Seoul Journal of Korean Studies

The professionalization of archaeology is an understudied research topic in the history of South Korean archaeology. Literature on the subject has so far focused on the mechanisms that separate amateurs from professional archaeologists—in other words on the academic recognition and the credential system of the discipline. However, researchers have not considered the effect those mechanisms have on the social organization of the field. This paper claims that university degrees are not only important elements in the professionalization of archaeology, but also mechanisms of social organization within the field itself. The study of archaeological education and training in South Korea from 1945 to 1979 shows how academic education and degrees affected the subject, creating social networks and different positions in the field represented by different specializations within it. In order to study this process, this article focuses on Seoul National University’s Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, the first of its kind in South Korea.