<Articles>Birth Customs and Midwives Training Policy in Colonial Korea

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  • HO So Yeon
    奈良文化財研究所アソシエイトフェロー

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  • <論説>植民地朝鮮における出産風習と産婆養成政策
  • 植民地朝鮮における出産風習と産婆養成政策
  • ショクミンチ チョウセン ニ オケル シュッサン フウシュウ ト サンバ ヨウセイ セイサク

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Abstract

The aim of this paper is to be a first step in clarifying the conflict between the midwifery policy and customs in colonial Korea by investigating the restoration of the traditional birth customs in Korea and the development and characteristics of the midwifery system established as a hygiene policy in colonial Korea. The midwifery policy of Japan was transplanted to colonial Korea in 1914. For colonization to succeed, it was necessary not only to send people but also to transplant the culture of the home country to make the lives of colonists easier. As a result, new facilities, occupations, and other infrastructure were constructed in the colony. However, it is obvious that the colonized people did not accept aspects of the transplanted culture obediently, and there were conflicts between transplanted culture and native customs. The problem is that the structure of the colonized people's thinking, that is, their customs, which would be considered primitive hygiene before the enforcement of the new hygiene system, has not previously been noted in the history of hygiene research. Previous researchers have focused only on the result--the fact that the midwifery system of colonial Korea could not be established--consequently their arguments dwelt on how to explain the reason for that failure. Therefore, most previous studies either examined the process of enforcement and the impositions of the colonial authorities and how the colonized resisted them or made conclusions based on concepts like "compressed modernity." Furthermore, an issue plaguing these studies is that they simplified actual events and led to the exclusion of the colonized from their place in history. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to clarify actual events by examining what existed before the midwifery system was carried out and what the goals of the midwifery system were.

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  • 史林

    史林 103 (5), 644-678, 2020-10-20

    THE SHIGAKU KENKYUKAI (The Society of Historical Research), Kyoto University

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