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The Resource Kinship with strangers : adoption and interpretations of kinship in American culture, Judith S. Modell

Kinship with strangers : adoption and interpretations of kinship in American culture, Judith S. Modell

Creator
Summary
Adoption challenges our understanding of the core symbols of kinship in American culture - birth, biology, and blood. Judith Modell examines these symbols and the way they affect people who experience the "fictive" kinship of adoption. Her findings are timely and profoundly moving; as presented here, they contribute valuable insights to the current debates about removing the veil of secrecy from adoption records and about giving more decision-making power to the participant in an adoptive relationship. Modell draws extensively on interviews with birthparents, adoptive parents, and adoptees, some of whom are active in the movement to reform American adoption. The proposed reform - the opening of records, the acknowledgment of a biological and a legal parent, the blending of families that are related only through a child - challenges accepted meanings of "mother" and "father," "parent" and "child," "ancestry" and "identity" in this country. But Modell shows that uncertainties have long surrounded these familiar concepts and that adoption has always upset our conventional cultural interpretations of "being related." Kinship with Strangers explores for the first time the profound impact of this need to interpret and reinterpret kinship on the part of those who experience adoption. As the members of the adoption triad tell their stories, certain motifs appear that organize each person's experience of adoptive kinship and at the same time offer a profound critique of American adoption policies. "Surrender" is the dominant motif for birthparents, while "love at first sight" captures an adoptive parent's sense of parenthood. For the adoptee, "telling" is central - the moment when one learns one is not "like everyone else." Modell's book not only presents the personal side of an increasingly urgent and public debate but also demonstrates the persistence of these debates. From nineteenth-century movements on the part of adoptees, birthparents, and adoptive parents, there have been efforts to modify this institution that so deeply alters individual lives. The last chapter on recent upheavals in American adoption places Kinship with Strangers at the heart of a discussion that has moved out of the privacy of families, agencies, and even legislatures and onto the front pages of newspapers. With a perspective drawn from the anthropological analysis of kinship, this insightful analysis reveals how complex, and perplexing, the discussion actually is
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
xv, 280 pages
Contents
  • 1. American Adoption: A Kinship with Strangers
  • pt. 1. The Setting: American Adoption Policy. 2. In the Best Interests: The Background of American Adoption Policy. 3. This Child Is Mine: The Mechanisms for Delegating Parenthood
  • pt. 2. The Experience of Adoptive Kinship. 4. The White Flag of Surrender: Birthparent Experiences of Adoption. 5. Everyone Else Just Has Babies: Becoming an Adoptive Parent. 6. The Chosen Child: Growing Up Adopted
  • pt. 3. The Revision of Adoptive Kinship. 7. Just My Truth: The Adoptee Search for a Birth Family. 8. Lost to Adoption: The Birthparent Search for a Relinquished Child. 9. A Child of One's Own: Being an Adoptive Parent
  • pt. 4. Conclusion. 10. A New Kind of Kinship: The Implications of Change in American Adoption
Isbn
9780520081185
Link
https://archive.org/details/kinshipwithstran00mode_0
Instance
Label
Kinship with strangers : adoption and interpretations of kinship in American culture
Title
Kinship with strangers
Title remainder
adoption and interpretations of kinship in American culture
Statement of responsibility
Judith S. Modell
Creator
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
Adoption challenges our understanding of the core symbols of kinship in American culture - birth, biology, and blood. Judith Modell examines these symbols and the way they affect people who experience the "fictive" kinship of adoption. Her findings are timely and profoundly moving; as presented here, they contribute valuable insights to the current debates about removing the veil of secrecy from adoption records and about giving more decision-making power to the participant in an adoptive relationship. Modell draws extensively on interviews with birthparents, adoptive parents, and adoptees, some of whom are active in the movement to reform American adoption. The proposed reform - the opening of records, the acknowledgment of a biological and a legal parent, the blending of families that are related only through a