[연구논문] 일제 후반기 결혼 예식과 혼수에 대한 사회사적 고찰

A Socio-historical Study of Wedding Ceremonies During the Latter Part of the Colonial Period

This study explores socio-historical meanings of wedding ceremonies during the late colonial period with particular attention to the emergence of the "new wedding" and matrimonial costs called "honsu". Twenty-eight women in their 70s to their 90s who were married in the 1930s and 40s participated in in-depth interviews concerning the type and location of their wedding ceremony and the matrimonial exchange between the bride's and the groom's families. In addition, literary sources such as press materials of the period were analyzed. Results indicate that the "new wedding" was a strictly urban phenomenon. Well-educated women and women from high social strata in rural areas had traditional wedding ceremonies, which is related to differences between urban and rural areas during the colonial period. The spread of the "new wedding" stimulated the commercialization of the marriage ceremony, later resulting in relocating the wedding from the home to outside facilities and extending the guest list to include new social networks such as school friends and work colleagues. While the problem of conspicuous consumption has always been a social issue in traditional society, the material significance of the matrimonial exchange was quite minimal during the late colonial period. The matrimonial exchange was an equal concern to both the groom's and the bride's families. However, the incipient industrialization of the period created an emphasis on the educational background of spouses, and the groom in particular, which is consistent with the escalation of competition for eligible grooms and the materialization of marriage which surfaced later. Overall, social and material aspects of marriage are a good indication of cultural change in the time period investigated.