OBJECTIVE: The image of the wicked stepmother has created a prejudice against stepmothers, which makes it difficult for them to adjust to their stepfamilies. This study compared fairy tales from different cultures to reestablish the nature of stepmothers.METHODS: Grimms’ Fairy Tales (GFT) was used to represent Western culture, with stepmother characters appearing in 15 out of 210 tales. “The Collection of Korean Traditional Fairy Tales” (KFT) was used to represent Eastern culture, with stepmother characters featured in 14 out of 15,107 tales. We examined the relationships between stepmothers and stepchildren in GFT and KFT.RESULTS: Daughters were abused more often than sons in both genres. In GFT, jealousy spurred the abuse in 12 of 15 cases, while in KFT greed was predominant in 12 of 14 cases.CONCLUSION: The fairy tale portrayals of wicked stepmothers may be associated with the stigma children place on their stepmothers, which needs to be overcome.
Child ; Divorce ; Folklore ; Humans ; Jealousy ; Marriage ; Nuclear Family ; Parents ; Prejudice

An interesting aspect of the many recent researches on the history of medicine in Korea is a concentration on oral histories, a trend that is sure to supplement the lack of medical documents and historical materials covering the modern period. This trend will also contribute to the invention of new approaches in the historiography of medicine. Although the fragments of oral testimony cannot be expected to give a perfect representation of historical reality, such "slices of life" help represent history from the viewpoint of ordinary people and members of the medical profession who are less often acknowledged. The recent researches that have taken oral testimony on the history of medicine in Korea have both racked up achievements as well as encountered limitations. First, many disciplines such as history, literature, cultural anthropology, folklore, sociology, and the history of medicine have used the technique of oral histories in the research approaches, and, especially since the start of the 2000s, have produced a variety of materials. The large amounts of raw materials published in these many disciplines are sure to bring even higher research achievements. Second, for the most part, oral history researches in the medical profession have concentrated on second-tier practitioners, such as midwives, apothecaries, and acupuncturists, and the experiences of such untypical sufferers as lepers and victims of germ and atomic warfare. While the oral history of more prominent medical figures tends to underline his or her story of success, the oral histories of minority participants in the medical profession and patients can reveal the truth that has remained veiled until now. It is especially meaningful that these oral histories enable researchers to reconstruct history from below, as it were. Third, the researches that take the oral history approach are intended to complement documentary records. Surprisingly, through being given the opportunity to tell their histories, the interviewees have frequently experienced the testimony as an act of self-healing. Formally, an oral history is not a medical practice, but in many cases the interviewee is able to realize his or her own identity and to affirm his or her own life's story. It is in this light that we need to pay attention to the possibilities of such a humanistic form of therapy. Finally, because the research achievements depend on oral materials, the objectivity and rationality of description take on an important research virtue. When conducting an oral history, the researcher partakes of a close relationship with interviewees through persistent contact and can often identify with them. Accordingly, the researcher needs to take care to maintain a critical view of oral materials and adopt an objective perspective over his or her own research object.
Achievement ; Anthropology, Cultural ; Complement System Proteins ; Folklore ; Historiography ; History of Medicine ; Humans ; Inventions ; Korea ; Light ; Midwifery ; Nuclear Warfare ; Sociology ; Virtues

Resuscitation medicine, which is a relatively young field of clinical medicine, has emerged as an endeavor to resuscitate victims suffering sudden death. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is utilized in order to treat a transient, reversible, sudden unexpected death. Currently, it is expected that millions of lay people worldwide learn CPR and millions of patients suffering sudden cardiac arrest receive CPR. Even though the history of CPR includes folklore related to various attempts that have been made to save lives, modern CPR based on clinical research and evidence has been introduced and developed over the last several decades. Researchers and organizations have contributed to the development of resuscitation skills by establishing CPR guidelines and disseminating this knowledge to lay people. Despite recent advances in CPR technique, sudden death remains a major health issue in developed countries and the survival rate resulting from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest remains low. This review provides insight into the progression of resuscitation medicine by evaluating the history of CPR.
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation ; Clinical Medicine ; Death, Sudden ; Death, Sudden, Cardiac ; Developed Countries ; Folklore ; Heart Arrest ; Humans ; Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest ; Resuscitation ; Stress, Psychological ; Survival Rate

Everyone frequently dreams of "losing ones' tooth". According to folk tradition, this tooth-loss dream has been regarded as bad dream which foretells the death of the dreamer's important relatives, and this is not different between oriental and occidental cultures. Freud related this dream to guilt about masturbation and fear of anxiety in the context of the Oedipus complex. However, there appears to be no difference between the frequency of this type of dream between males and females, as shown by reports from male and female internet portal users as well as previous reports in the literature. Considering other psychoanalytic interpretations, and the meaning of tooth in the folklore literature, or rituals about handling the lost tooth in the world-wide tradition, the tooth-loss dream seems to reflect a universal and archetypal anxiety over losing something important. At the most fundamental level, the tooth-losing may contain the most and first important losing or separating event, that is, separation from the mother's body. The loss of important body parts (castration) or body functions, or other personal losses, may be attached to the same line of memory and emotion. So, the full meaning of the tooth-loss dream can be uncovered by considering both the archetypal and personal layer of dreamers' experiences.
Anxiety ; Ceremonial Behavior ; Collodion ; Dreams ; Female ; Folklore ; Guilt ; Handling (Psychology) ; Human Body ; Humans ; Internet ; Male ; Masturbation ; Memory ; Oedipus Complex ; Psychoanalytic Interpretation ; Tooth

Smallpox was one of the most dreadful epidemic diseases in Korea until the early twentieth century. In the Chosun period, smallpox came to prevail more frequently and vigorously, and many people died of the disease. To cope with smallpox, the society of Chosun had various modes of measures, though they were not always effective, which included the government's rituals, medical men's prescriptions, and folk's recipes. Among various responses to smallpox, the recipes of folklore seem to be very interesting. While attitude toward other contagious diseases(e.g., typhoid fever, or malaria) mainly consisted of exorcism, smallpox was believed to be the passage of the smallpox deity, Sonnim(which means guest), through the body of patient for certain time span, and gods of smallpox were treated hospitably. This attitude toward smallpox was deeply rooted in Korean shamanism, and partly in the natural history of the disease. From 1876 smallpox vaccination was reintroduced and practiced. There were, however, a lot of difficulties in practice of vaccination due to distrust and prejudice. And traditional dealings with smallpox, in spite of vaccination, didn't disappear even after the Japanese compulsory occupation.
Disease Outbreaks/*history ; English Abstract ; *Folklore ; History of Medicine, 19th Cent. ; History of Medicine, Modern ; Human ; Korea ; Magic/*history ; *Religion and Medicine ; Shamanism/*history ; Smallpox/*history ; Vaccination/history