Gods and Things: Is “Animism” an Operable Concept in Korea?

Korean shaman practice involves a wide array of material things—from mountains and landscapes to everyday objects and specialized paraphernalia—that are vested with soul stuff (yŏng) and become sacred through human agency. The author argues that while the concept of animism can open a deeper inquiry into these phenomena, it must be used with clarity, precision, and caution. Most sacred objects are not inherently numinous but are inducted or appropriated by mobile, mutable spirits through human acts. This ontology, in which even gods in landscapes can be affected by human agency, underlies the adaptability of shaman practices in contemporary, highly commercialized South Korea.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Shamanship is a thing-ish practice. Early missionary observers in Korea noted that features of the landscape, quotidian objects, and specialized paraphernalia figure in the work of shamans (mansin) and in popular religious practice more generally. Subsequent ethnographers observed similar engagements with numinous things, from mountains to painted images, things vested with the presence of soul stuff (yŏng). Should this be considered “animism” as the term is being rethought in anthropological discourse today? Should we consider shamanic materiality in Korea as one more ontological challenge to the nature/culture divide? Drawing on existing ethnography and her own fieldwork, the author examines the (far from uniform) premises that govern the deployment of material things in Korean shaman practice. She argues that while the question of “animism” opens a deeper inquiry into things that have been described but not well-analyzed, the term must be used with clarity, precision, and caution. Most of the material she describes becomes sacred through acts of human agency, revealing an ontology of mobile, mutable spirits who are inducted into or appropriate objects. Some of these things are quotidian, some produced for religious use, and even the presence of gods in landscapes can be affected by human agency. These qualities enable the adaptability of shaman practices in a much transformed and highly commercialized South Korea.