Human-Animal Relations and the Hunt in Korea and Northeast Asia

Abstract

Studies how the hunt, animals and regional dynamics informed local cultural practices on the Korean peninsula Draws out the significance of the peninsula in regional and Eurasian history through the perspective of animals and the hunt; themes scholarship has overlooked Reframes the struggle between a kingship and a powerful bureaucracy competing for authority over an expanding state in the shifting geopolitics of Northeast Asia at the advent of the Little Ice Age Explores political and military contacts across Northeast Asia through Korean encounters with Yuan Mongols, Ming Chinese, Jurchen tribes, and Japanese on Tsushima and pirates along the coasts, all in the context of hunts, hunting grounds and wild beasts Rereads the primary sources with an eye on animals and the hunt, including neglected sources such as a 15th-century manuscript on falcons and falconry Draws upon secondary sources across the fields of animal studies, zoology, geography, biology and more, including forays into the larger topic of human-animal affairs and environmental history Studies the circulation of ideas and intellectual contacts across the region, such as the cultural flows of Buddhism, Neo-Confucianism, and folk and shaman beliefs related to animals and hunting This book focuses on animals and hunting in Korea from the 1270s until 1506, situating the Korean peninsula in relation to the neighbouring Mongol Empire and Ming dynasty China. During this period, Korean statesmen expanded their influence over people and the environment, and human-animal relations became increasingly significant to politics, national security and elite identities. Animals were used in ritual sacrifices, submitted as tax tribute, exchanged in regional trade and, most significantly, hunted.