해녀 물질의 고고학 : 한국 ‘잠수어업’의 기원과 형성 탐색

Abstract

Archaeology of muljil is an attempt to trace the forgotten life of the ancient through the gesture of the haenyeo. Muljil is a primitive gesture woven with a long habit of finding food in the sea. There are ideas and laws for diving and fishing, and there are meanings that arise from them. Muljil the process of humanizing the oceans, and so matter forms a culture of the sea. The study of materials has been focused on the muljil of the sea woman since the Joseon Dynasty due to the limitations of the literature, but the history of muljil is much longer ago. The traces can be seen mainly through the shells of the southern coast and Jeju area, myths, tattoos, ottocephaloma, herbs, and pearls. These examples are valuable clues to the origin and formation process of muljil. According to the remains of Jeju’s shells confirmed so far, Jeju’s muljil is likely to have existed from about 4,700 to 4,000 years ago. The presence of abalone and combustibles found in the slingshot is evidence of such an assumption. However, traces of muljil found in the remains of the southern coast island are further increased until 7,300 to 6,700 years ago. This suggests that the origin of muljil may have been made earlier on the southern island of the Korean peninsula than Jeju. The original muljil seems to have no distinction between men and women; the case of men and women tattooing and entering the sea together on the south coast in the Samhan period well supports that assumption. Moreover, osteoma of the external auditory canal, which was confirmed in the human bones of men and women at the time, prove that the substance was not limited to women from the beginning. Judging by the fact that osteoma of the external auditory canal appears more in the human bones of men, it suggests that the deeper substance was likely to be the male’s share. The above fact is expected to be a small clue to trace the origin and formation process of Jeju muljil.