The Ryukyu Kingdom allowed nobles to compile genealogy after the late 17th century. The nobles recorded any changes to their genealogy, and the government put an official seal on it. By this, the Ryukyu could maintain the hierarchy system. Only the he...
The Ryukyu Kingdom allowed nobles to compile genealogy after the late 17th century. The nobles recorded any changes to their genealogy, and the government put an official seal on it. By this, the Ryukyu could maintain the hierarchy system. Only the heir could success the family line as a rule in the Ryukyu and were approved his status as a representative of ya(家). Some of brothers of the heir of the ya began a new family line. But most of brothers of the heir and their descendants tried to maintain their status as elite group by depending on the heir. After the fall of the Ryukyu kingdom with their hierarchy system, the elite families had strengthened solidarity among family members and largely expanded their family organization. The Korean government had maintained hierarchy system by recording one``s ancestors not on genealogies but on household register before the Choson dynasty. After the Choson era, not only the elite group also commoners could record their ancestor on the household register. So the elite group of Choson could not receive legal guarantees for their status from the government. The genealogy of Choson was invented by the private sector as a substitute for household register against the policy. The genealogy of Choson was the result of efforts to exclusive binding social status on the basis of the marriage network that is formed between elite families. However the exclusiveness of Choson genealogy was caused by the fluidity of the hierarchy system of Choson society, embedded the openness inside also. So many families newly appeared and the other many families disappeared for the genealogy. As such, the patrilineal unification was as ideological. The reinforcement and expansion of kinship group was generalized since the end of the 19th century at last. The genealogy of Choson and Ryukyu was compiled in the hierarchy system society. The form and character of genealogy of two dynasties showed differences depending on the mobility of hierarchy society and the intensity of government power. But kinship group began to unify after the end of domination of government using the hierarchy system.