#haenyeo

[unbfacts]

On South Korea’s Jeju Island, haenyeo women dive about 10 metres underwater without oxygen tanks to collect shellfish and other sea life. Some keep working even in their 80s, spending up to seven hours a day in the sea. Each dive usually lasts about a minute, and when they come back up, they make a special whistling breath called sumbisori before diving again.

[city-of-ladies]

"Originally, diving was an exclusively male profession in Korea, with the exception of women who worked alongside their husbands. Change came after 1629, during the Joseon period, when Jeju women were confined to the island and banned from moving to the mainland for the next two hundred and fifty years. While men of the island were taken to the mainland to work on public projects, women became responsible for the economy of Jeju. When women first began to venture into the water, it was a shock to the male-centred Confucian worldview. By the eighteenth century, however, so many men had lost their lives as a result of deep-sea fishing accidents or as casualties of war that female divers outnumbered men, and diving became the work of women.

As sea-diving firmly established itself as a female-dominated industry, many haenyeo subsequently replaced their husbands as the main breadwinners of the family. From the late nineteenth century, their economic activities extended to the southern coast of the Korean Peninsula and was not limited to Jeju Island alone. As sea-diving became the sole source of income for the people of Jeju, the economic power of haenyeo meant that they eventually became recognised as the heads of their households, and responsible for domestic affairs. As a result, a semi-matriarchal society steadily developed, reversing the traditional roles and making the island an outlier from Korea’s patriarchal mainland society.

Unique expressions of this semi-matriarchal culture included the custom of men paying a dowry to the family of the bride, meaning that families celebrated the birth of girls more than that of boys. At funerals, the women of the village would carry their departed relatives themselves, whereas in a Confucian-centred society, funerals are an important ritual for men alone. Traditions surrounding ancestral rites in Korea are also thoroughly patriarchal; their subjects are men, and the participants and organisers are men. In Jeju, however, not only do women organise ancestral rites but ordinary women are honoured and celebrated in them. Such rituals are rare compared to other parts of Korea, yet even today the legendary female benefactor Man-Deok Kim as well as women such as Soon-Ae Hong and other female leaders who saved the community in the face of hunger and crisis are celebrated in memorial rituals from village to village. In some aspects of Confucian ancestor worship, the exclusion of women is difficult to negotiate, yet the culture of Jeju still allows for a higher level of female participation in these rituals than is common in the rest of the country.

The preeminent position of the haenyeo in Jeju has clearly served to solidify women’s roles, responsibilities, and social influence in the community. These strong women have contributed to the development of a uniquely matriarchal society in modern Korea, one that is strongly connected to the land, the sea, and spirituality. Nowadays, however, the tradition of female divers’ dominance in their home economy has diminished due to dramatic changes of the way of life in Korea, particularly among younger generations. In present-day Jeju, the population of haenyeo is rapidly disappearing. In 1969—almost 50 years ago—there were 20,832 divers, but by 2019, only 3820 divers remained, with 90% of them over 50 years old.32 As the population of divers decreases, so too does the influence of their culture and value system. The people of Jeju are therefore faced with the challenge of how to maintain and revive the spirit of haenyeo culture."

Lee Hee Soo, “Matriarchal Family Structure in Korea’s Jeju Island and its Implications for the Muslim Community in Korea”, in: Matrilineal, Matriarchal, and Matrifocal Islam, The World of Women-Centric Islam

[softneomiro]

Haenyeo culture in Korea

Haeneyo are female divers from Jeju Island who harvest seafood from the ocean

Our blues (2022) | Welcome to samdal-ri (2023) | When life gives you tangerines (2025)

[not-your-asian-fantasy]

Meet The Haenyeo, South Korea's 'Sea Women' Who Dive Up To 30 Feet For Seafood — Without Scuba Gear

Some Haenyeo can hold their breath for up to three minutes.

Since the 17th century, the all-female Haenyeo divers have harvested seafood near South Korea's Jeju Island — and they don't use modern scuba gear to this day.

On South Korea’s largest island, Jeju, there is a community of women known as the Haenyeo. The Haenyeo are divers who specialize in gathering seafood like conches, seaweed, and octopuses. Some Haenyeo can dive as deep as 30 feet, without using oxygen masks or any other modern-day scuba gear. They harvest seafood for up to seven hours per day, 90 days a year, for this is how it has been done for centuries

[bossymarmalade]

Haenyeo on Jeju Island in South Korea. The majority of the divers are above 50 years old, with the oldest being in their 80s; Haenyeo handle an assortment of seafood, including sea urchin

Now, for the first time, a study has found both genetic adaptations and training effects that are unique to these women and could explain how the Haenyeo withstand the intense physical stresses that come with continuous diving. The findings, published in Cell Reports, zero in on specific genetic features of the Haenyeo that allow the bodies of these divers to more efficiently control blood pressure, for example. The researchers hope closer investigations into such genetic traits could inform future approaches to certain disorders or illnesses in the general population.

“The Haenyeo are really like superhumans,” says Melissa A. Ilardo, senior author of the study and an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Utah. “You cannot watch the Haenyeo dive and not think these women have superpowers.”

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[kimeranest]

Day 14 “ brave”

Although they are not mythical mermaid princesses, they are a community of female free-divers called Haenyeo—Sea Women.The Haenyeo are a community of female free-divers living and working on Jeju. Due to younger women opting for different career paths, today they are mostly older women, many well into their golden years. They dive as deep as 10 meters below the surface without the help of air tanks or modern diving equipment, with little insulation from the cold South China Sea. During dives, they gather shellfish such as abalone and sea urchins, kelp and other sea creatures to sell for food, using only a knife or their bare hands. Historically, so many families depended on the income of the Haenyeo that a semi-matriarchal society developed in Jeju. It was not unheard of for women to be the main breadwinners, while men would stay home and take care of the children.🧜‍♀️🐟🐋🪼🌊

[fewwordsmanyriddles]

[higherentity]