Under the Ancestors' Eyes: Kinship, Status, and Locality in

Under the Ancestors' Eyes: Kinship, Status, and Locality in Premodern Korea (Harvard East Asian Monographs)

Under the Ancestorsâ€™ Eyes presents a new approach to Korean social history by focusing on the origin and development of the indigenous descent group. Martina Deuchler maintains that the surprising continuity of the descent-group model gave the ruling elite cohesion and stability and enabled it to retain power from the early Silla (fifth century) to the late nineteenth century. This argument, underpinned by a fresh interpretation of the late-fourteenth-century KoryÅ-ChosÅn transition, illuminates the role of Neo-Confucianism as an ideological and political device through which the elite regained and maintained dominance during the ChosÅn period. Neo-Confucianism as espoused in Korea did not level the social hierarchy but instead tended to sustain the status system. In the late ChosÅn, it also provided ritual models for the lineage-building with which local elites sustained their preeminence vis-Ã -vis an intrusive state. Though Neo-Confucianism has often been blamed for the rigidity of late ChosÅn society, it was actually the enduring native kinship ideology that preserved the strict social-status system. By utilizing historical and social anthropological methodology and analyzing a wealth of diverse materials, Deuchler highlights Koreaâ€™s distinctive elevation of the social over the political.

Country	USA
Author	Martina Deuchler
Binding	Hardcover
EAN	9780674504301
ISBN	0674504305
Label	Harvard University Asia Center
Manufacturer	Harvard University Asia Center
NumberOfItems	1
NumberOfPages	629
PublicationDate	2015-11-02
Publisher	Harvard University Asia Center
Studio	Harvard University Asia Center
ReleaseDate	0000-00-00

Under the Ancestors' Eyes: Kinship, Status, and Locality in Premodern Korea (Harvard East Asian Monographs)