여성 무당생애사를 통해 본 무속 전승의 변화 양상

Abstract

In highly industrialized modern Korean society, shamanism is prevalent and shamans are increasing. In the excessive competition system of modern society, Korean shamans are thoroughly keeping pace with the market situation to attract customers; as a result, a new kind of shaman differentiated from traditional shamans is emerging. Like market products, fortune-telling or amulets are specialized and subdivided to meet the needs of customers, and newspapers, magazines, TV programs and the Internet are appropriately used for publicity. As this phenomenon is a change in the transmission of Korean shamanism, it can be understood through the stories and voices of the shaman's life. Therefore, this paper aims to delineate the negotiation and changes between traditional and rationalized shaman’s practices, through the oral life history of a shaman who experienced the traditional shaman’s practice and two shamans who experienced modern shaman’s practice. In the transmission of modern Korean shamanism, initiating rite of the shaman has not changed much compared to the traditional rite. However, Dangolgwon, the area where a shaman managed the congregation, was dismantled by the development of transportation and communication due to modernization; the initiating rites such as Ssalgeollib and Soegeollib performed to make believers disappeared. In addition, because of the dissolution of Dangolgwon, a tendency to form regular customers using Internet homepages and various advertisements emerged. Because of severance of the traditional learning relationship with the spiritual mother, modern shamans tried to learn shaman’s ritual through cutting-edge devices, CDs and books. They not only learned shaman’ ritual working with other professional shamans but also learned that attending the Intangible Cultural Heritage Training Center or the Gut Academy. Like this, the convenient and quicker learning of Korean shaman’s practice because of the severance of the traditional relationship between spiritual child and spiritual parent and the increasement of commercial Naelim-Gut(initiating rite) are leading to a change in the transmission of Korean shamanism and the rapid increasement of shamans. This changes in the transmission of Korean shamanism are not a 'fake tradition' but a Korean religious phenomenon; as a result, it might be necessary to expand the study through the oral life history of ordinary shamans beyond the holders of intangible cultural assets.