Healing through Gender Inversion in Korean Possession Trance Rituals

Abstract

Korean shamanism ( musok) considers problems of physical, social, and mental health to be a result of supernatural intervention. The unique position of male practitioners who become healers within a female-dominated sphere is especially telling as they perform cross-gender behavior that is perceived as related to homosexuality, which is stigmatized in Korea and often labeled as a “mental illness.” In contrast, musok frames these behaviors as responses to demands from the spirit world.