"IT'S NOT A RELIGION WHEN YOU'RE ALIVE, BUT WHEN YOU'RE DEAD, IT IS"

The subject of the above quote is, of course, Confucianism.  The quote comes from a Korean movie recommended by Dr. Peterson, which is a dark comedy about a funeral.  Korea was a Buddhist nation under the Goryeon dynasty but because of the corruption of that time the Josean dynasty turned to Confucianism and today Korea is the most Confucian society in the world.  Even Koreans who wouldn't classify themselves as "Confucian" - only about 3% of the country does - live under Confucian principles such as filial piety and honoring ancestors.  Since ancestor worship is carried on through male lineage there is still an ingrained propensity to want boy babies (I discussed the skewed gender birth statistics in another entry).  One of our professors gave us what was almost like a stand-up comedy routine about Korean guilt trips as far as caring for their parents is concerned.  Children are expected to have their parents live with them - but as Dr. Andrew ______ (oops can't remember his last name, I'll look it up later) said, not only do the kids not want the parents living with them, the parents don't want to live with their adult kids!  This causes a lot of emotional conflict.  Another evidence of Confucianism and male favoritism is the tradition that once a girl marries she is no longer considered a part of her birth family - she now belongs to her husband's family  This is why Jid Lee in her book To Kill A Tiger, refers to her mother's siblings as "outside uncle" or "outside aunt" - because they aren't officially part of her family.

Though not officially related to Confucianism, shamanism is also still alive and well in Korea (I assume mainly in the villages).  I didn't witness any actual use of shamanism on my trip, but Dr. Peterson referred to it frequently and I read Laurel Kendall's book Shamans, Housewives, and other Restless Spirits which is an ethnography of the practice.  I wanted to ask Dr. Peterson how prevalent shamanism is now in light of Koreans rapid modernization but didn't get the chance (Kendall's book was published in 1985 and I'm assuming much has changed since them).  Anyway, evidently a mansin (traditional healer) will still be called in to perform an exorcism if there is illness or bad luck in the household.