Korean Traditional Society: Emmanuel Todd

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Korea traditionally used to have a family structure called extended [authoritarian] stem family where the family members included all their grandparents, aunts and uncles into the number and size. In traditional society the role structure was strictly divided by sex and age. After the virtues of Confucianism were imported from China, Korea valued high patriarchal family structure; the principal purpose of marriage traditionally was meant to continue the family lineage by obtaining a male heir. Filial piety, which served as an ideology for maintaining its traditional familial pattern, was a virtuous characteristic; it was believed that it was the duty that kept the order to not disgrace the name of the ancestors because the descendants believed in punishing un-filial behavior and taking care of the honorable. The eldest son had the most responsibility as he was always the lead for rituals, in which they honored the ancestors, and taking care of his parents after they reached an old age while his wife had the role to produce all important male heirs. The women’s role was restricted to the domestic sphere, which sometimes led to sacrifices for the family. Overall, the traditional family system was viewed as an unequal relationship in which the son obeyed the father. However, among the other factors including modernization and industrialization, the Asian financial crisis also known as the “IMF era” in 1997 especially accelerated the change in a very short period from extended stem family mode to the nuclear family mode. Before the crisis happened, following the family structure in the traditional way was popular. Then, IMF essentially changed the mind and opinion about the future. However, people started focusing more to improve and develop themselves for better lives rather than taking care of a family and its responsibilities after the broken economies placed their plans and dreams on hold. Nowadays, it’s rare to find three-generation families; usually it is composed of family members from two generations only. The statistics show that the majority of families only have one child and more women have become the role as bread earners; the number of single-mother familial units is increasing. Unlike how nuclear family used to be perceived in the past as a signal of difficulty and disadvantage, the contemporary concept of nuclear family is generally considered as a result of choosing to put meaning into privacy, wishing to not let their privacy to be intruded by others.

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