The Shaman'S Wages Av Kyoim Yun

<P>Breaking from previous scholarship on Korean shamanism, which focuses on <i>mansin</i> of mainland Korea, <i>The Shaman¿s Wages</i> offers the first in-depth study of <i>simbang</i>, hereditary shamans on Cheju Island off the peninsula¿s southwest coast. In this engaging ethnography enriched by extensive historical research, Kyoim Yun explores the prevalent and persistent ambivalence toward practitioners, whose services have long been sought out yet derided as wasteful by anti-shaman commentators and occasionally by their clients.</P><P>Intrigued by discord between <i>simbang</i> and their clients over fee negotiations, Yun set out to learn the deep-rooted legacy of condemning or trivializing the practitioners¿ self-interests, from a neo-Confucian governor¿s purge of shrines during the Choson dynasty to the recent transformation of a community ritual into a practice recognized through UNESCO World Heritage status. Drawing on a wealth of firsthand observations, she shows how <i>simba