The Kinning of Foreigners: Transnational Adoption in a Global Perspective [Hardcover]

Signe Howell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 30, 2006 | ISBN-10: 1845451848 | ISBN-13: 978-1845451844

Since the late 1960s, transnational adoption has emerged as a global phenomenon. Due to a sharp decline in infants being made available for adoption locally, involuntarily childless couples in Western Europe and North America who wish to create a family, have to look to countries in the poor South and Eastern Europe. This book locates transnational adoption within a broad context of contemporary Western life, especially values concerning family, children and meaningful relatedness, and explores the many ambiguities and paradoxes that the practice entails. The author touches on several important themes such as the perceived relationship between biology and sociality and notions of child, childhood and significant relatedness across time and space; on the role played by the "psycho-technocrats" and their effect on national and international policy and practice of transnational adoption. Finally, the author shows how transnational adoption both depends upon and helps to foster the globalization of Western rationality and morality.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Transnational adoption is growing phenomenon and Norway has led the way in its legal and social development. In this pioneering study, Norwegian scholar, Signe Howell, brings to the subject not only anthropological insight but the personal experience of an adoptive parent. Her remarkable book is based on comprehensive research both in Norway and in the countries of origin of adopted children, throwing new light on the way that the children identify as Norwegians despite the tendency of adults to associate with their birth places. Howell's findings are of great interest and significance for families and policy makers worldwide". * John R. Gillis, Professor Emeritus of History, Rutgers University "Howell's fascinating work on transnational adoption provides real insight into its experiential, cultural, psychological and legal complexities worldwide and has important implications for our theories of kinship and personhood. Howell writes as an anthropologist, illuminating the topic by virtue of the comparative perspective she brings to it. The book deserves to be read not only by anthropologists interested in kinship, but by everyone who wants to understand children and to do what is best for them, including policy-makers, developmental and child psychologists, educators and social workers." * Christina Toren, Director, Centre for Child-Focused Anthropological Research (C-FAR), Brunel University. "The Kinning of Foreigners takes the literature on adoption into an entirely new realm by linking theories of identity and of kinship to changes in the practices and ideologies of moving children from one nation to another. Based on intensive fieldwork in Norway and on a vast exploration of professional, legal, and "rights" literature, the book shows how rhetoric developed in the West forms understandings of the child, of family, and of kinship throughout the world--a modern version of imperialism. Throughout her scrupulous discussion of national and international policies, laws, and competing interests, Howell never loses sight of the intimate individual aspect of adoption. [ It ] insists that adoption, while guided by global economic, social, and diplomatic developments, is ultimately an affectingly personal experience that determines the life trajectories of everyone exposed to the arrangement. The book should be on the shelves of experts, scholars, lawyers, politicians--and, of course, any person who has ever had the exhilarating experience of kinning, or creating a relationship that permanently, transforms the self." * Judith Schachter [Modell], Carnegie Mellon University, Author of: Kinship with Strangers (1994; University of California), and A Sealed and Secret Kinship (2002; Berghahn Books) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Signe Howell is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo. She was Visiting Professor at the universities of Gothenburg, Virginia, Cambridge, Berkeley, and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris. She has published extensively on religion and kinship Society and Cosmos (OUP), Societies at Peace (Routledge), For the Sake of our Future: Sacrificing in Eastern Indonesia (Leiden UP), and The Ethnography of Moralities (Routledge).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 253 pages
• Publisher: Berghahn Books (August 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1845451848
• ISBN-13: 978-1845451844
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,274,965 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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