans