[KS] Beginning of dog-meat consumption

[Martin T. Bale]

Dear List,
I hope that this message may help to broaden the discussion. Indeed, as Dr. Mark Byington explains it seems that dog consumption dates back to at least Puyŏ.

However, it should be noted that the relationship between people and dogs in the Korean peninsula was not likely defined only by basic subsistence needs in prehistoric and proto-historic times. 

Dogs were likely consumed for their meat or processed for their fur. However, archaeological evidence suggests that they were also used for other purposes as early as the first century BCE. In 1998-2000 my colleagues and I from the Dong-A University Museum excavated three relatively complete dog skeletons in one of the shell-middens at the Nŭk-do site (Sach'ŏn [Samch'ŏn'po], Kyŏngsang Nam-do). 

Nŭk-do is an important node in the long-distance exchange systems of polities in the southern Korean peninsula with the Western Han Empire and polities of the Japanese archipelago c. 100 BCE - 100 CE. The dog remains were laid out on their sides, and some were buried in close proximity to human skeletal remains. The relative completeness of the dog skeletal remains at Nŭk-do and their close proximity to human burials indicates that they were interred without being butchered and thus were likely not used as food. Nŭk-do is a large and complex site -- other large parts of the island were excavated by other university museums and institutes of cultural heritage, and I am less familiar with the finds from those excavations. Thus there may be other archaeological contexts in which dogs were used for basic subsistence needs.

As a caveat I should mention that I am not sure how representative the Nŭk-do remains from the Dong-A U. Museum excavations may be in the overall archaeological record. This is because, as Dr. Byington mentioned, the soil in peninsular contexts is quite acidic and does not preserve bone material for long. On the other hand, the geological formation processes of soil on the islands that lie off of the Korean peninsula such as Nŭk-do are different and provide us with rich preservation.

Happy Victoria Day weekend!

Cheers,
MTB
____________________________________
Martin T. Bale, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate
Department of Anthropology/CEAS
Yale University
New Haven, CT USA
Planning Committee member, Harvard Early Korea Project,
Editorial Board member, Early Korea 
http://harvard.academia.edu/MartinTBale
http://about.me/MartinTBale


On 2013-05-17, at 9:23 AM, Frank Hoffmann wrote:

> There is an English language, pretty well written, intriguing text on 
> dog meat consumption and its history at Korean Animal Rights Advocates 
> website:
> http://animalrightskorea.org/dog-meat-issue/the-history-of-koreas-dog-meat-industry.html
> 
> That also has an image, although small, but very clear (better than 
> many other images--maybe somehow digitally 'repaired') of the Anak #3 
> mural that Dr. Pak had mentioned (the third photo in that article).
> 
> This essay, by an anonymous author, brings up quite a number of 
> arguments and thoughts that I would think are well worth considering: 
> for example, that we need to consider what Anak #3 has to do with 
> "Korea"--and that what we see there are possibly Chinese customs of the 
> time (that relates then to the old discussion of who is burried there, 
> a "Chinese" or a "Korean"--and to the whole early-Korea-as-nation 
> discourse, etc.) Another of several good points the author makes, I 
> quote: "Another part of the problem is that tradition, even one as 
> perverted as dog-meat eating, is linked with nationalist sentiment. Dog 
> meat eating is even perceived by some as a defiant act against western 
> bullying and a kind of nationalistic practice, which is all 
> ridiculous." 
> 
> Dog meat, by the way, is not only being consumed in northeast Asia. I 
> would just have to drive a hundred miles straight north to get a dish 
> of Swiss Mostbröckli made with dog meat--popular in the Alps (not 
> served to tourists, but consumed in private settings at various 
> occasions). However, even as a tourist you certainly can buy cat pelts 
> in many stores there.
> 
> 
> Best,
> Frank
>