The Haenyeos (Jamnyeo or Jamsu)1, who have harvested shellfish, abalone, and seaweed with their original diving skills offshore, and in the deep sea for over 1700 years, have created and accumulated their achievements and challenges along the way. They were generally disregarded and the Haenyeos worked as alienated groups in small island societies. They have dominated their profession because they are more physically suited for it than men. They can dive as deep as 15 to 20 meters and stay under water for around three minutes without the aid of breathing equipment. Politically, they organized voluntary associations, called Jamsuhoi, that decide local village issues through democratic voting and decision-making. Through their power, they were able to maintain a four-month long uprising (January-April 1932) against Japanese Imperialism’s illegal management of marine products of their sea villages. Economically, they were able to support their households and educate their family members through income gained by selling products to markets. It was evaluated that they greatly contributed to improving the prosperity of villages and the island economy as a whole. Since 1895, the Haenyeos regularly went abroad seasonally, to earn money at sea in such regions as China, Japan and the Korean peninsula. Their migration and settlements, especially on the Korean peninsula and Japan, are highly accepted for their special skills, and the higher economic value of the products they catch in those areas. It is possibly explained by the economic gap between Jeju Island, Korea, and Japan under the influenceof Japanese capitalism. Culturally they also created and developed their folklore, traditional rituals, and festivals that commemorate their hard work and wandering, Gypsy-like life in the deep sea; a little different from the mode of Korean p’ansori music. The Haenyeos also have a gender component that contributed to developing the potentials of Jeju Island family value system as an integrated family model upon the combination of big and nexus family systems in their home. Through these discussions, this paper argues the Jeju Haenyeos serve as an example of equitable gender roles in small island societies, different from or beyond the scope of traditional Korean Confucian stereotypes.

• Chang Hoon Ko(Professor of Major of Public Administration, Jeju National University)