[KS] Re: custom and new environment:dog-eating

[HKHogarth at aol.com]

Dear List,

I am surprised that no one has mentioned that dog-eating is strictly taboo to 
Korean shamans. The reason they gave me for prohibition of eating dogs is 
that they believe dogs are ancestors of people.  That may be related to the 
Buddhist belief in the transmigration of souls, i.e. reincarnation, although 
it is not clearly explained to me why dogs (and not cows, pigs or chickens)  
are singled out as ancestors  . For whatever reasons, dog-eating is 
considered ritually 'polluting', and those who indulge in it are not allowed 
to attend the shamanistic rituals.  At the mortuary ritual held for a 
youngish man who had suddenly died in his sleep, the cause of his death was 
given by a shaman as the regular dog eating that his family indulged in!   It 
was apparently the gods' punishment to the family for induging in such a 
filthy habit.

Hyun-key Kim Hogarth



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