The Religious Dimensions of Epidemic Disease: Cholera, the Ghost Rite, and Missionary Medicine in Nineteenth-Century Korea

Abstract

One of the most catastrophic pandemics in human history was the repeated spread of cholera in the nineteenth century. In spite of its historical significance, few scholars have studied cholera's influence in East Asia. This paper illustrates how cholera was considered, conceptualized, and treated by Korean people prior to contact with North American medical missionaries in 1885. In particular, the article compares the government-ordered public health measures during the Joseon dynasty, focusing on the "ghost rite" performed during outbreaks of epidemic disease with the work of medical missionaries in the late nineteenth century. This study finds that even after the introduction of Western biomedicine, the Korean people persisted with a religious-based etiology of cholera and other infectious diseases until the twentieth century.

Keywords: Korea; cholera; epidemic; ghost rite; mission medicine; state ritual.