韓国都市家族の老親子関係

抄録

　The major purpose of this paper is to grasp the distinguishing trait of Korean urban family relationships of elderly parents and their married children in comparison with the Japanese family.
　The Korean family type is quite similar to that of the Japanese family, because both families have typically been in the same type of stem-family. In order to make clear the character of the Korean family in this paper, meanings implied in both families, rather than the types, were noted first through the comparison of "jip" in Korea and "ie" in Japan. "Jip" and "ie" are ideal models of traditional families in each country.
　We recognize that the meaning of family headship in "jip" is in carrying out the ritual service of ancestor worship. Its purpose is to maintain consanguinity and to attach importance to consanguineous cohesion. On the other hand, in "ie" of Japan, the meaning of family headship is in maintaining the succession of "ie" itself, not in consanguinious cohesion necessarily.
　Under this assumption, a few suppositions become possible in this study. First, the cohesiveness of relations between their elderly parents and children is stronger under the consanguineous principle compared with Japanese family relationships. Second, the position of elderly parents in the family is higher because they will soon join the ancestors who are worshipped by the decendants.
　In this study, data concerning the Korean family is based mainly on the field research of urban families by Korean scholars and by this writer. The findings indicate that regardless of the smaller family role and of the larger the degree of economic dependence of the parents on their children living together, elderly parents are apt to have higher position in the families compared with the Japanese family. Children living in separate houses also keep in closer contact and provide daily assistance to elderly parents.
　In conclusion, we can say that the principle of consanguineous cohesion is the foundation of Korean family relationships even today, so that the tie between Korean elderly parents and their married children is closer than in the Japanese family on the whole.