This paper is based on the author’s book, <The Jamnyo (Jeju women divers) of Korea, Neo-Confucianism and Dual Mythology> (2018). It was published in English and French verion by the Cultural Foundation Barbier-Mueller Museum in Geneva, Switzland. The particularity of the book is that it is the first of its kind that introduces in foreign language Jeju academic discourses (published since 1950’s, but not known outside of Korea)) on various topics, such as Jeju women divers, mythology, kinship system, shamanism and the influence of the Neo-confucianism on Jeju, imported from the mainland, combined with data collected among a divers' community in the small island of Udo, Jeju in 2016. This article presents two stances of the author regarding Jeju: (1) a feminist point of view on Jeju women divers and their contribution to Jeju society by presenting the island as a <women centred society>; (2) an activist point of view by presenting the history of Jeju and its people as a struggle against the centre by the periphery and dominated by different colonial powers over 1000 years. The article proposes jamnyo’s fireplace (bulteok) as a social model for healing.

This paper analyzes the current intellectual discourse on Jeju identity and its implications on the position of Jeju women. Debates on Jeju identity may be grouped roughly into three schools. Each of these schools has quite different implications for Jeju women’s position, implicitly or explicitly argued by each school. When the influence of China and Neo-Confucianism is emphasized in defining Jeju identity, women’s position is necessarily subordinate to that of men. When the culture of Jeju is presented as a culture of “compromise” between Jeju reality and Neo-Confucianism, the women’s position is inevitably raised and strengthened, since Jeju women, especially women divers, are at the forefront of coping with the harsh nature of the island along with men. Such a society cannot survive without women or men. When Jeju identity is presented as a “women centredness”, again women’s position is raised or the main axis (or the essence) of the island society is presented as women. The author proposes to take these debates one step further by synthesizing them and substantiating some crucial gaps in them, through fieldwork planned.

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.

The paper examined empirically environmental beliefs among Jeju women in South Korea by analyzing survey data collected in 1999. The findings indicate that 58 per cent of Jeju women held pro-environmental beliefs that were measured with the Revised New Ecological Paradigm Scale. Environmental beliefs being structured with four dimensions in the mind of Jeju women educational attainment proved a significant determinant for the two belief dimensions: human’s excessive involvement in nature and human superiority over nature. Those with higher educational attainment agreed strongly with the belief in human’s excessive involvement in nature whereas rejecting the belief in human superiority over nature.