Healing Rhythms

Download or read book Healing Rhythms written by Simon Mills and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Still today, in South Korea, many people pay for the services of mudang - the intermediaries of Korea's syncretic folk religion. The majority of mudang are called to the profession by gods and they focus on the use of spirit-power ('possession') for diagnosis and problem-solving. There is, however, a tiny minority of mudang who are born or adopted into the ritual life and who have no spirit-power. These ritualists perform conducting rituals for whole communities focusing more on the use of music, dance, and song to provide healing experiences. In this book, Simon Mills provides an in-depth analysis of the East Coast hereditary mudang institution and its rhythm-oriented music, focusing particularly on the Kim family of mudang - the government-appointed 'cultural assets' for the genre.