essay

The New Year's ritual and village social structure

religion and ritual in korean societyBerkeley, Calif. • Published In 1987 • Pages: 93-117

By: Dix, Griffin.

Abstract
In this article, Dix examines a little studied villagewide ritual which is common across rural Korea: the annual offering to the village's protective deity--in this specific case, the Mountain Spirit (Sansin)--during the first month of the lunar new year. The first two days of the New Year's ceremony involves a restrained Confucian offering to ancestors and elders. On the third day, a cooked half of a bull's head (cow's head if the Mountain Spirit is female) is offered to the Mountain Spirit at its shrine on the mountainside. That night the other half of the head is offered raw at a shrine at the entrance to the village. The next few days a farmer's band, comprised mostly of young male laborers, go from house to house to play music and dance, in order to exorcise dangerous spirits, a service for which they demand food and drink. Dix argues that the ritual ostensibly serves village solidarity by demarcating status differences in the village and inverting them, if only for a few days. According to Dix, the escapades of the farmer's band is a way for low status laborers to get recognition from the landlord class (YANGBAN) for their year-long contribution to the community, only then is village harmony restored.
Subjects
Status, role, and prestige
Community structure
Religious beliefs
Prayers and sacrifices
Purification and atonement
Organized ceremonial
culture
Korea
HRAF PubDate
1998
Region
Asia
Sub Region
East Asia
Document Type
essay
Evaluation
Creator Type
Ethnologist
Document Rating
5: Excellent Primary Data
Analyst
Ian Skoggard ; 1997
Field Date
1975
Coverage Date
1392-1975
Coverage Place
Republic of Korea
Notes
Griffin Dix
Includes bibliographical references
LCCN
86082390
LCSH
Koreans