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Eighteenth-century Korean marriage customs: the Tansoˇng census registers
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 August 2005
Abstract
In this article the ages at marriage and remarriage of Tansoˇng men and women are examined through an analysis of census registers (hojoˇk) from between 1678 and 1789. It was discovered that the average age of Tansoˇng women at first marriage was 17.5, and that most women married between the ages of 15 and 20, much earlier than women in Europe in this period and slightly earlier than those in Japan, but at similar ages to Chinese women. Husbands were on average around 18 when they married. Roughly half of widowers remarried, with remarriage more likely for those of lower and middle status than for upper-status widowers. Many middle- and low-status widowers had probably also married widows despite the fact that there was a legal prohibition on the remarriage of widows.
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- © 2005 Cambridge University Press
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