child - challenges accepted meanings of "mother" and "father," "parent" and "child," "ancestry" and "identity" in this country. But Modell shows that uncertainties have long surrounded these familiar concepts and that adoption has always upset our conventional cultural interpretations of "being related." Kinship with Strangers explores for the first time the profound impact of this need to interpret and reinterpret kinship on the part of those who experience adoption. As the members of the adoption triad tell their stories, certain motifs appear that organize each person's experience of adoptive kinship and at the same time offer a profound critique of American adoption policies. "Surrender" is the dominant motif for birthparents, while "love at first sight" captures an adoptive parent's sense of parenthood. For the adoptee, "telling" is central - the moment when one learns one is not "like everyone else." Modell's book not only presents the personal side of an increasingly urgent and public debate but also demonstrates the persistence of these debates. From nineteenth-century movements on the part of adoptees, birthparents, and adoptive parents, there have been efforts to modify this institution that so deeply alters individual lives. The last chapter on recent upheavals in American adoption places Kinship with Strangers at the heart of a discussion that has moved out of the privacy of families, agencies, and even legislatures and onto the front pages of newspapers. With a perspective drawn from the anthropological analysis of kinship, this insightful analysis reveals how complex, and perplexing, the discussion actually is
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
1941-
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Schachter, Judith
Government publication
government publication of a state province territory dependency etc
Index
index present
LC call number
HV875.55
LC item number
.M64 1994
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Adoption
  • Kinship
  • Adoption
  • Parenté
  • Adoption
  • Kinship
  • Manners and customs
  • Adoptie
  • Adoptiefkinderen
  • Overheidsbeleid
  • Verwandtschaft
  • Adoption
  • United States
  • États-Unis
  • United States
  • USA
Label
Kinship with strangers : adoption and interpretations of kinship in American culture, Judith S. Modell
Link
https://archive.org/details/kinshipwithstran00mode_0
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 261-274) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
1. American Adoption: A Kinship with Strangers -- pt. 1. The Setting: American Adoption Policy. 2. In the Best Interests: The Background of American Adoption Policy. 3. This Child Is Mine: The Mechanisms for Delegating Parenthood -- pt. 2. The Experience of Adoptive Kinship. 4. The White Flag of Surrender: Birthparent Experiences of Adoption. 5. Everyone Else Just Has Babies: Becoming an Adoptive Parent. 6. The Chosen Child: Growing Up Adopted -- pt. 3. The Revision of Adoptive Kinship. 7. Just My Truth: The Adoptee Search for a Birth Family. 8. Lost to Adoption: The Birthparent Search for a Relinquished Child. 9. A Child of One's Own: Being an Adoptive Parent -- pt. 4. Conclusion. 10. A New Kind of Kinship: The Implications of Change in American Adoption
Dimensions
24 cm
Extent
xv, 280 pages
Isbn
9780520081185
Lccn
92037617
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other control number
9780520081188
System control number
  • (OCoLC)26974814
  • (OCoLC)ocm26974814
Label
Kinship with strangers : adoption and interpretations of kinship in American culture, Judith S. Modell
Link
https://archive.org/details/kinshipwithstran00mode_0
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 261-274) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
1. American Adoption: A Kinship with Strangers -- pt. 1. The Setting: American Adoption Policy. 2. In the Best Interests: The Background of American Adoption Policy. 3. This Child Is Mine: The Mechanisms for Delegating Parenthood -- pt. 2. The Experience of Adoptive Kinship. 4. The White Flag of Surrender: Birthparent Experiences of Adoption. 5. Everyone Else Just Has Babies: Becoming an Adoptive Parent. 6. The Chosen Child: Growing Up Adopted -- pt. 3. The Revision of Adoptive Kinship. 7. Just My Truth: The Adoptee Search for a Birth Family. 8. Lost to Adoption: The Birthparent Search for a Relinquished Child. 9. A Child of One's Own: Being an Adoptive Parent -- pt. 4. Conclusion. 10. A New Kind of Kinship: The Implications of Change in American Adoption
Dimensions
24 cm
Extent
xv, 280 pages
Isbn
9780520081185
Lccn
92037617
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other control number
9780520081188
System control number
  • (OCoLC)26974814
  • (OCoLC)ocm26974814

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