Be a Cultural Detective-ARCEE
Title: Korea Creation Myth
Country of origin: South Korea (in the text the setting is based on the whole of Korea)
Author: James A. Crites
Date Accessed: 15 May, 2008
Site: http://www.angelfire.com/ca/beekeeper/korea.html
CLUES ABOUT DAY-TO-DAY LIFE (FOOD, CLOTHING, HOUSING, FAMILY SIZE)
The clues that I have found out in the story relating to the topic of day-to-day life is that the clothes the characters may have been wearing are god-like clothes, and that the animals that they myth was referring too had no clothes, but instead naked (with fur). Housing, it said that one of the characters lived in heaven, but animals, bear and tiger were living in a cave on earth. The Family size wasn’t clearly explained, because it only mentioned god and the bear and tiger and God having a child and a wife. The food was explained directly to the bear and tiger, in the text where God gave them specific food ot eat to become human, which was garlic and mugwort.
CLUES ABOUT VALUES & BELIEFS (RELIGION, ATTITUDE, ETC.)
The clues to the topic about the beliefs were clearly mentioned in the story, and seeing that the genre is a creation story, the religion and the beliefs are god, heaven, and the creation of the Korean Peninsula, and of bears becoming human. The attitude was of the story only showing how and what of the creation of Korea.
CLUES ABOUT LANGUAGE OR DIALECT
Considering the names of the characters like Dan-Gun, heavenly prince, Chancellor cloud/rain/ and Wind. It shows that the names come from the region of Eastern-Asia, or somewhere along the area of China, or Japan. Also, that there language was most likely Korean.
CLUES ABOUT CLIMATE & GEOGRAPHY
In the text it was shown that the Chancellors that “the heavenly prince” Dan-Gun brought with him with the name of Rain/Cloud and Wind, was that their names represented what happens in that are in a daily basis (the weather). The Geography, in the “beautiful” Korean Peninsula consisted of trees, mountains, and caves, and the city of Pyongyang, (which in the present is now the capital of North Korea).
