| This dissertation examines the interactions between kinship and credit relationships in two Korean farming villages. Credit refers to socioeconomic transactions such as money credit and labor exchange. My central question is: Can class relationships develop among kin through credit relations? In other words, I question the proverbial adage, "Blood is thicker than water.".;To answer this question, I analyze dyadic kin relationships, delineate how kinship interacts with other variables, and explore the roles kinship plays in socioeconomic relationships. My observations and findings restrain me from taking a decisive stance. I find that kinship is not the dominant factor in determining the nature and outcome of socioeconomic relationships.;In some contexts, the kinship idiom encourages wealthy kin to help their poorer brethren. In other contexts, wealthy kinsmen, relying on kinship ideology, appropriate their poor kinsmen's labor in the quest for riches. In reverse, dominated kin make counter claims against their better-off relatives, reinterpreting the kinship idiom used by dominant kin to their advantage. In this way kinship primordiality and the logic of accumulation intertwine, suffusing the character of kin-class relationships with ambiguity, paradox and tension bordering, sometimes, on hostility.;In my contextual analysis of kinship and class, I review the family histories of both creditor and debtor. The intergenerational development of credit relations between dyadic sets of kin plays a critical role in kin-credit relationships. Besides this historical interjection, local custom is another equally important factor in the complexion of kin-credit relations. The imposition of cultural rules can hinder or precipitate class formation among kin. Therefore, I examine the diachronic formation of local history and culture and its relation to synchronic relationships of credit and kinship.;Finally, I argue that kinship, credit and class relations are analytically distinct but in daily life they are inseparable; we cannot understand one without examining the others. Since a Korean peasant village is likely to be composed of many kin members, they become enmeshed in potential and actual class relationships. By investigating the relations of credit and kinship it is possible to achieve a more realistic understanding of the social organization of a rural village. |
