'Every kid is where they’re supposed to be, and it’s a miracle': Family Formation Stories among Adoptive Families
| Autor: | Patricia Sawin |
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| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Journal of American Folklore. 130:394-418 |
| ISSN: | 1535-1882 0021-8715 |
| DOI: | 10.5406/jamerfolk.130.518.0394 |
| Popis: | The process of adopting a child can be protracted and difficult. Members of families formed through adoption, especially international or transracial adoption, often find that others treat their family as not fully real or legitimate. I analyze stories told by five adoptive mothers about the remarkable circumstances through which their children joined their families and their attendant sense that larger-than-human forces must have played a role. Critics of international adoption object that such stories depict birth parents as expendable and mask political and economic inequality. I argue that such an interpretation results when the stories are overgeneralized and stretched beyond their meaning-making capacity. When told within and among adoptive families, they valuably stabilize mothers’ identities and assure children that they belong. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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