Peterson, Mark A., Korean Adoption and Inheritance: Case Studies in the Creation of a Classic Confucian Society. Cornell East Asia Series, 80. Ithaca, New York: East Asia Program, Cornell University, 1996. pp. xii, 267. Map. Tables. Glossary of Terms. Chinese Character Glossary of Names. Appendices. Bibliography. Index. (ISBN 1-885445-70-9 cloth; 1-885445-80-6 paper)
This book is a gold mine of information as well as being Ôa
jolly good read.Õ In this book Dr. Peterson examines in
detail the changing nature of Chosôn period social structure
through a case study analysis of inheritance, adoption and marriage.
In so doing, it continues in a more detailed way to the discussion
of this complex issue which was elaborated by Prof. Martina Deuchler
in her The Confucian Transformation of Korea: A Study of Society
and Ideology (Harvard Univ. Press, 1992). However important
this book is for its contribution to the academic understanding
of the structural changes which were taking place in mid-Chosôn
society, the author also intends that the work should contribute
to the contemporary issues of womenÕs role in a ÔtraditionalÕ
society undergoing extraordinarily rapid social change.
Dr. PetersonÕs work is in the tradition of historical anthropological
analysis and has been strongly influenced by the work of Jack
Goody, a major contemporary figure in the anthropological study
of kinship and related issues. PetersonÕs starting point
would appear to be from GoodyÕs observation that when heirs
are not born into a household, potential for obtaining an heir
may be had through one of two methods, by adding wives (polygamy,
concubinage, or divorce and re-marriage) or by adding sons (marrying-in
of sons-in-law, or adoption). Peterson points out that at some
point in Chosôn history all of these options had been used
or tried, but for ideological reasons some methods were disdained,
and others practiced but seldomly. One of the principal foci of
this work is to examine the reasons why the solution to the problem
of heirship changed from the marrying-in of the son-in-law in
the early Chosôn period to agnatic adoption in the late
Chosôn period.
In analysing this change, Peterson picks up on one other point
of Goody that in order to confine the numbers of potential heirs,
certain societies practice a policy of the Ôsubtraction
of childrenÕ. Peterson relates this general observation
to the later practice in the Chosôn period of the effective
elimination of women as heirs, and the emphasis on primogeniture
amongst male descendants. PetersonÕs use of a final observation
by Goody is a premonition that his analysis of the dramatic changes
of the mid-Chosôn period will not be confined to looking
solely at the ideological aspects of the issue, but will be multi-faceted
and multi-layered. Peterson quotes with concern GoodyÕs
remark that the ravages of war and the dramatic loss of male progeny
may create conditions which lead to permanent changes in the structure
of society, and in particular the system of inheritance and heirship.
This point the author relates to the devastation wrought upon
Chosôn society by the Japanese invasions of the 1590s and
successive invasions by the Manchus during the first third of
the seventeenth century. Peterson suggests that the reasons for
the changes of the mid-Chosôn period are to be found not
simply in the increasing ÔideologisationÕ of the
society, but in certain demographic, political and economic factors
arising out of a period of historical crisis. The purpose of the
book is to illustrate the balance between these various factors
to show how these changes actually came about.
The book consists of an introduction, a conclusion and nine chapters
divided into three sections of three chapters each. The book opens
with the description with the case example of a contemporary Korean
elder who was faced with the issue of finding an heir. This story
then opens up the issue of inheritance, male primogeniture, womenÕs
status, marriage and re-marriage and a host of other social issues.
The answer to the issues raised by this modern case example is
then sought in case examples from the past to show the evolution
and the dramatic change of the structure of Chosôn society.
The three main sections of the book deal in turn with inheritance,
problematic alternatives to inheritance such as plural marriage
and the place of the sôja or son of secondary wives,
and adoption. The conclusion first relates the findings from the
extended Korean historical case to recent studies about China
and Japan, searching for similarities and parallels. Peterson
points out that although superficially ChÕing China and
Chosôn Korea had many of the same legal restraints against
non-agnatic adoption, only in Korea did the elite practice latterly
the ÔclassicÕ model of agnatic adoption. Compared
with Chosôn Korea, Tokugawa Japan showed stronger similarities
to the adoption practices of China. Thus, by late Chosôn,
Korea had become the classic exemplar of a ÔpureÕ
system of Confucian inheritance and heirship. In a table in the
conclusion, the author graphically illustrates that the rise of
agnatic adoption corresponded precisely with the fall in the status
of daughters as inheritors of any patrimony.
Peterson does not find a single cause for these changes, but rather
emphasises the inter- relationship between the establishment of
Confucian ideology, legal changes in the marriage system to monogamy,
population increase, changes in the system of agriculture, the
extension of the single-surname village pattern, continued partition
of land and property assets, and the impact of the devastating
series of wars and invasions from the last decade of the sixteenth
century to the fourth decade of the seventeenth century. It is
this last factor which Peterson stresses had an indirect influence
on the process of social change (the system of inheritance and
the role of women) through the ideological structure of the society.
He argues that the effect of the wars was to create a concern
amongst the elite sector of society to retain their privileges
of property and status and that the way to achieve this end this
from the mid-Chosôn period on was to emphasise ideological
purity, Ôthe way of the ancientsÕ. Thus, the geographical
movement by elite became constrained, male primogeniture emphasised,
womenÕs status decreased, and patrilineality developed.
In the end, Peterson concludes in a very orthodox Weberian way
by stating that ideology rather these other factors was the principal
force, what the author calls the Ôformative agentÕ,
in the creation of a Ôclassic Confucian societyÕ.
The book does not end, however, as simply a lively examination
of an important historical issue. Peterson links his research
to contemporary problems such as the general issue of womenÕs
status, and related questions such as the abortion of female foetuses.
In this vein, one could point out that it is not only womenÕs
status which has been affected long-term by the changes in mid-Chosôn
society, but also the issue of the domestic adoption of infant
orphan children, especially male infants. This issue, related
to the vexed question of the sôja, is also a social
problem which stems ultimately from the changes in Korean society
which took place around the year 1600.
This book is highly recommended to all persons conducting research
about issues in historical or contemporary Korean society, researchers
in the areas of Chinese and Japanese Studies with an interest
in social change, and anthropologists who are specialised in kinship
studies.