Awareness of Women’s History and Interpretation of Primitive Matriarchy by Colonial Joseon Socialists in the 1920s and early 1930s

This article focuses on how socialist intellectuals in colonial Joseon during the 1920s to early 1930s wrote about women’s history by translating and utilizing Friedrich Engels’ The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State(1884) and August Bebel’s Woman and Socialism(1879), with particular attention to their emphasis on the concept of primitive matriarchy and its implications. First, the use of Engels’ The Origin left room for interpretations that justified the formation of female oppression and patriarchy. This was a result of male socialists’ use of The Origin, which was based on assumptions of naturalized gender division of labor and women’s alienation from tools and technology. Meanwhile, Bebel’s Woman and Socialism differs from The Origin in that it addresses the women’s problems independently and places greater emphasis on matriarchy and matriarchal tradition. For example, Choi Jeong-hee seems to have paid attention to the the matriarchal tradition of ancient Joseon society. In this way, the fact highlights the need to examine the translation and appropriation of socialist knowledge from a gendered perspective.