Funeral Rites in Contemporary Korea: The Business of Death
This book (contracted with Springer, published, see here) attempts to understand the 21st century Korean society still in the process of modernisation as reflected on the contemporary funerary rites. The book analyses the ‘‘pariah-capitalism’’ in South Korea through the case of highly dehumanised and commodified funeral services. There is much in common between Max Weber’s concept of pariah-capitalism and ‘‘funeral capitalism’’, the latter of which pays attention to the practice and impact of pariah-capitalism on the lives of Koreans. The book starts by commenting on a couple of dramatic changes in Korean funeral rites in the last two decades: the change of the venues of funeral rites and the popularisation of cremation rather than traditional burials. In addition, the dramatic commercialisation of funeral services has created a huge source of income for prestigious general hospitals and funeral service conglomerates. The ways in which funeral capitalism is manifested in Korean society are illustrated through an analysis of TV advertisements, recent movies touching on the funerals, unethical business operations of funeral firms, the grassroots experiences of funeral services and the features of newly developing natural burials, columbaria and crematoria. The analyses reveal the extent to which funeral services are rituals through which socio-economically and culturally grounded Korean greed is fulfilled, illustrating the characteristics of a highly competitive and overly dehumanised Korean capitalism that is strongly promoted by the media and commercialism.
A central goal of the book is to question and reflect on the value of human life in South Korea by examining the practices of funeral rites.
- What are the socio-cultural and economic reasons for the heightened interest in funeral rites in Korea in the last three decades?
- Why has there been a huge growth of funeral industries for the same period?
- What are the ways in which contemporary Korean funeral rites reflect Korean capitalist development process?
- It has been known that funeral rites have been commodified. However what are the ways and the extent to which the commodification has taken place in the Korean societal context?
While Professor Gil-Soo Han takes a direct interest in Korean funeral rites as a crucial part of the contemporary Korean cultures, my core interest lies in the ways in which current development of Korean capitalism has been reflected in the lives of Koreans including funeral rites. Thus this book attempts to unpack the "Korean style pariah capitalism" [or more correctly chonmin chabonjuui as popularised in Korea] through the investigation of Korean funeral rites.
