Anthropological Study Of Korean Traditional Games Heritage Education

As game being the permanent topic of human society, the discourse takes the previous research as starting point to probe the unique cultural qualities and educational functions of the traditional Korean games. On one hand, through the historical study of games, the formation and evolution of the Korean community the writer outlines the origin, formation, and development of our traditional domestic Korean games; On the other hand, with cultural ecology as the theoretical foundation running through the whole article, the writer analyzes the unique cultural qualities and educational functions of the traditional domestic Korean games, and explains the indispensable educational values and practical significance in the socialization of human education.The discourse integrates literature, field work, and educational statistics, etc., to discuss the inheritance and education of the traditional Korean games within five parts.Part I: By reviewing the definition of human games in both oriental and occidental etymologies, with the origin and formation of human games as the starting point, the discourse analyses and sums up a vast historic literature and re-clarifies the origin, formation, and development of the traditional domestic Korean games. According to the necessity of the study, the seven traditional domestic Korean games are classified into three types: intelligence games, sports games, and skill games.Part II: The survey of the unique cultural qualities and educational functions our traditional domestic Korean games have. Rooted in the cultural ecology and the view of the interactions of the cultural ecology with structural function and of cultural ecology with symbols, the discourse observes and analyses the unique cultural qualities andeducational functions of the traditional domestic Korean games, and chooses three characteristic items from the seven traditional domestic Korean games—swing, wrestling, and Chinese chess—as the representative instances to study the unique cultural qualities, and analyzes the educational functions from four aspects: the cultivation of human cognition, the coordination and improvement of physical force, the non-intelligent influence, and the shaping of national personality.Part III: With mass communities and under-populated communities as centre of study, by way of interviews, questionnaires, and visits of parts of the Korean communities in Yanbian Autonomy Jilin Province and in Heilongjiang Province, the author keeps abreast of the situation of the generalization of traditional Korean games in these areas, expounds the latest development of traditional Korean games through clarifying and analyzing the cognition and inclination of choice of Korean people of different strata towards the traditional games.Part IV: The rational analysis of the crisis and challenge of the traditional Korean games, the significance of inheritance and reasons to return to education against the modernized social background. The discourse first analyses the practical problems the traditional Korean games are facing under the impact of modernization in the hi-tech-information epoch and then the cultural choice in the process of socialization by Korean people against the modernized background. On the other hand, from the two angles —the Korean people herself and the multi-cultural-ecological environment— the discourse runs analysis and investigation on some successful instances of the traditional folk games, and explains the necessity of maintaining the present traditional Korean games. At the same time, it also discusses about the instructive significance and effects of the traditional Korean games in education, since these games not only conform to the physical and mentaldevelopment of man, but also accord with the essence of education, and can be used to accelerate the realization of the educational objectives.Part V: On the basis of the previous chapters, the discourse attempts to suggest, both microcosmically and macrocosmically, how to maintain the vitality of the traditional Korean games under the influence of the multi-cultural background. What should be done first is to reform and adjust the traditional Korean games to fit for the cultural choice of modern people, and develop the relevant game courses to spread in the systemized education. On the other hand, there should be corresponding regulations and support from the national policies to influence the education of different strata and help construct the cultural mechanism benefiting the existence of the traditional Korean games.The main contribution of the research is: it is the first time to sum up systematically and comprehensively the seven typical traditional games well preserved and inherited by Korean people, it is also the first time to unscramble the unique cultural qualities and educational functions from the view of the cultural ecology, and expounds the idea that it is through the interaction of cultural ecology and structural function, and of cultural ecology and cultural symbol meaning that the traditional Korean games is able to be inherited and passed on. The study holds that the development and inheritance of the traditional Korean games is the embodiment and result of the interaction and crash of the multi-cultural-ecological environment both domestically and abroad.