Korean shamanism draws a standard scholarly distinction between two paths to becoming a shaman: the charismatically possessed mudang (kangshinmu) of central and northern Korea, called through spirit possession and an initiatory illness, and the hereditary shaman (sesummu, or tan'gol in some southern regional usage), who inherits ritual office and training within a shamanic lineage without the possession experience that defines the mudang.
Facts
Status
Status TodayLiving tradition, practised today 1 Attributions
TraditionKorean shamanism (Muism) 1 Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Source Shamans, Nostalgias, and the IMF: South Korean Popular Religion in MotionLaurel Kendall
Held Differently
Sesummu and mudang name two different paths into Korean shamanic office, and the difference between them is less a disagreement than two distinct accounts of what makes someone a shaman. A mudang, the more commonly described figure in central and northern Korea, is called through a spirit sickness resolved by an initiation that seats the possessing spirit. A sesummu, the hereditary shaman of Korea's southern coasts, instead inherits ritual training and office within a shamanic family line, without ever undergoing that possession experience.
Source Shamans, Nostalgias, and the IMF: South Korean Popular Religion in MotionLaurel Kendall
Sources
1. Shamans, Nostalgias, and the IMF: South Korean Popular Religion in Motion
Laurel Kendall, University of Hawaii Press, 2009on the hereditary/charismatic typology of Korean shamansView the Source Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy
Mircea Eliade, Princeton University Press, 1951on Korean shamanic types within the comparative surveyView the Source Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.