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WORLD ANTHROPOLOGICAL UNION

CONGRESS 2024​

Paper

Star Ritual and Embodied Outer Space in Korean Shamanism

presenters

    Hae-Seo Kim

    Nationality: South Korea

    Residence: United States

    University of California, Irvine

    Presence:Online

Keywords:

Korean Shamanism, Star ritual, Embodiment, Displacement, Colonialism

Abstract:

This paper presents an ethnography of outer space through fieldwork with star rituals performed by a diasporic Korean shaman, Dohee Lee, based in the Bay Area, California. Examining outer space as embodied and historical space-time, instead of an empty terra nullius, complicates extractivist and colonial narratives of space and space exploration that see an opportunity to “start over”, which replicates histories of colonialism and settler colonialism on Earth (Smiles 2020; Shorter and TallBear 2021; Young 1987). Decolonizing outer space ethnography situates space exploration in the embodied histories of Earth which includes experiences of colonialism, displacement, and migration. Star ritual, or Chilsung Kut, is a Korean shamanist ritual that seeks blessings and protection through praying to the spirits of the seven stars of the big dipper, or the Bukduchilsung. Shaman Dohee Lee interprets this star ritual to tell the stories of diasporic Asians in California as she invites their ancestors through the seven stars. The spirits of the stars move through her body, songs, and chants to create a space of collective mourning, community, and healing. In this ritual, outer space becomes embodied through a telling and bodily enactment of interlocked histories of gendered and racialized colonial trauma and violence. Ethnography of outer space becomes an embodied, tactile, and emotional experience and calls for an archiving of embodied decolonial narratives of engaging outer space.