This book is a longitudinal ethnographic report on Sanjin-ri, a typical Korean rice cultivating village located in Gyeonggi Province. Based on eight different field studies spanning four decades (1977-2015), the book aims to portray how residents of the village made strategic shifts in response to broader socio-economic changes surrounding them during a period of rapid economic growth, and to theoretically analyze the major factors responsible for such turns. The book deals with changes in geographical conditions of the village, population and household composition, migration patterns, economic activities related to farming mechanization, and family survival strategies. It also traces modified aspects of religious and ritual lives in such areas as shamanic rituals and funeral and ancestor worship rites, as well as changing patterns of kin relations and social networks of men and women.

Kim Joo-hee

Joo-hee Kim is a professor emeritus at Sungshin Women’s University. She earned her B.A. degree from Seoul National University (1974) in English literature and anthropology and M.A.(1976) and Ph. D.(1981) degrees from Northwestern University in anthropology. She spent most of her academic life at Sungshin Women’s University in Seoul, Korea, until she retired in 2016. She served as Director of the Health Family Support Center of Gangbuk-gu between 2006 and 2014. She has published extensively on the family and kinship in Korea and India.