The Socio-economic Factors Behind the Ritual of ‘Neokdeulim’
· Communal Spirit
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Behind the practice of ‘Neokdeulim’ is a community-based lifestyle of the indigenous people of Jeju Island, whereby they do not let a person who is ill or shocked deal with it by themselves. For instance, when a child goes through a shocking event, the people around the child also share the concerns of the child’s parents and deal with what the child has experienced by performing ‘Neokdeulim.’ If the child’s mother or grandmother can perform ‘Neokdeulim’ to the child, they do. If they cannot, they bring the child to a ‘Neokdeulim Grandmother.’
Additionally, if one cannot take the person in shock to a ‘Neokdeulim Grandmother,’ one would take the person’s clothes and give those clothes ‘Neokdeulim’ in place of the owner of the clothes. Even when a grown-up son or a daughter refuses to get ‘Neokdeulim’ when ill, the mother may take the clothes of the children in secrecy to the ‘Neokdeulim Grandmother’ to receive ‘Neokdeulim’ in their place. Furthermore, when someone goes to get ‘Neokdeulim’ for a member of their family, their neighbours may ask them to take their clothes to get ‘Neokdeulim’ for themselves as well. In such cases, the ‘Neokdeulim Grandmother’ will then give instructions to the person who has brought the clothes, telling them, “This person has to come get ‘Neokdeulim’ again,” or “This person is okay, so the person does not need ‘Neokdeulim’ anymore.”
It is often difficult for younger mothers with little experience in parenting to know what to do when their children are ill or shocked. In Jeju, the child’s problem does not stop as the child’s problem only but extends itself to the problem of the mother, who actively takes part in getting the child to receive ‘Neokdeulim,’ and to the problem of the ‘Neokdeulim Grandmother’ in the neighbourhood who have experiences in practice. As such, ‘Neokdeulim’ can be seen as a manifestation of the close-knit community the indigenous people shared, as a household’s problems become an entire neighbourhood's problem to solve as one.
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# An Anecdote from a Haenyeo in her 60s @ Siheung Haenyeo’s House
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“There are cases where parents are desperate to save their children when they are ill and in pain. Then they would make their children receive ‘Neokdeulim’ without their knowing. In that case, they would take the sick person’s clothes to get ‘Neokdeulim’ in their place.”
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#An Anecdote from a Haenyeo in her 70s @ Jocheon Fishing Village
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“There is still a ‘Neokdeulim Grandmother’ in Seogwipo. I heard that there are a lot of people waiting in line to get ‘Neokdulim’ in front of the lady’s house in the morning. Some people give their clothes to their neighbours who go there to receive ‘Neokdeulim.’ If they take the clothes to the lady, she will place them down, not say much, and touch the clothes with her hands as she tells them if the owner of the clothes would have to visit her again or not. These kinds of ‘Neokdeulim’ are still performed.”
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· The History of Exploitation and the Suffering of Labor for a Living
Behind the ritual of ‘Neokdeulim’ is a long history of economic hardship for the indigenous people of Jeju Island, in which they were exploited by unjust rulers for years and had to risk their lives to work in the sea for their family’s survival. Because of this, Jeju residents were more prone to fatal accidents, and their families were put through dangerous situations where they had to go through a series of physical and mental afflictions. Such an environment resulted in a dire need for coping mechanisms for traumatizing events and remedies for psychological ailments.
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From 1692, in the Joseon Dynasty, Jeju Island had been under a ‘Departure Ban’ by the central government for about 200 years. The law banned Jeju residents from going out to the mainland, which was about 100 km away, and leaving the island. Because of this ban, Jeju Island suffered from heavy isolation from the mainland of the Korean peninsula. The indigenous people of Jeju were already suffering from the exploitation of both the central government and the local officials, and on top of that, the ‘departure ban’ was imposed to prevent them from escaping these harsh conditions. The ban was so strict that it even prohibited Jeju residents from making sailboats in case they would use the boat to leave the island.
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Under the ban, the indigenous people in Jeju had to carry out harsh labour to make offerings for the king and ensure their survival. Almost all local officials who were appointed to Jeju Island in the late 1800s during the Joseon Dynasty extorted its residents. And since Jeju was a volcanic island and thereby full of stones, the land was nowhere near fertile, producing sparse agricultural products. Because of this, Haenyeos had to dive into the deep sea to collect seafood, such as conches and abalones without proper equipment.
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# An Anecdote from a Haenyeo in her 60s (Jungmun Haenyeo’s House)
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*She recounted that Haenyeos had made a living for their families by working out in the rough sea.
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“Even during pregnancy, Haenyeos would work out in the sea unless they are very, very ill. If the baby is to be born tomorrow, we work until the day before. There was a Haenyeo who had to rush out of the water to give birth to a baby because her contractions started while she was underwater. As for myself, I almost died when I was pregnant with my first child in the sea. I bashed my head on a rock while trying to pick an abalone under it. I was very lucky to come out of the water alive.
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When I was six years old, my mother got bitten by a shark. She was wearing fabric clothes and was working in the sea to collect seaweed when it happened. Until her death, she had a huge scar from one side of her body to the other. My mother died in the sea when she was 75 years old, and I was 30 years old. My oldest sister also died in the sea a month before she would have turned 75 years old. I almost died a couple of times, too. I remember one was after I gave birth to two children — I dived into deep water to work, and I was short of breath.”
· Low Level of Accessibility to Healthcare in Jeju
When the elderly people of the Jeju indigenous community were young, there was little accessibility to medical care on Jeju Island. Considering that the time was around 50~70 years ago, Jeju Island was a very big island compared to the number of medical facilities they had. Not only was the island short of hospitals and doctors in general, roads were not developed, and it took a lot of time and money to go to a hospital. The population per doctor in Jeju was 13,320 per doctor in 1946, in comparison to 1,623 per doctor in 1994. In 2016, the number of doctors on Jeju Island was 1,148, which was the smallest in the country, and the number of doctors compared to the population of Jeju was a mere 1.7 doctors per 1,000 people.
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Furthermore, the major roads on Jeju Island started to get properly developed only in 1963. The 5.16 Road (the first crossing road), a crossing road connecting Jeju City and Seogwipo City in the east of Halla Mountain, was completed and opened in 1969, and the 1100 Road (the second crossing road) crossing the west of Halla Mountain was opened in 1973. Later, Pyeonghwa-ro (the West Industrial Road) and Beongyeong-ro (the East Industrial Road) were renovated and completed, and Sanrok Road was completed. Before these roads were opened, travelling in Jeju was very inefficient and time-consuming, and traffic conditions were bad. Even to this date, people who live in the rural or mountain areas of Jeju have to go a long distance to visit a general hospital.
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Because of these conditions, Jeju residents were prevented from being able to readily go to hospitals and receive treatment at the right time. The low level of medical accessibility, as well as the lack of transportation means, are perceived as the main backgrounds that have led the indigenous people of Jeju to use ‘Neokdeulim’ to deal with mental and physical illnesses.
# An Anecdote from a Haenyeo in her 60s @ Sanisu-ding Haenyeo’s House
*An experience of a Haenyeo who got ‘Neokdeulim’ or got acupuncture from an unlicensed Oriental doctor when she was sick due to the sparse accessibility to medical care in her town.
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“When I was young, there weren’t a lot of hospitals, so when people got sick, they would get ‘Neokdeulim’ or get acupuncture. Thirty years ago, there was an old man in my town who gave acupunctures but did not have a license for it. When children were shocked, they were given either one of them. They had no other choice.
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When my children were young, there were only a few hospitals and not a lot of oriental medical clinics. I had to rely a lot on acupuncture to cure illnesses. You have to go to downtown Jeju to visit proper hospitals, but there weren’t many buses that were running, and transportation was very limited. The whole island of Jeju was like that.”
# An Anecdote from a Haenyeo in her 70s @ Saekdal Haenyeo’s House
“When my kids were young and they became sick, I would buy medicine from the pharmacy and give them injections myself. And when my kids were shocked or scared by a wild animal while walking around the neighbourhood, I would take them to a shaman to get ‘Neokdeulim’ to get their souls back into their bodies.
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When I was young, I had to go to Jeju City to go to a hospital, but we had to take the 5.16 Road because there wasn’t Pyeonghwa-ro back then. It took an entire day just for me to visit and come back from my parents’ house around Gujwa; that’s how bad these roads were.”
# An Anecdote from a Haenyeo in her 70s @ Sagyeo-ri Haenyeo’s House
“At Moseulpo Hospital, 50 years ago, I was told to take my sick child to a pediatric expert as soon as possible because he was seriously ill. But to go to a pediatric hospital, I had to call a taxi to go all the way to Jeju City. I had no money to pay the driver. I only had the money to pay for the fees at Moseulpo Hospital, and that was it. So, I told the people at Moseulpo Hospital that I would first have to use the money to go to Jeju City, and if my kid survived, I would come back and pay for the fees later. Then I took my kid to the pediatric expert in Jeju City for treatment. Thankfully, my son did come back alive, but he couldn’t even talk. He was just breathing […]. So, even though he was getting treatment from the hospital, I came home, set up a table, and prayed to the gods to save my kid […].”