Constructing Korean Origins by Hyung Il Pai
In this wide-ranging study, Hyung Il Pai examines how archaeological finds from throughout Northeast Asia have been used in Korea to construct a myth of state formation emphasizing the ancient development of a pure Korean race that created a prehistoric civilization rivaling those of China and Japan. Pai traces the many facets of the development of this myth from the theories of Japanese archaeologists working for the colonial regime in Korea through the reaction to these theories of nationalist historians in postwar South Korea. Her deconstruction of the uses and abuses of archaeology reveal how archaeological data have been utilized to legitimate Korean nationalism and a particular form of pan-Tongi ethnic identity. Her re-analysis of the archaeological data, however, shows that state formation occurred much later in the peninsula through a process of sustained culture contact and culture change stimulated by the material culture of Han China, which entered the peninsula via the Han dynasty outpost of Lelang commandery, located near what is now P'yongyang, the North Korean capital.
Pai takes an archeological perspective on how the Korean identity has been destroyed, altered, and rewrittenShe explores the need for Koreans to reclaim their racial-national identity. She explores Korea's need for identity through the facts and arguments of social migration, ethnic diffusion, parallel evolution, and cultural trade and theft...This is an interesting book, at times quite provocative...[and] loaded with revealing facts...[Pai] has produced a studied research, a solid reference source that could be used in an activist's argument on Korean issues of identity. -- Bill Drucker * Korean Quarterly *
This major contribution to both intellectual history and archaeology traces and analyzes the stories fashioned by Japanese colonial scholars and Korean nationalists to account for Korean origins. Theoretically sophisticated, widely read, and armed with a fine sense of irony, [Pai] shows how, despite themselves, Korean nationalists accepted concepts developed by their Japanese predecessors, and how efforts to fashion a common ancestry to serve as the basis for a shared postcolonial national identity continue in both Koreas today...[Pai] goes beyond discussing the evidence or lack of same for various theories, and offers her own eminently cogent interpretation of cultural interaction with China and state formation. -- C. Schirokauer * Choice *
This major contribution to both intellectual history and archaeology traces and analyzes the stories fashioned by Japanese colonial scholars and Korean nationalists to account for Korean origins. Theoretically sophisticated, widely read, and armed with a fine sense of irony, [Pai] shows how, despite themselves, Korean nationalists accepted concepts developed by their Japanese predecessors, and how efforts to fashion a common ancestry to serve as the basis for a shared postcolonial national identity continue in both Koreas today...[Pai] goes beyond discussing the evidence or lack of same for various theories, and offers her own eminently cogent interpretation of cultural interaction with China and state formation. -- C. Schirokauer * Choice *
Hyung Il Pai is Associate Professor of Korean History and East Asian Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780674002449 |
| ISBN 10 | 067400244X |
| Title | Constructing Korean Origins |
| Author | Hyung Il Pai |
| Series | Harvard-Hallym Series On Korea |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Harvard University, Asia Center |
| Year published | 2000-07-01 |
| Number of pages | 592 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |