essay
Ancestor worship and kinship structure in Korea
Religion and ritual in Korean society • Berkeley, Calif. • Published In 1987 • Pages: 56-70
By: Yi, Kwang-gyu.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This study examines the relationship between ancestor worship and kin groups in Korea. According to Lee, ancestor worship provides an organizational focus for agnates, demarcates kin groupings, and provides the rationale for family inheritance and succession. The ritual heir is the direct and legitimate descendent of the ancestor, which after the seventeenth century was typically the first son (CHONGJA). The ancestor-worshipping group (TANGNAE) included all the descendants of one's great-great grandfather. The traditional TANGNAE often formed a single household or close residential community, marked by close cooperation, common mourning obligations, periodic ancestor worship, and use of specific kin terms. After the fourth generation, the ancestor tablets are interred in the grave, where the ancestors are worshipped by the heir of the larger kin group (MUNJUNG). Ancestors who received a meritorious distinction (PULCH'ONJIWI) from the court continued to be worshipped in the home in perpetuity. Lee describes in detail a death anniversary (KIJE)
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Lineages
- Clans
- Cult of the dead
- 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
- 1392-1975
- 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. 70)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 86082390
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Koreans