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A Sealed and Secret Kinship: Policies and Practices in American Adoption
Contributor(s): Modell, Judith S. (Author)

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ISBN: 1571810773     ISBN-13: 9781571810779
Publisher: Berghahn Books
OUR PRICE: $128.25  

Binding Type: Hardcover - See All Available Formats & Editions
Published: May 2002
Qty:

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Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science
- Family & Relationships | Adoption & Fostering
Dewey: 362.734
LCCN: 2001049957
Series: Public Issues in Anthropological Perspectives
Physical Information: 0.8" H x 5.6" W x 8.7" L (0.85 lbs) 232 pages
Features: Bibliography, Index
Review Citations: Choice 02/01/2003 pg. 1063
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:

Adoption has long been a controversial subject in the United States as well as in other western countries, but never more so than in the past three decades. Why that is and how public attention affects the decisions made by those who arrange, legalize, and experience adoptive kinship constitutes the subject of this book. Adoption, the author argues, touches on major preoccupations we all have: who we are; why we are what we are; the balance of nature and culture in self-definition; the conflict between individual rights and social order.

The problematic nature of adoption in western societies is effectively contrasted by the author with cultures in many other parts of the world in which children are exchanged frequently, openly, and happily. There is no stigma, often even a high value, placed on being the adopted child in a family. This comparative perspective brings into sharp relief American, and by implication other western, policies that reflect a very different notion of kinship and family. Adoption thus reveals itself as one of the keys to western ideas about human nature, the person, rights, privacy, and family relationships.


Contributor Bio(s): Modell, Judith S.: -

Judith S. Modell is Professor of Anthropology, History and Art at Carnegie Mellon University. She is currently the director of the Center for the Arts in Society at the school.


 
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