Local-level Politics and Identity in Local Festival: The Case Study of ‘Punghyangje’ in Youngbo, Young-am County

Abstract

This study examines the nature and cultural meaning of the interrelationships between local politics and local identities in the case of local festival, so-called ‘punghyangje’ (the name of local festival in Youngbo, Youngamgun, Jellanamdo, Korea. It means literally the religious ritual for prosperity of village). It deals with the cultural features and implications of local identities, and with the characteristics of formation and transformation of local identities by the local people in terms of production and distribution and consumption of the cultural resources in local festival like ‘punghyangje’.BR In this paper, it is described and analyzed that the local festival can be utilized as an effective political means by the intentions and interests of the elders in kinship relations in local society, and can be manipulated by the local authorities or institutions through the politicization of the festival. From local politics’ perspective, this study describes and analyzes the process of the politicization of local festival in the socio-cultural context, and thereafter pays attention to understand the dynamics of the local festival by focusing on the cultural implication of the interrelationships between the politicization of local festival and the making of local identity in Youngbo region.BR I investigate that ‘punghyangie’ contributes to construct the cultural characteristics and meanings of local identity in this study. It also forms and transforms the nature of local politics or local political processes through the expression and representation of the kinship conflicts among the various kin groups and its solution processes through the symbolic construction of ‘the making of local identity’. In this sense, local identity is not a fixed or given entity, but a flexible construct. In other words, I insist that the local identity should be a cultural product which has been constructed constantly by the formation and transformation of specific socio-cultural situations and indigenous historical experiences, which have been produced and reproduced operatively according to the intention and planning of cultural agents who have responsibilities on the making of local politics that is expressed and represented by the local festivals, for example ‘punghyangje’ in Youngbo.