Haenyo

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Haenyo Memorial in Jeju-do
Korean spelling
Korean alphabet : 해녀
Hanja : 海 女
Revised Romanization : Haenyeo
McCune-Reischauer : Haenyŏ
A Haenyo carries baskets to the sea in Ulsan .
After diving, a Haenyo sells on the coast of Jeju-do .

Haenyo , also: Haenyeo , (“sea women”) are the names of the female divers who harvest seafood on Jejudo , an island off South Korea . They are the living landmarks of the island. In December 2016, the culture of Seefrauen of which was UNESCO on the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage set.

Diving life

The training begins at around six years of age. You learn swimming and diving near the shore of sea grass . At around 14 years of age, they learn to harvest the more lucrative shellfish in the deeper waters. They get to know the secret places from their mother, how to work without getting stuck in the rocks and how to stay calm in dangerous situations. At around 17 years of age, they begin to work at full capacity and dive on 15 days set according to the lunar calendar until they reach the age of 70.

Through hard training and physical adaptation, they can stay underwater for up to three or four minutes and dive up to 20 meters deep. They have enlarged lungs and, like Weddell seals, use the spleen as an oxygen reservoir. When diving, the organ contracts, causing oxygen-rich red blood cells to enter the circulation and thus enable a longer dive. Most of the time, however, they stay under water for a maximum of 90 seconds. During long and deep diving, the water pressure compresses the chest and everything is fine under water. When surfacing, the chest expands and oxygen flows from the blood to the lungs. Fainting can be the result. For this reason, diving is done at least in pairs, but mostly in groups, which can wake up your friends if necessary.

After surfacing, they emit the so-called sumbisori , a series of high - pitched rhythmic whistling tones that are created by blowing out the air. Warren Zapol, director of anesthesiology at Boston General Hospital, Massachusetts, who conducted a series of tests in the 1990s, explains it this way: “When you exhale through your pursed lips, the air sacs in your lungs expand, that were compressed by diving. ”In addition, the lungs are emptied, the buoyancy is reduced, and the women get more easily into the depths on the next dive. "This principle is similar to the breathing behavior of whales and seals when diving."

They are usually in the water twice a day, before and after the tide , for a total of four or five hours. You also dive at eight degrees water temperature. They used to stay in the water for up to 20 minutes at a time. In the cold season, they have been warming themselves for generations between dives by a campfire on the shore. In the past, they only wore homemade cotton swimsuits, diving masks and flippers . Even before the Haenyeo began in the 1970s, wetsuits to wear, they were by Suk Ki Hong and Hermann Rahn from the University at Buffalo studied. The two found that the diver's body was able to take in twice as much oxygen in winter than the average Korean. Zapol says: "Your thyroid may increase heat production so that it burns more oxygen and thus creates higher temperatures that keep you warm in winter." The suits also allowed them to spend more time in the water and harvest more seafood. But there were also more headaches, hearing loss and neuralgia . 67.5% of Haenyo over 50 today have these problems.

They remove the marine animals from the stones with knives and small iron picks. The harvest baskets are held on the surface of the water by styrofoam balls. Traditionally they were taewak , hollowed out pumpkins. Some fish are also caught with the spear. The women are strictly organized according to villages and groups, always dive in groups and have also marked out their diving areas so that the income of the individual villages is secured. Between the two dives, 95% of the Haenyo fields are cultivated.

On the first day of the second month according to the lunar calendar, the spirit of "Grandmother Youngdeung" - goddess of the wind and the sea, protector of fishermen and seaweed - comes to the island and stays until the 15th. Shamanic rites then take place for two or four weeks held in which prayers for protection and a bountiful harvest are made.

Ama divers in Japan , almost all of whom are women, have a 2000 year old tradition .

history

Haenyo in earlier times in the museum in Jeju
Traditional Haenyo clothing and tools
Resting Haenyo by the fire

Seafood has been diving the southern coastal waters of Korea and Japan for over 1500 years . Historical reports show that both men and women dived off the Jejudo coast well into the 17th century . Men gathered in the deeper waters abalone and women harvested near the shore seaweed . After high taxes were introduced and the work became unprofitable for the men - they would have had to do the dangerous work all year round - only the women who did not have to pay taxes turned up.

This brought Haenyo, sung about in folk songs, more economic influence and many freedoms that were denied to women on the mainland. So they had the right to get divorced and remarry. The men took care of the children. Women often became the head of the family. Women still have more to say on the island today, many important deities are female, it was a strongly matriarchal society. The prisoners ensured their survival; they were the main providers of the family. The ratio of women to men on Cheju used to be 3: 1 as many men perished at sea. The women also asked for this. A few exiles - almost without exception politically persecuted - mingled with the island people at the beginning of the 20th century and helped to build up a rudimentary education system and roads. The Haenyo founded cooperatives, each village has one, and generated the money for them. The organizational strength was so great that in 1932 they led the independence movement against Japanese colonial rule on the island, a part of history long forgotten.

