A Time to Mourn, a Time to Dance: Abortion Death Rituals in South Korea
This essay explores contemporary ChonDoJe, Buddhist abortion death rituals in South Korea. I argue that both the fetus and the participants of the rituals can be conceptualized as biopolitical-spiritual subjects. This research uses participant observation, analysis of ritual texts, and a literature...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Brill
[2017]
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In: |
Religion & gender
Year: 2017, Volume: 7, Issue: 2, Pages: 204-223 |
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
South Korea
/ Birth control
/ Abortion
/ Mourning rites
/ History 1920-2017
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RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy AE Psychology of religion AG Religious life; material religion BL Buddhism KBM Asia NBE Anthropology NCC Social ethics NCF Sexual ethics TK Recent history |
Further subjects: | B
South Korea
B Grievability B Population Control B Buddhist B Abortion B abortion death ritual |
Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
Summary: | This essay explores contemporary ChonDoJe, Buddhist abortion death rituals in South Korea. I argue that both the fetus and the participants of the rituals can be conceptualized as biopolitical-spiritual subjects. This research uses participant observation, analysis of ritual texts, and a literature review of population control policies to situate the Buddhist abortion death rituals in the context of the colonial and post-colonial ‘modern’ reproductive regime in South Korea. The rites’ participants have contradictory and multifaceted identities in the transnational biopolitical reproductive regimes as they are constructed as both the targets of population control policies as well as the ‘sinners’ of abortion. I argue that the collective reenactments of past abortions in the rituals have unintentionally conjured those ‘erased’ due to robust population control. |
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ISSN: | 1878-5417 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion & gender
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.18352/rg.10145 |