International Adoption: Global Inequalities and the Circulation of Children

321 Pages·2009·1.04 MB·English

by  Diana Marre

International Adoption
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International Adoption
Global Inequalities and the
Circulation of Children
Edited by
Diana Marre and
Laura Briggs
a
New York University Press
New York and London
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
www.nyupress.org
© 2009 by New York University
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
International adoption : global inequalities and the circulation of
children / edited by Diana Marre and Laura Briggs.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8147-9101-1 (cl : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8147-9101-8 (cl : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8147-9102-8 (pb : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8147-9102-6 (pb : alk. paper)
1. Intercountry adoption. I. Marre, Diana. II. Briggs, Laura, 1964 –
HV875.5.I573 2009
362.734 — dc22 2008045878
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials
to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books.
Manufactured in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: Th e Circulation of Children 1
Laura Briggs and Diana Marre
part i Defi ning Reproduction: Law, Strangers, Family, Kin 29
1 Th e Movement of Children for International Adoption:
Developments and Trends in Receiving States and
States of Origin, 1998 – 2004 32
Peter Selman
2 International Adoption: Lessons from Hawai’i 52
Judith Schachter
3 Th e Social Temporalities of Adoption and the Limits of
Plenary Adoption 69
Françoise-Romaine Ouellette
4 Th e Desire for Parenthood among Lesbians and Gay Men 87
Martine Gross, Translated by Léo Th iers-Vidal
5 Refi guring Kinship in the Space of Adoption 103
Barbara Yngvesson
6 Th e Transnational Adoption of a Related Child in
Québec, Canada 119
Chantal Collard
part ii Perspectives from Sending Countries 135
7 Baby-Bearing Storks: Brazilian Intermediaries in the
Adoption Process 138
Domingos Abreu
v
vi Contents
8 Transnational Connections and Dissenting Views:
Th e Evolution of Child Placement Policies in Brazil 154
Claudia Fonseca
9 International Adoption in Russia: “Market,” “Children for
Organs,” and “Precious” or “Bad” Genes 174
Lilia Khabibullina
10 Th e Medicalization of Adoption in and from Peru 190
Jessaca B. Leinaweaver
11 Children, Individuality, Family: Discussing Assisted
Reproductive Technologies and Adoption in Lithuania 208
Auksuolė Čepaitienė
part iii Experiences in Receiving Countries 223
12 “We Do Not Have Immigrant Children at Th is School,
We Just Have Children Adopted from Abroad”:
Flexible Understandings of Children’s “Origins” 226
Diana Marre
13 Routes to the Roots: Toward an Anthropology of
Genealogical Practices 244
Caroline Legrand
14 Return Journeys and the Search for Roots:
Contradictory Values Concerning Identity 256
Signe Howell
15 Mothers for Others: Between Friendship and the Market 271
Anne Cadoret, Translated by Margaret Dunham
16 Seeking Sisters: Twinship and Kinship in an Age of
Internet Miracles and DNA Technologies 283
Toby Alice Volkman
About the Contributors 303
Index 309
Acknowledgments
Diana Marre thanks CIIMU, especially its current director, Carmen
Gómez-Granell, and the former chair of the Department of Anthropol-
ogy at the University of Barcelona, Joan Bestard-Camps, for supporting
the fi rst International Forum on Childhood and Family, “On Philias and
Phobias: From Biological to Cultural Kinship. Adoption, Homoparentali ty,
and Other Ways to Construct Families,” held from 29 September through
3 October 2006 at the Institute of Childhood and Urban World (CIIMU)
and the University of Barcelona, Spain, where most of the authors in-
volved in this project met, discussed their work, and decided to collabo-
rate on a volume about the circulation of children. She is also indebted
to the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, which fi nanced a re-
search project on transnational adoption in Spain (SEJ2006-5286/SOCI)
and provided her with a shared space to discuss and work on this book.
Laura Briggs thanks the Tanner Humanities Center at the University of
Utah for research support and the Department of Women’s Studies at the
University of Arizona for time off that facilitated work on this book, and
is grateful to the people who read draft s, especially Peter Selman, Karen
Dubinsky, and Kathryn Stockton. Finally, we extend our appreciation to
Grey Osterud, without whose editorial assistance this book would not
have been possible, as well as to Jennifer Hammer and Eric Zinner at New
York University Press.
vii
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Introduction
Th e Circulation of Children
Laura Briggs and Diana Marre
In the early twenty-fi rst century, many concerned observers suggest, we
are entering a brave new world in reproduction, with medical technolo-
gies sundering genetics, gestation, and parenting, the globalization of
adoption, and unprecedented waves of migration separating parents and
children. Th is is true. Yet, at the same time, we are contending with the
legacies of the past, including the best and the worst of the twentieth cen-
tury. From the “Great War” that convulsed Europe in 1914 through the
civil and international confl icts that have engulfed many regions of the
world almost continuously since then, wars, refugee crises, ethnic cleans-
ing, and movements to defend human rights have all marked adoption.
As anthropologist Pauline Turner Strong wrote about the adoption of Na-
tive children by non-Native parents in North America, “adoption across
political and cultural borders may simultaneously be an act of violence
and an act of love, an excruciating rupture and a generous incorporation,
and an appropriation of valued resources and a constitution of personal
ties” (2001: 471). Adoption opens a window onto the relations between
nations, inequalities between rich and poor within nations, the history of
race and racialization since the end of slavery in Europe’s colonies and the
United States, and relationships between indigenous and non-indigenous
groups in the Americas and Australia. Transnational adoption emerged
out of war. Only recently has it become, rather than an occasional prac-
tice, a signifi cant way of forming a family for those who cannot have chil-
dren. Even this new form of transnational adoption has been marked by
the geographies of unequal power, as children move from poorer coun-
tries and families to wealthier ones — and the forces that make a country
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