The Studies of the Fundamental Social Structure in East Asia

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The objective of this study was (1) to apply the sociological and cultural-anthropological grounded-theory approach (2) to analysis of the stuctural and cultural characteristics of ethnic communities in the three countries of Japan, China, and Korea, which concurrently form the core of the common kanji/Confucian culture area. A further objective was (3) to clarify the commonalities and differences among ethnic communities in these three countries through comparative analysis of them. (1) Three specific villages -Sezawashinden-Fujimicho, Nagano Prefecture (Japan) Fanggan Laiwu, Shandong Province '(China) and Toi-Ri, Tanjin-Gun, Chungchungnam-Do Province (Korea) - were selected as sample comimunities to clarify the fundamental structures of ethnic communities in these countries, since traditional cultures specific to village communities are still preserved to a considerable degree in these villages. Subsequently, (2) a field study based on participant observation was conducted for the ta … More rgeted villages. In the process of this study, (3) the following social and cultural categories were established in order to grasp the basic cultures considered to form the core of each community : I. Ie/Family/Kinship/Clan ; II. Propety, Land and Labor relations ; and III. Religion/Regional integration.The interim results of study conducted in the three countries have revealed the following findings : (1) Dominant cultural concepts that are represented by identical kanji characters (e.g 家族 [family], 同族[lineage group/clan], 村落[village]) have different meanings in each country. Therefore, a concept in one country should be redefined in other countries. (2) The concept of "village" and the nature of human relations, rituals, and relationships among kin based on such a concept are significantly different between the "settlement-society" of Japan and the "migrational societies" of China and Korea. For example, (3) the fundamental structure of cillage communities in Japan is a fixed, "nesting-type (Ireko-gata) " community defined by the territorial concept of the mura, while the equivalent stucture in Korea shows a highly flexible variability as found in the concept of the uri. These trends are also seen in traditional landowning and labor practices. (4) Japanese communities traditionally pray for common luck for the entire village in their rituals, while the principal focus is on priavate wishes in Korea and China. In this study, however, primary emphasis was placed on a field study of individual communities, and the aspect of comparing the basic cultural structures in the three targeted countries still remains as a future challenge. Less