밝은누리의 문화, 현재와 전망

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This article is written by a member of the Bargn Nuri Community to present its culture that has been cultivated for thirty years. In anthropology and sociology, there is a tradition of ‘autoethnography’ as a writing methodology. The purpose of this article is to show the narrative of personal experience in a close reciprocal movement with ‘theory’ to show how the social(community) constitutes the personal without falling into individualism and narcissism in the author’s testimony about the Bargn Nuri. It is noteworthy that the autoethnographic method fundamentally signifies self-discipline. The preface covers Bargn Nuri’s philosophy on humans/people and life, village and community as well as community culture. The intention was not just to interpret the theories but to demonstrate how the narrative of confessions can be described as a form of reappropriation. The community culture in itself is the life in which people live in harmony with the heaven above while standing rooted on the earth with many forms of life in their surroundings. It is about everything that a person creates while cultivating a village not as an individual but as an extension/expansion of the body and relationships. Every step that a community takes as a village life adds to building the culture, and in turn, it inspires those who walk the life together. The community culture develops, prospers and bears fruits in the steps of those people who live together rooted in the values of life and peace. This article on the culture of Bargn Nuri is built on two pillars of representation and the finiteness of language. The author could not help facing limitations both as an individual member of the Bargn Nuri and telling it through a language. Limitations however can mean a new possibility and the beginning of conversation. When a conversation is assumed to be unlikely, can a true communication begin.
The Bargn Nuri finds its home in three different villages: Insu in Seoul, Hongcheon in Gangwon, and Gunpo in Gyeonggido. The community culture that has been cultivated in each place over time is described in the context of one’s lifetime, through the lifestyles that reflect the values of life and peace in the way of food, clothing, housing, and enjoyment, as well as a rural-urban saangsaeng1) village community. Each of the categories above bears significance when looking back at the steps of the Bargn Nuri. When a community culture is detached from the life cycles of its people and how they eat, get clothed, provision their homes, and have fun, the culture becomes a commodity for purchase. A culture without a foundation in livelihoods is destined to be ephemeral. The author pleads its readers to appreciate the categories employed in describing Bargn Nuri’s culture. Everyone is living through this pandemic era. Facing the unprecedented crisis and opportunity, the Bargn Nuri has taken the past year to reflect and study. One of the most important aspects in the Bargn Nuri culture is that everyone resides in the walking distance of each other by children’s standard for an easy evening visit. The coronavirus has rendered such distance moot. The pandemic presents much uncertainty for a prolonged period of time, but the Bargn Nuri will take its familiar walk of treading uncertain, unchartered paths. It will continue to live its life as it discards the culture that has been built and creates new cultures only to respond to its calling. The author wishes to share about the Bargn Nuri in the post-pandemic era at another opportunity.