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KMID : 0379220110310010157
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Journal of Korea Gerontological Society
2011 Volume.31 No. 1 p.157 ~ p.170
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Body Movement as Identity: The Meaning of the "Bodily Culture" of Older Men at Jongmyo Park
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Chung Gene-Woong
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Abstract
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The purpose of this article is to examine how the ’bodily culture’ of older men who gather at Jongmyo Park serves to express and solidify their sense of a enduring self. The research was carried out based on the anthropological methods of participant observation and in-depth interviews at Jongmyo park and its adjacent areas. In later life, the image of a continuous self becomes harder to achieve due to the ageism prevalent in modern societies. The situation is worse at Jongmyo park since the park itself has been stigmatized as "the extraterritorial zone for the old" by the media due to the boisterous atmosphere of the park. It is dubbed as a place for those who have nowhere else to go. The singing and dancing, which used to be the dominant forms of activities at the park among older men until the ’sanctification’ project propelled by the government, serves as an antidote against the ageist tendency to subjugate them. The ’bodily culture’ embodies these men’s image of themselves as a continuous being which has not been tarnished by the passage of time. The approach of ’body hermeneutics’ is required to interpret the experiences of the body in later life.
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KEYWORD
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Jongmyo park, Later life, Bodily culture, Identity, Cultural membership
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