Running head: JOURNAL ENTRIES 1

Student’s Name

Student’s Number

Institutional Affiliation
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Journal Entry 1: Religious Practices in Korea (Concept of Ancestor and Ancestor Worship
in Korea).

Ancestral worship means that the descendants have put in place specific days where they

visit the grave of their dead relatives for prayers and offering sacrifices. The descendants believe

that the ancestors have the ability to distinguish between the good and bad and hence should

always be consulted. Moreover, they believe that these ancestors still love them and always

protect them from harm. Despite the fact that Korea is regarded as a First World country in

relation to African countries, its people have still held this tradition which was practiced long

time ago before Christianity was introduced in East Asia from the missionaries (Kyu, 1984).

Irrespective of the growing numbers of protestant Christians in Korea ancestor worship is still

part of the people’s culture. Actually, the Koreans went ahead and incorporated in into the

Christian way of life but in a way in which it does not affect the theology part of it. It is also

astonishing in the manner in which Christianity has really grown in Korea in relation to its

neighbors such as japan and china whom there share almost the same culture and traditions.

Ancestral worship is governed by two factors, social aspects and morals. Actually it is the moral

aspects which have resulted to Confucian tradition of ancestor worship being held dearly by the

Koreans. The tradition is something that has already sunk into the people and since its

incorporation into Christianity; there are no signs of it being stopped.

Journal Entry 2: Anthropology in Japan; Historical Review and Modern Trends

Anthropology is the study of human culture and way of life. Therefore the Japanese

people took the initiative to study their own culture and way of life other than giving the mandate

for other scholar from other parts of the word to come and study them. Anthropology was

initially a new thing to them until the end of the first world when the Japanese scholars took the

task seriously and the lectures being taught not only to graduates but also to undergraduate
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students (Sofue, 1961). The Japanese are so much proud of their way of life to an extent of going

an extra mile of studying their people living in diaspora. They have also begun studying other

cultures and evaluating how those cultures influences their own. The loves for their own culture

have even made them not to embrace Christianity as the Koreans did. They chose to stick by

their own ancient traditions which are less affected by the modern ways of life. In addition, for

the love of their culture, they maintained various sports such as kyudo and kendo, judo and sumo

which are presented as national sports.

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References

Kyu, L. K. (1984). The concept of ancestors and ancestor worship in Korea. Asian Folklore

Studies, 199-214.

Sofue, T. (1961). Anthropology in Japan: historical review and modern trends. Biennial Review

of Anthropology, 2, 173-214.