朝鮮後期 茶母의 類型과 役割

Exploring the Types and Roles of Korean Tea-maid (Chamo) during the Late Chosun Dynasty

Tea-maids (chamo) were professional technicians during the late Chosun dynasty. Their main roles included brewing and serving tea, but they gradually worked as banquet service women, medical technicians, and detectives. This paper investigates the social roles of tea-maids both in private and public places, as tea sommelier, surgeons treating women patients, keepers of traditional musics and dances, and as front line legislative executors, utilizing documents, poems, and pictures. First, the social roles of tea-maids were maintained under the Confucian social order in the late Chosun society. Second, their jobs were open only to women of low status, which reflected the fetters of old conventions for women in a feudal system. Third, tea-maids were professional women who exceeded stereotypes. The functions and roles of Chamo illustrate the practical and useful contributions of contemporary tea culture and tea lovers.