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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)

Reviewed by James H. Grayson

Centre for Korean Studies

University of Sheffield, U.K


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.


Citation:
Grayson, James H. 1998
Review of Peterson, Mark A., Korean Adoption and Inheritance: Case Studies in the Creation of a Classic Confucian Society (1996)
Korean Studies Review 1998, no. 2
Electronic file: http://koreanstudies.com/ks/ksr/ksr98-02.htm

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