곰나루 설화의 애니미즘적 성격과 지구생태시민주의

Abstract

This article is an attempt to investigate the characteristics of Korean animism in the tale of ‘Gomnaru(Bear wharf)’ handed down in Gongju-si, Chungcheongnam-do, and to find its modern meaning in the ideological similarity with global ecocitizenism. The tale of ‘Gomnaru’ is representative of the city of Gongju, but there are aspects that are not well understood by modern people. This is due to two singularities. The first is that the hierarchy of human and animal species is reversed. Anthropocentrism, which has persisted since the Middle Ages, sees humans as the rulers or managers of all species. However, in the tale of ‘Gomnaru’, men are neither stronger nor wiser or moral than the bear, the beast. Instead, bears and humans share a common trait that allow them to communicate with each other. These common traits are abstract and spiritual, such as those found in bear totems of tribal origin. The second singularity is that the gender images of men and women are reversed. A female bear subdues a man by force, not beauty or virtue, and makes it her own. However, this story does not stop there, and it overturns and denies the masculine order itself of domination by force by letting a man detained by a bear run away. However, there is a slightly different view of motherhood. In a patriarchal society, maternity often acts as a mechanism for oppressing women, but a mother who perceives the family as a common destiny is also the best shield to protect the weak children. Just as the woodcutter's failed attempt to detain the children's mother using children in the fairy tale ‘The Fairy and the Woodcutter’, Korean folktales affirm motherhood itself while recognizing the negative aspects of motherhood. In the tale of ‘Gomnaru’, after a man turns away from even the children and runs away, the bear left with the children dwells in the river and becomes a god. The residents of the Gongju City hold a ceremony for the mother, the bear. Everyone was held responsible for the sorrow of the bear that the man had turned away from. Animism in Korea is the belief that the principle of nature will be corrected and the world will be peaceful only when there is no unfair or lonely existence through communication of all beings. This idea is in line with global ecocitizenism that all members of the global community should unite to heal the sick earth.