woven reed seat to her front and asks the worshippers for offerings, while the other shaman beats her with his stick. The two shamans alternate between beating the other and being beaten until eventually, the seat is thrown out of the front gate of the house. The shamans thus accomplish the ritual expulsion of inauspicious jeonsang. Gameunjang-agi is referenced by her personal name in the Samgong-maji, and shamans explicitly beseech the goddess to "send out rough jeonsang and establish good jeonsang," honoring her as the "Bridge of jeonsang". Seen in this ritual context, Gameunjang-agi's role in the myth is to assign a favorable jeonsang for the kind-hearted humans who respect her, such as the youngest brother, and to bring ruin and ill fortune for the evil-minded and those who disrespect her, such as her sisters. Folklorist Lee Soo-ja accordingly characterizes Samgong as a divinity who "changes destiny by determining the shape of human lives according to the mindset that they have." Folklorist Kim Young-suk points out that the Samgong bon-puri centers on how the goddess demonstrates her power in the human world. From the moment of her birth, the goddess deprives her parents of their customary economic authority. The latter's questioning of their daughters is motivated by a desire to reclaim this authority, but Gameunjang-agi dismisses it out of hand. Her disrespect for her parents marks her as standing above the norms of human society. The subsequent destruction of the family demonstrates the fate of those who would challenge the gods, with the parents' blindness a physical symbol of the hubris and ignorance that doom them. But in her dealings with the youngest brother, the goddess shows the rewards that accrue to those who accept divine authority. Finally, by restoring her parents' sight after depriving them of food, she acts as a spiritual guide who leads humans to acceptance of and communion with the gods through a process of initiation. The happy resolution of the conflict between the goddess and her human parents exemplifies a harmonious relationship between the human and the divine and completes the establishment of Samgong's authority in the human world. Theories and interpretations As reflections of shamanic worldview The Samgong bon-puri has been analyzed as exemplifying aspects of the Korean shamanic worldview and morality. Jeong Je-ho suggests that the narrative supports the religious emphasis on proactive behavior seen in other myths such as the life replacement