Making Kin: Adoption and Fostering in a Global Perspective

Studies of kinship have provided the foundation for the ethnographic record of communities and family arrangements around the world, and over time. The majority of these studies take place in contexts outside of the United States, contributing essential evidence of the wide array of kin organizational models that challenge assumptions about the ‘nuclear family' structure. Both fostering and adoption reveal important cultural assumptions about processes of relatedness and concepts of personhood. In this course, we will learn about different ways of reproduction, childrearing, and circulation cross-culturally, but also the varying degrees by which notions of ‘family' and raising young people influence understandings of age and generations, relationships, identity, and responsibility. Students will discuss and write about ethnographic readings and films, reflecting on life course development and human adaptation. Through this process, the course will address how different cultures in various social and ecological settings conceptualize and care for displaced young people.
This course fulfills the Human Diversity Requirement.
This course is one of SSA's global and international course offerings.