[KS] Beginning of dog-meat consumption

[Byington, Mark]

Hello,



To bring the discussion of early (pre-Koguryo) consumption of dogs closer to Korea, both geographically and culturally, there is good archaeological evidence for this in the early Puyo state. One site in central Jilin (Dahaimeng), for example, yielded bones of dogs and chickens in a settlement context, with indications that they were consumed as food, and this dates to around the latter half of the third century BC. There is also evidence that the Bronze Age predecessors of Puyo used dog hair in the manufacture of textiles, though so far there is no clear indication that I know of that dogs were used as a food source at that time and place (but I suspect that they were). Consumption of dogs for their meat or other byproducts probably existed in the peninsular prehistoric as well, but the soil acidity would have caused most organic evidence of this to have degraded completely after only a couple of centuries, so there would be little archaeological evidence to be found today (though it is possible that under the right environmental conditions the organic evidence could be preserved – I do not know of any such finds).



At any rate, the eating of dog meat in northeast Asia goes back to remote times, though it is, of course, quite possible that during later periods of peninsular history cultural tastes might have made the eating of dog meat undesirable – that’s for specialists of Koryo and Choson to say.



Best,



Mark Byington







________________________________
From: Koreanstudies [koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws] on behalf of Youngsook Pak [yp at soas.ac.uk]
Sent: Thursday, May 16, 2013 5:01 PM
To: Korean Studies Discussion List
Subject: Re: [KS] Beginning of dog-meat consumption

Dear Julien,

The earliest evident of consuming dog as meat can be seen in a Koguryo wall painting, Anak No. 3 (dated 357). Next to the kitchen a meat store is depicted where several animals are hanging from large hooks. Whenever I teach Koguryo tomb paintings in my art history course, I show this illustration and explain that in ancient times dog was regarded more like other meat (cow, pig and sheep etc.)

Professor Whitfield adds that in the tomb of Emperor Jing, the third emperor of the Han dynasty (reigned 156-139 BC), thousands of pottery figurines of animals intended for the Emperor's consumption in the afterlife were found in the eighty-one trenches radiating from the tomb. They included dogs as well as cattle, sheep, pigs and so on. I shall give a detailed discussion in my forthcoming article on Korea and Silk Road in Silk Road Journal (Seattle Washington University).

Best wishes for your research.

Youngsook Pak

On 16 May 2013 14:58, Walraven, B.C.A. <B.C.A.Walraven at hum.leidenuniv.nl<mailto:B.C.A.Walraven at hum.leidenuniv.nl>> wrote:
Dear Julien,

It certainly isn’t anything recent. In the Choson period people were bribed with dog meat. Have a look at my chapter in Katarzyna Cwiertka (ed.) Asian Food: the local and the global, where you will also find other references. And look out for work by Elmer Veldkamp who has done a PhD thesis at Tokyo University on attitudes toward animals in Korea and Japan. He has published some articles in Japanese, Korean and English.

Good luck,

Boudewijn Walraven

From: Koreanstudies [mailto:koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws<mailto:koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws>] On Behalf Of Julien Dugnoille
Sent: woensdag 15 mei 2013 17:18
To: <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws<mailto:koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>>
Subject: [KS] Beginning of dog-meat consumption

Dear all,

I am currently doing ethnographic research on the emergence of animal welfare in South Korea and am still unsure about the following question for which I have received contradictory answers: when did dog-meat consumption start in Korea?

Should it be traced back to antiquity or to 20th century food shortages? I would deeply appreciate it if anyone knew of reliable sources I could consult regarding the matter.

Many thanks in advance for any answer.

Julien Dugnoille
D.Phil. Candidate
School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography (SAME)
University of Oxford


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