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Our food culture has evolved and developed based not only on agriculture
adapted to our natural environment, but also on the social environment
comprising politics, economy and religion. Starting with the basic
human activities of hunting, gathering and fishing in the primitive
age, early Koreans learned to cultivate miscellaneous grains from
the middle of the New Stone Age. Later in the Bronze Age, cultivation
techniques for beans and rice were introduced. Beginning in the
4th century B.C. the introduction of iron farming tools via trade
with China brought about the coexistence of primitive food-seeking
activities and the cultivation of grains. The grain-based food culture
has been well established since the Three Kingdoms Era. Diverse
food styles were developed with the use of cultivated rice as the
main staple food, but the styles were influenced by additional factors,
i.e., social changes, cultivation technology, cooking and processing
techniques, and influxes of foreign food culture. A more rapid change
in food culture is being made nowadays than ever in response to
the rapid growth in industry and information technology in an intimately
interlacing global community. |
| <Stages of
Korean Food Culture Development> |
|
<Stages of Korean Food Culture Development>
Stage |
Era
|
Characteristics
|
1
|
Prehistoric |
Old Stone Age
|
Foods secured by hunting, fishing, and
gathering |
| New Stone Age |
Beginning of agriculture and rice cultivation |
2 |
Tribal Nation Era (before Three Kingdoms
Era) |
Establishment of agricultural society |
3 |
Three Kingdoms Era and Unified Shilla |
Social Stratification in food culture
Formation and propagation of food culture (distinction
in main and subsidiary foods) |
4 |
Koryo Dynasty Era |
Early years |
Table-setting basics formed
Meat food consumption refrained, vegetables utilized,,
Korean teas and candies developed |
| After middle years |
Meat foods popular due to Mongolian Occupation |
5 |
Chosun Dyansty |
Early |
Food norm established |
| Later |
Southern food culture inflow
Korean food style established |
6 |
Enlightenment Age |
Western food culture influx |
7 |
Japanese Occupation |
Severe food shortage
Stagnation in food culture |
8 |
Modern Times |
Liberation -1960's |
Dependence on foreign food aid |
| 1970's-1980's |
Food production increase
Food situation improved |
| 1990's-present |
Internationalization and globalization
in food culture
Health-oriented diets |
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