339
Paying respects to the deceased in this deeply Confucian society is still a very important construct of time-space, with families streaming out of cities to return to patrilineal villages particularly at the lunar festival of Chusok. From family grave to columbarium, there is a progressive divorce from ancestral territory (the family graveyard in the patrilineal village) and from social context (lineage).
This study of South Korea concluded this cycle of research. I had hesitated to embark upon it, as I knew little about South Korea. I wanted to attempt it because I sensed that I would find there a continuation of ancient practices and associated deathspaces inherited from beliefs arising from Confucian traditions. Indeed, this turned out to be the case. Such a continuation had been impossible in mainland China, and it had been disrupted in Hong Kong because of the refugee origins of much of the Territory's population and because of the post Second World War transformation of its economy and land use. The research that examines the relationship between contemporary practices and spaces connected with death in South Korea, and their (possibly considerable) parallels in pre-modern China, remains to be carried out!
339
Paying respects to the deceased in this deeply Confucian society is still a very important construct of time-space, with families streaming out of cities to return to patrilineal villages particularly at the lunar festival of Chusok. From family grave to columbarium, there is a progressive divorce from ancestral territory (the family graveyard in the patrilineal village) and from social context (lineage).
This study of South Korea concluded this cycle of research. I had hesitated to embark upon it, as I knew little about South Korea. I wanted to attempt it because I sensed that I would find there a continuation of ancient practices and associated deathspaces inherited from beliefs arising from Confucian traditions. Indeed, this turned out to be the case. Such a continuation had been impossible in mainland China, and it had been disrupted in Hong Kong because of the refugee origins of much of the Territory's population and because of the post Second World War transformation of its economy and land use. The research that examines the relationship between contemporary practices and spaces connected with death in South Korea, and their (possibly considerable) parallels in pre-modern China, remains to be carried out!
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.