Haenyeo: female divers of Jeju

By Seo Young-hoon

Along the coastline of Jeju Island, one can usually still see groups of individuals in black wetsuits who eloquently descend into the turquoise sea. These people are haenyeo (which literally translates to “sea women”), the female divers of Jeju Island. Within South Korea's patriarchal society, haenyeo were pioneers who challenged and redefined the limits of what women could accomplish.

Jeju's diving tradition, which dates back to 434 A.D., was historically exclusive to men. However, by the 18th century, female divers gradually began to replace their male counterparts. There were several possible reasons for this transition. Firstly, a significant number of men never returned from fishing accidents or wars.

Secondly, women have more subcutaneous fat, which gave them a higher threshold for withstanding cold waters. The profession, however, was full of dangers, given the long hours spent in icy water as deep as 12 meters. Many ballads described the task as “diving with a coffin on one's head” or “toiling in the netherworld so our family can live in this one.” Therefore, before a dive, haenyeo prayed to the goddess of the sea, as well as performed an annual shamanistic ritual called a jamsugut, for their safety and an abundant catch.

Haenyeo believe that the failure of an individual to put forth her utmost effort to improve her skills erodes the common good of the entire community. To emphasize the importance of personal capabilities and responsibilities for the community, haenyeo established the hierarchy of sang-gun (those of high rank), jung-gun (those of middle rank) and ha-gun (those of low rank), based on the principles of justice, where one's status is determined by her strivings to contribute to her community.

This hierarchy, however, underscored the communitarian values of benevolence and solidarity, which are manifested in the gae-seok tradition. Gae-seok asserted that divers with larger yields, (usually sang-gun and jung-gun) put a certain amount of their catch into the nets of those with smaller yields (typically ha-gun).

This tradition arose from the reciprocal principle that “no haenyeo dives underwater without a buddy,” where the diver of a higher rank goes underwater, while the one with a lower rank stays above water to learn and keep an eye out for her safety. The communitarian spirit emphasized that the success of an individual is the product of such collective effort.

It can be said that haenyeo were the first working moms of South Korea, as opportunities for making a livelihood were restricted by the island's harsh conditions. Jeju's rocky soil and fierce sea winds, hindering the growth of trees, precluded the possibility of any other meaningful and sustainable profession, which meant that diving was an essential lifeline for the family.

As women became the primary breadwinners of the family, Jeju became a semi-matriarchal society: women headed to the sea to dive, and men stayed at home to take care of the children and shop. This matriarchal social structure, nevertheless, was unable to overcome rigid Confucian patriarchy characteristic of mainland Korea completely. The political sphere was still the jurisdiction of men and, despite their work, women often handled the majority of domestic tasks and remained as the primary caregivers.

Since the 1960s, Jeju's sea-diving industry saw a sharp decline due to the introduction of mechanized farming (especially mandarin oranges) and tourism to the island. Many girls, who traditionally began their training at the age of 11, left and avoided the profession, with its strenuous labor and grueling conditions. Whereas only 14 percent of haenyeo were above 50 in 1970, the number soared to 98 percent in 2014, with the oldest haenyeo being above 80 years old.

Perhaps it was inevitable that Jeju's sea-diving industry, which grew out of a historical need, would decline, as industrialization has given way to the belief that humanity might transcend many environmental limitations. Although haenyeo might no longer exist in the future, they will and must be remembered.

Not only did haenyeo advance the status of women, but they also embodied the intangible and invaluable cultural heritage of grit, persevering vitality and pioneering spirit that strove to overcome the conditions of barren Jeju Island for their family, which reflects and captures a kind of collective Korean spirit that aspires to transcend geographical restrictions. If the haenyeo spirit is not the Korean spirit, then I am not sure what is.

Seo Young-hoon (yseo2021@chadwickschool.org) is an intern at the Samsung Alzheimer Research Center.