Shamanic Gut Rituals on Jeju Island, Korea: The Ritual Process of Yeongdeung-gut
April 8 @ 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
For non-Columbia affiliates, registration is required to access the Morningside campus. After registering you will receive an email with a QR code that must be presented along with a government-issued ID (your name must match exactly the name registered for the event) at either the 116th Street & Broadway or 116th Street & Amsterdam gates for entry. Please register using a unique email address (one email address per registrant) by Apr. 7 at 4:00 pm for campus access.
Names will be submitted for QR codes 1-2 days prior to the event. Registrants will receive an email from CU Guest Access with the QR code before or on the day of the event.
Speaker: Yohan Yoo, Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Seoul National University, Korea
Moderator: Seong Uk Kim, Associate Professor of Korean Religions and Culture, Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures, Columbia University
This talk discusses shamanic rituals practiced on Jeju Island, Korea, with a focus on the Yeongdeung-gut, a major ritual performed to ensure a bountiful fishing harvest. Using various visual materials, the presentation examines the types of rituals conducted by Korean shamans on the island and the goals they seek to achieve with their clients.
Speaker’s Bio: Yohan Yoo is Professor of Comparative Religion in the Department of Religious Studies at Seoul National University, Korea, where he serves as department chair and director of the Center for Religious Studies. His research takes a comparative approach to diverse religious topics, encompassing areas such as indigenous shamanic beliefs and practices in Jeju, Korea, theory and methodology in religious studies, the iconic and performative aspects of sacred texts, and the intersections between myth and contemporary literature. He is the author of Korean Religious Texts in Iconic and Performative Rituals (Equinox, 2024) and three books in Korean. He also co-authored Cosmologies of Pure Realms and the Rhetoric of Pollution (Routledge, 2021) and co-edited Books as Bodies and as Sacred Beings (Equinox, 2021) with James W. Watts.
This event is hosted by the Center for Korean Research.
Registration: To attend this event in-person, please register HERE.