In the 1960s, some women in Japan wanted to start a modern life as illegals, others had already earned enough to buy houses and give their children a good education. The economic influence of women increased. The seafood became a delicacy and exported. First to mainland Korea, and in the 1970s exports to Japan picked up, there was a great economic boom, and life improved tremendously. Experienced divers now have a monthly income with which the children can even finance their studies.

Fewer and fewer young women are taking up the profession. In 1960 there were around 30,000 or 23,000, but in 2006 there were only 5,406 and more than half of them are over sixty years old.

Number of Haenyo and age distribution
category 1970 1980 1990 1995 2005 2006
Haenyo total (100%) 14,143 7,804 6,470 5,886 5,545 5,406
Under 30 4,425 31.3% 782 10.1% 271 4.2% 20th 0.4% - 0% [2] 0%
30–49 years 7,760 54.9% 4,788 61.4% 2,894 44.8% 1,843 31.4% 718 12.9% 518 9.6%
50–59 years 1.310 9.2% 1,698 21.7% 2,370 36.6% 2,247 38.1% 1,512 27.3% 1,331 24.6%
Over 60 years 648 4.6% 536 6.8% 935 14.4% 1,776 30.1% 3,315 59.8% 3,557 65.8%
Local distribution and age of active divers 2006
category total Under 30 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 Over 70
total 5,406 [2] 27 491 1,331 2,180 1,377
Jeju 3,038 - 24 305 730 1.166 813
Seogwipo 2,368 - 3 186 601 1.014 564

There are several reasons for this. On the one hand, marine fauna is changing, possibly due to overfishing or environmental pollution. Most of what you can find today are sea ​​urchins . The divers hope for a better life for their daughters and send them to schools and universities. They are proud when their daughters can work in the office. Tourism is also booming, many women work in this trade, and the Haenyo are increasingly becoming a tourist attraction.

While the Haenyo often hated their hard life in the past, they have been proud of their diving and hunting skills since tourists began arriving. In 1999 the island administration began to offer complete medical care, every local administration had to set up changing rooms and communal workplaces. The administration also showed how valuable the Haenyo are to the island by providing wetsuits, physical therapy equipment and support. Consideration has also been given to registering the Haenyo as a UNESCO World Heritage Site .

The catch is no longer as rich as it used to be. To supplement their income, some seawomen grow vegetables or work in motels and restaurants along the coast. Some also built their own houses with the saved money, in which guest rooms are also accommodated. In the past the men often looked after the house and children, today they work on tangerine farms, in the island's horse stables or are fishermen. In a small village on the east coast, the fishing cooperative has 160 members. 139 are divers and the 21 men are fishermen.

Movies

  • Haenyeo - heroines of the deep sea. Documentary, South Korea, 2016, 50:07 min., Script: Ji-Na Song and Hee-Young Ko, director: Hee-Young Ko, production: Soom; Be Production, music: Korean Symphony Orchestra, German first broadcast: April 30th 2018 at arte, table of contents by ARD .
  • Haenyeo. Korea's mermaids. Documentary, South Korea, 2012 42:46 Min, written and directed. Min Yong and Kim Eung Sagan, production: Arirang , KIPDA, German First broadcast: June 13, 2013 in arte, Summary of ARD , online video.

Web links

Commons : Haenyo  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Culture of Jeju Haenyeo (women divers) • Republic of Korea. In: UNESCO , November 28 - December 2, 2016.
  2. ↑ a b Dorothee Wenner: Shaman's lure. In: Die Zeit , December 13, 2001, No. 51.
  3. ↑ a b c d e Gloria Chang: In the same breath - On a dive with the women of the island of Cheju off South Korea. ( Memento from February 12, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ). In: Readers Digest Exclusive , reading corner.
  4. ↑ a b c The Haenyeo of Jejudo Island , formerly on korea.net , neither online nor in the archives.
  5. ↑ Lance Henderstein: On the way with the Ama, the 70-year-old apnea divers from Japan. In: vice.com , December 12, 2016.
  6. ↑ a b Chejo Island (Jeju-do). In: Radio Korea International , listeners corner, October 28, 2000.
  7. ^ A b Joel McConvey: Lady Good Divers. In: artinfo.com , July 9, 2008, originally published in the July / August 2008 issue of Culture + Travel magazine .
  8. ^ A b The Current State Of Woman Divers & Their Location. ( Memento from January 26, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ). In: Samda Museum , October 18, 2008, source: Jeju Special Self-Governing Province ; Samda Museum.