Getting married in Korea
Subtitle: of gender, morality, and modernity
By: Laurel Kendall.
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Berkeley
Language: eng
Number of pages: 259
Subjects: Marriage customs and rites -- Korea.; Wedding etiquette -- Korea.; Sex role -- Korea.; Gender identity -- Korea.; Social classes -- Korea.; Ceremonial exchange -- Korea.; Korea -- Social conditions.
Description: This work explores what it means to be modern and what it means to be Korean in a culture where courtship and marriage are often the crucible in which notions of gender and class are cast and recast. Touching on a number of important issues--identity, romantic love, women's work, marriage negotiations, and wedding ceremonies--Laurel Kendall gives us a new appreciation for how Koreans have adapted this pivotal social practice to the astounding changes of the past century. Kendall attended her first Korean wedding in 1970, soon after she arrived in the country with the Peace Corps. Years later, as a seasoned anthropologist, she began interviewing couples, matchmakers, and proprietors of wedding halls. She consulted etiquette handbooks and women's magazines and analyzed cartoons, photographs, and weddings themselves. The result is an engaging account of how marriage matches are made, how families proceed through the rites, how they finance ceremonies and elaborate exchanges of ritual goods, and how these practices are integral to the construction of adult identities and notions of ideal women and men.--From publisher description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 231-248) and index.