We are inviting RAS members and friends to the RAS online lecture via Zoom

** How to join the lecture:

1) Go to Zoom meeting link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82854743145?pwd=VVRqNXUvNFlvRXR3Y1UzVzl2WDNlQT09

2) Sign up using your name

3) Enter Zoom details if needed:
Meeting ID: 828 5474 3145
Password: 305798

4) Join the talk no later than 19:30, July 7 (Seoul)

Jeju Island’s Haenyeo

Ever since Jeju Island forged its way onto the international tourism scene, its women free divers, called haenyeo, have taken center stage as both cultural symbol and tourist attraction. The divers’ fame peaked with their designation as intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2016. The honor garnered worldwide attention for the incredible ‘grandmothers of the sea’. But what do these women of newfound international fame, who speak an endangered language and practice an ancient freediving lifestyle, have to say about their own popularity? What is the current situation for the haenyeo really like from their point of view?

Rositano, author of the newly released book “Jeju Island’s Haenyeo, A User’s Manual,” will introduce some of the interviewees and characters from the new book. He noticed that while many themes pertinent to the divers’ experience have been shared through the many projects featuring them — books, photography, art, films — certain areas of their experience were skirted around. He will discuss these issues related to the commercialisation of the haenyeo by using his interview material collected from the haenyeo. The lecture will also include information about Jeju shamanism.

To find the book, please click the link:  https://www.amazon.com/Jeju-Islands-Haenyeo-Users-Manual-ebook/dp/B086SCPNVV

Joey Rositano is from Nashville, Tennessee in the U.S. He has lived in South Korea since 2006. Starting in 2010 he has been doing field work related to shamanism on Jeju Island. He has amassed a large collection of material related to Jeju shamanism, including hundreds of hours of audio recordings of myths he has collected from village to village and personal testimonies from what is likely the last generation to practice the religion.