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.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1 Background of the Research
Selecting a Research Site: Sanjin-ri
Restudies: An Anthropological Research Genre
Collecting Data
Chapter 2 Setting
Coming out of Isolation: 1977-1978
Becoming an Urban Village: 1989
Enjoying the Urban Life Style: 2005-2015
Chapter 3 People: Changes in Population and Households
Changes in the Composition of Village Population
Changes in the Number of Households
Chapter 4 Changes in Economic Activities
Changes in Land Ownership
Changes in the Means of Livelihood
Chapter 5 Changes in Kinship: From a Lineage Village to a Non-lineage Village
Development of Lineage Villages in Traditional Korean Society
History of Two Lineage Groups in Sanjin-ri
Details of Lineage Groups in Sanjin-ri: 1977-1978
Rivalry between Two Lineage Groups: 1977-1978
Changes in Kinship Relations: 1977-2010s
Disappearance of the Practice of Adoption
Chapter 6 Changes in Household Organization
Changes in the Size of Household
Changes in the Composition of Household Type
Chapter 7 Changes in Family Survival Strategies
Family Survival Strategies and the Life-course Perspective
Family Survival Strategies in Each Time Period
Chapter 8 Changes in Social Networks
Social Networks as Social Capital
Social Networks among Village Men
Social Networks among Village Women
Chapter 9 Changes in Religious Lives and Ritual Practices
Religious Lives
Ritual Practices
Conclusion
Glossary
Bibliography
Index