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Author Leinaweaver, Jessaca B

Title The circulation of children : kinship, adoption, and morality in Andean Peru / Jessaca B. Leinaweaver
Published Durham : Duke University Press, ©2008
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Description 1 online resource (xiv, 225 pages) : illustrations, 2 maps
Series Latin America otherwise
Latin America otherwise
Contents Introduction: moving children in Ayacucho -- Ayacucho: histories of violence and ethnography -- International adoption: the globalization of kinship -- Puericulture and Andean orphanhood -- Companionship and custom: the mechanics of child circulation -- Superación: the strategic uses of child circulation -- Pertenecer: knowledge and kinship -- Circulating children, at home and abroad
Summary "In this ethnography, Jessaca B. Leinaweaver explores "child circulation," informal arrangements in which indigenous Andean children are sent by their parents to live in other households. At first glance, child circulation appears tantamount to child abandonment. When seen in that light, the practice is a violation of international norms regarding children's rights, guidelines that the Peruvian state relies on in regulating legal adoptions. Leinaweaver demonstrates that such an understanding of the practice is simplistic and misleading. Her in-depth ethnographic analysis reveals child circulation to be a meaningful, pragmatic social practice for poor and indigenous Peruvians, a flexible system of kinship that has likely been part of Andean lives for centuries. Child circulation may be initiated because parents cannot care for their children, because a childless elder wants company, or because it gives a young person the opportunity to gain needed skills." "Leinaweaver provides insight into the emotional and material factors that bring together and separate indigenous Andean families in the highland city of Ayacucho. She describes how child circulation is intimately linked to survival in the city, which has had to withstand colonialism, economic isolation, and the devastating civil war unleashed by the Shining Path." "Leinaweaver examines the practice from the perspective of parents who send their children to live in other households, the adults who receive them, and the children themselves. She relates child circulation to international laws and norms regarding children's rights, adoptions, and orphans, and to Peru's history of racial conflict and violence. Given that history, Leinaweaver maintains that it is not surprising that child circulation, a practice associated with Peru's impoverished indigenous community, is alternately ignored, tolerated, or condemned by the state."--Jacket
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 195-212) and index
Notes In English
Print version record
Subject Adoption -- Peru -- Ayacucho (Department)
Children -- Family relationships -- Peru -- Ayacucho (Department)
Indian children -- Peru -- Ayacucho (Department) -- Social conditions
Indians of South America -- Kinship -- Peru -- Ayacucho (Department)
Interpersonal relations -- Peru -- Ayacucho (Department)
Kinship -- Peru -- Ayacucho (Department)
Social structure -- Peru -- Ayacucho (Department)
Adoption
Adoption.
Amérindien (peuple) -- parenté -- Ayacucho (Pérou)
Children -- Family relationships.
Indian children -- Social conditions.
Indians of South America -- Kinship.
Interpersonal relations.
Kind
Kinderhandel
Kinship.
Mobilität
Moral conditions.
Quechua
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social.
Social conditions
Social structure.
Soziale Situation
Waisenkind
adoption -- Amérindien (peuple) -- Ayacucho (Pérou)
enfant -- famille -- parenté -- Ayacucho (Pérou)
enfant -- fosterage -- Ayacucho (Pérou)
Ayacucho (Peru : Department) -- Moral conditions
Ayacucho (Peru : Department) -- Social conditions
Ayacucho
Peru -- Ayacucho (Department)
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2008013529
ISBN 0822391503
9780822391500