Joint families in Korean rural society, 1690-1861

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper aims to examine the situation of joint families in rural Korean society between the late seventeenth and late nineteenth century, considering changes over time and differences in social status. Also, it hopes to provide some clues for understanding the characteristics of the pre-modern Korean family system by comparing it with China and Europe.We used two different approaches in this paper. First, we reconstructed the family structure in Korea based on the composition of the household and compared the results generally with China, Japan and Europe. We found that joint families were less common in pre-modern southeastern Korea than in the northeastern region of China. Around half of all families belonged to a simple family form. A reasonably high share was also found for extended families and joint families. The share of joint families was lower than that of northeastern China, but was similar to that of Japanese Nishinomiya, higher than that of Britain and France in Western Europe and that of Serbia in Eastern Europe. Second, we analyzed multi-generational living arrangements for elderly people. As a result, we discovered that in pre-modern southeastern Korea the share of elderly people living in joint families was higher than in Western Europe. Compared with Eastern Europe, however, the numbers were on a similar level. In the example of Korea, the living arrangements for elderly people were heavily influenced by the social status of their families. Based on Confucian family ethics, families with a relatively high social status showed a stronger percentage of stem families and joint families.