article
The struggle for family succession and inheritance in a rural Korean village
Journal of anthropological research • 51 (4) • Published In 1995 • Pages: 329-346
By: Choi, Soo Ho.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Choi presents two case studies of family succession in order to show how this process is often a protracted negotiation and not a routine matter prescribed by tradition. According to Choi, inheritance 'is a contest in which the balance of credits and debts among family members is reckoned (329).' Each member of a family has their own idea about their past contributions to the family and what should be their due. Although the rules of inheritance dictate that the eldest son receives the lion share of family property in exchange for carrying out the ancestor rites, circumstances can complicate the outcome. For example in one case study, a family worked hard, and even sold land, to put through school the youngest son, who eventually became a successful white-collar worker in Seoul. In the meantime the older brother died heirless, and his wife continued to carry out the ancestor rites, which gave her rights to the family property and its revenue. When she died her daughter continued the rites and laid claim to the family property, believing that her uncle had already received his share of family property in the form of his education. Nevertheless, the uncle managed to have his son adopted into his older brother's family and thereby become the rightful heir, displacing his niece.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Real property
- Inheritance
- Ingroup antagonisms
- Household
- Family relationships
- Adoption
- 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
- article
- 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
- 1989-1990
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1960-1994
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- North Cholla Province, Republic of Korea
- NotesAdditional notes
- Soo Ho Choi
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 344-346)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 73645054
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Koreans