근대화 이후 우물제사의 전승 원동력－안성 공도 지역의 사례를 중심으로－

Abstract

Umuljesa is a traditional Korean village well ritual. It is more common in farm villages. Since the colonial modernization, Korean folk culture has constantly encountered modernization. As of 2017, rural villages in Korea have undergone a lot of changes in their physical life and demography in the process of industrialization and modernization since the 1960s. In this process of change of life, Dongje, which was a common faith of the village, also greatly weakened its tradition base. Especially, since the end of the 1970s, when the rural modernization project was started in earnest, the wells which were the main drinking and living water source of each village gradually lost its practical meaning. Since then, Umuljesa have also declined in many areas. This paper studies the process of transmission of Umuljesa in the modern society where the practical meaning of wells is fading, focusing on the cases of Anseong Gongdo villages. In this paper, I have seen the practical significance of well as the indispensable supply of water for human life, and the spirituality of the god of well(YongShin, dragon) who controls the well as two driving forces of Umuljesa’s transmission in modern society. Particularly, in the process of resuming the Umuljesa, village members leaned on the spiritual power of the Yongsin to secure the life and abundance of the villagers, and thereby to promote the well-being of the village. Through this discourse which the believers of the Umuljesa have developed, I suggest that the spirituality of the Yongsin is the main driving force of the Umuljesa in modern society, rather than the practical meaning of the well.