Scattering Pdf

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Description from oringial paper book:

'Scattering' is a limited edition photography book about crow feeding rituals on Jeju Island in South Korea. As part of their shamanic faith residents of Jeju Island leave portions of food for scavenging animals, especially crows. Over five years, I documented the special relationship between people and large-billed crows in the village of Darakut. While this relationship is likely hundreds of years old, the ritual feeding of birds dates at least back to ancient societies such as Egypt and Vedic India. It is even depicted on the murals uncovered at Pompei. 'Scattering' explores ritualistic bird-feeding in South Korea and its profound implications.

150~ Full color pages

+maps, prints, fold-up extras

***You are preordering the photobook which will ship out in late summer/ early fall 2023. Scattering was fully funded on Kickstarter on June, 25th, 2023.

From the Kickstarter campaign:

Scattering—A Photobook on Shamanism and Crows in South Korea

Jeju-Si, South Korea Photobooks

$15,828

pledged of $15,000 goal

163

backers

Story

The Book

Why Jeju Island?

I first came to Jeju Island as an English teacher fifteen years ago. Five years into my stay I discovered the island's shamanic mythology. From that point on I started learning about shamanism from the island's elders. My research on shamanism led me to write about issues related to gentrification and the desecration of sacred shamanic shrines. After reading several articles on crow facial recognition, and eventually scores of papers on the topic, I realized Jeju Island could point me to a possible origin story of this amazing ability of crows and other corvids. Jeju has a wide range of fascinating cultural practices. One of its cultural treasures is 'scattering'.

That's wild!

Part of Jeju’s ancient native religion, Jeju mugyo—the shamanic religion specific to Jeju Island—involves a surprising connection between humans and birds, especially crows. This is a phenomenon that might shed broader light on an ancient relationship, the way that we humans see crows and—fascinatingly—the way they see us.

Crows (and other animals no doubt) are always watching us, more than we ever seem to realize.

How this book is different from other photobooks

As far as I can tell 'Scattering' is among the few artistic photography books that seriously aim to solve a scientific problem. In the supplementary booklet which is an insert in the book, I give my assessment of the ritual crow feeding in Darakut village. Following the data I collected, I offer several possible explanations as to how the crows might recognize which days shamanic food offerings are available to them.

You could say this project is part of the 'research art' genre. However, in this case the project aims to produce actual science, not just an artistic representation of others' scientific findings. The work is also not overtly theoretical like much research art, but accessible in its format. I hope to do more of these sorts of books on other topics in the future.

So mysterious

How did the group of large-billed crows (Corvus macrorhynchos) living near Darakut recognize what days the annual shamanic ceremonies were held? On these special days the villagers make food offerings for shamanic gods, a portion of which is left behind for crows and other birds. Like clockwork, on ritual days and only on ritual days, the crows arrive from many miles away to feast on the portion of food left for them. How were they figuring it out? Was it by sound? But crows don’t hear so well. Are they aware of the cycling seasons? Could they predict when the ceremonies would be held? Villagers have their own theories based on years of observation. Even when a single villager visited alone to make a smaller offering, crows joined the feast. It is a well known fact that crows can differentiate between individual human beings and recognize and memorize individual human faces. Was facial recognition involved here? Was it something else? A combination of things? The deeper I dug the more interesting this all became.

The Photographer

Joey Rositano is from Nashville, Tennessee. The last fifteen years he has mostly lived on Jeju Island in South Korea. He expected to stay in South Korea for only a year, but an unexpected and rare illness kept him on the island for his recovery. Though he experienced hardship in the first years of his illness, it was this twist of fate that led him to encounter shamanism on Jeju Island which he would later spend many years documenting. He has written about shamanism on Jeju Island, published a previous photo book and worked on a number of other projects about the island. To learn more about shamanism on Jeju Island, visit his website—www.pagansweare.com— or watch his TEDx talk from 2018.

Joey is currently moving between South Korea, his native Nashville and elsewhere in the world. He is also working on a non-fiction book about Eurasian shamanism.

Process

The process involved interviewing and photographing local residents with the aim of gaining their insights into the phenomenon of ritual crow feeding, observing the crows and massive amounts of research—reading scores of papers on corvid behavior.