Reciprocity and Korean Society: An Ethnography of Hasami (review)

BOOK REVIEWS Reciprocity and Korean Society: An Ethnography ofHasami, by Kyung-soo Chun. The Institute of Social Sciences (Seoul National University) Korean Studies No. 6. Seoul: Seoul National University Press, 1984. 232 pp. This is an ethnography of a small community on the mountainous island of Chindo, in the Chindo archipelago just off the southwestern coast of the Korean peninsula. The author, Kyung-soo Chun, has used a fictitious name, Hasami, for the community. Chun was born and raised in Korea and educated at Seoul National University and at the University of Minnesota, where he obtained his Ph.D. He is now an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Seoul National University (SNU), and is affiliated as a Researcher with the SNU Center for Population and Development Studies. Hasami is a coastal village which in 1975 had a population of 369. Though the community is somewhat apart from the mainstream of Korean life on the peninsula, it is not in any sense remote or isolated. Villages on Chindo Island have a well-established economic, political, and cultural relationship with the coastal cities of Mokp'o and Kwangju on the mainland, and with the larger island of Cheju. The economy of Hasami is based upon agriculture and fishing. Usually an anthropologist doing a field study is an outsider, a foreigner, who has several problems that must be dealt with adequately to be successful. These involve communication, rapport, and developing capable informants. Despite these problems, he or she believes that one distinct advantage exists. A trained foreign field worker probably will be more objective and less ethnocentric than a "native" investigator. But Chun clearly demonstrates the advantages of a being a "native" investigator, when language capability and knowledge of culture are coupled with anthropological training at home and abroad. Chun has selected "reciprocity as an organizing principle." (p. 9) He acknowledges his indebtedness to the schools of thought of several wellknown Western anthropologists, offering a critique of the theoretical concepts of Malinowski, Geertz, and Kroeber, among others. He believes that through reciprocity an ongoing human sociocultural system is perpetuated. Kinship in Hasami, as elsewhere in Korea, is based upon NeoConfucianism and is patrilineal with "male-oriented inheritance, ancestor worship, exogamy, genealogy, and boy preference." (p. 31) Yet Hasami reveals a trend toward village endogamy. The terms of address and the manner of behavior indicate that the lineages are also concerned with matrilineal and marital relationships. The complexity of those relationships, as with marriage, divorce, and remarriage, can be seen as we examine the role of reciprocity in its varying intensities. Though some concubinage exists, the monogamous family is the rule. The importance of the monogamous family is underscored, with legitimacy being extended only to children of the first wife. The selection of marriage partners and the negotiation between the two families involve a "go-between," a mediator who is usually a woman. Reciprocity is also expressed by the families through an exchange that includes clothing, bedding, jewelry, specially prepared food, and ceremonies. BOOK REVIEWS89 Beyond kinship, reciprocity is expressed in mutual aid organizations, referred to as rotating credit associations (kye), as well as in partnerships and friendships. Some anthropologists have postulated an evolutionary sequence in which a "kinship oriented" society is followed by a modern industrial society that is "association oriented." Rotating credit associations, in this view, are considered to be the "middle rung for modernization." (p. 126) Contrary to this evolutionary scheme, in Hasami and elsewhere in Korea, voluntary rotating credit associations have been a significant aspect of traditional life. The members of these associations assist one another by pooling their resources to cope with emergencies or to achieve desired goals. There are associations for funding marriages, for the future funerals of parents, for savings, and similar purposes. Whether it be within such a mutual aid association, or an exchange of gifts, the repair of a roof, a division of labor, or the bribes ("prescribed medicine") for government inspectors investigating assigned millitary reserve activities or illegal fuel obtained from government forests, the villagers are acutely aware of the nature of reciprocity, its advantages, and requirements. Any villager who refused to recognize the need for reciprocity would soon be socially isolated, receive no...