The Jamnyo of Jeju

2018

This book is, broadly speaking, a summary of jeju academic discourses   (on Jeju divers, Jeju mythology, Jeju kinship system, Jeju shamanism and Neo-confucian influence from mainland on Jeju) combined with data collected among divers' community in a small island of Udo, Jeju in 2016. Jeju scholars have published so many fascinating stories-books, but they are all in Korean language, hence not accessible to foreigners.

This book is the first of its kind in English synthesizing what have been said about Jeju society since Jeju Studies started 50 years ago on the island.

The book carries  also a partly feminist point of view, projecting  jeju as a "women centred society" rather similar to an Indonesian (West Sumatra - the Minangkabau people) matrilinial society that the author studied for her doctoral thesis long ago (thesis completed in 1986; a representative article, 2006: “Enigma of male ancestors among the matrilineal Minangkabau of West Sumatra”, in Nicole-Claude Mathieu (ed), A House without a Daughter is a Dead House: Person and Gender in Matrilineal and\or Uxorilocal Societies (in French), Paris: Editions de l’Herne).

This book will be useful  to students interested in gender studies, kinship system studies, island studies, geo-political  history and culture of Korea/Jeju from the perspective of women’s place and also for people looking for an alternative model of society.