Hyang Jin Jung (정향진)

Seoul National University Press, 2018.

Reviewed by: Seong-in Kim (PhD Candidate,  Seoul National University, HYI Visiting Fellow)

One of main traits in Korean culture is the appreciation of family-oriented values. From the use of kinship terms to non-family members in daily interaction to the family metaphor in various communities to highlight the bond, so-called familism is pervasive in Korean society. It is undeniable to say that the family is one major force to bind Koreans together, however, as anthropologists have researched, to be recognized as part of the family is more than a biological association.

The Anthropology of Korean Family and Kinship published in 2018 is a pursuit to examine the importance of family and kinship studies by a group of sociocultural anthropologists in contemporary Korea. As the first edited volume of Korean Anthropology Studies Series by the Institute of Cross-Cultural Studies at Seoul National University, the monograph was initiated as a part of academic tribute to the work of late Professor Lee Kwang-Kyu who paved the path for formulating the anthropological academic community in Korea and devoted himself to establish the Department of Anthropology at Seoul National University, the first Korean academic institution for the anthropological studies. With his visionary outlook, he attempted to draw the general framework for the organization of traditional

Korean families, discovering that it centers on patrilineal lineage organization in pursuit of memorial ritual. The descendants’ dynamic decision on whom to honor for memorial service, following collective validation based on one’s success usually in the central government, engaged with the different imagination on the significance of ancestors and often times led to create the branches in the family genealogies. Unlike the previous anthropological researches assuming that the lineage group and the Government in non-Western region are in conflict in terms of structural development, the Korean case of lineage organization is unique because it shows complex interplay which affects the social organization between the center and the peripheries.

In the monograph, twelve anthropologists dedicated themselves to this collaborative monograph to revisit Professor Lee’s intellectual heritage and provided fresh insights on the related topics in three main approaches: academic significance of early family and kinship studies in Korea based on Professor Lee’s arguments, new directions after general framework of traditional Korean families, changing practices in family sphere in modern Korean society. While the collaborators recognized the significance of earlier contributions to family and kinship studies, they also acknowledge that the existing theoretical framework falls short of fully capturing the transformations in Korean society and its family system. From the Korean War, the aftereffect from the Cold War, rapid industrialization and unprecedented economic growth, the globalization to today’s steep population decline, the Korean family still plays a key role in regard to the sociopolitical structure and cultural signification, and as the editor claimed at the end of the introduction, this monograph promotes future scholars to delve into Korean family and kinship studies after standardized model.