Jeju Island, the Three Clans Myth, and Women Divers: Female Importance in Jeju's Cultural History

Abstract

Jeju Island, officially the Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, lies 90 kilometers off the southern coast of the Korean peninsula and forms a province of South Korea. It is an interesting place, considered by many historians to be unique from mainland Korea before it was absorbed into the larger state, with fascinating cultural phenomena and a murky past. Although there is not much scholarship on the early history of Jeju and little in the written record about the island, it is possible to theorize what early Jeju cultural history may have looked like through a combined examination of the island’s mythology and modern-day culture. To gain a greater understanding of what early Jeju human culture may have looked like, I will examine the Myth of the Three Clans of Jeju Island, Jeju’s most prominent foundation myth. It is not the only foundation myth originating from the Korean Peninsula, but it is unique in that it features a key reversal between the roles of men and women in a narrative that is otherwise similar to other Korean foundation myths, the rest of which are found on mainland Korea.