Introduction: Korea through Ethnography

Abstract

All of the articles in this special issue, as our title promises, draw from eth nographic data. Each article takes us there, although variously, to particular scenes, spaces, bodies, places, people, media landscapes, and so on. The ethno graphic methods across these articles are diverse, as are their modes of presenta tion; for example, in some of the articles we are more palpably introduced to the ways in which the ethnographer acts and is acted upon. While each of the studies in this issue focuses on particular kinds of peoplefrom breast cancer survi vors to Korean adoptees residing in Seoul—the reader will find these studies quite different from the village or community studies of classical ethnography. Nonetheless, the writers assembled here exhibit the best of the ethnographic tra dition with carefully chosen vignettes that evoke not only particular social and cultural scenes but also mobilize important arguments and scholarly interven tions. Indeed, these pieces demonstrate beautifully the ability of ethnography to surprise, and the ways in which the field teaches us about the complexity of lived experience. We begin here with examples of these evocative vignettes that both take us there and contribute to an argument. We then introduce themes that cut across the articles and demonstrate the powerful way in which ethnographic evidence can speak to the most important contemporary developments in South Korea■“globalization, the changing family, and transforming cultures of democ racy and capitalism among them.