• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.71-95
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• 2007

This paper attempts to identify the principle of family succession and family patterns of yangban in the late Chosun period through an analysis of male adaptation cases found in family registration records. The primary source of analysis is the family registration documents of Uiseong Kim's from the late 17th century to the early 20th century. As a result, it is found that there is a substantial change in the patterns of family from the early and mid Chosun period to the late Chosun period. The change is the strengthening of the principle of patriarchy succession through male adoption. Looking at the data as a whole, the average number of household members is increased and the membership of kinship also expanded. In contrast to the family patterns of the early Chosun period, not only the patterns of Uiseong Kim's family are predominately immediate family or collateral family but also the majority is extended family in the 18th and 19th centuries. The male adoption cases recorded in Uiseong Kim's family registration documents take up 33.8% of the male adoption cases in the entire family registration documents. This goes to show that the strengthening of the principle of primogeniture succession at a time when child mortality rate is very high resulted in the increase of male adoption. In conclusion, the late Chosun society was a society where the seat of primogeniture was much more important than immediate hereditary members in the family succession.