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A Sealed and Secret Kinship Judith S. Modell

A Sealed and Secret Kinship By Judith S. Modell

A Sealed and Secret Kinship by Judith S. Modell


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A Sealed and Secret Kinship Summary

A Sealed and Secret Kinship: The Culture of Policies and Practices in American Adoption by Judith S. Modell

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.

A Sealed and Secret Kinship Reviews

Accessible and interesting, the book is suitable for all academic and public libraries. * Choice

This book offers a thought-provoking exposition of the ironies of adoption, and by extension, the inconsistencies of our social attitudes toward parenting in general. * Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare

About Judith S. Modell

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.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Opening the Subject of Adoption
Chapter 2. Banishing Secrecy, Banishing Confidentiality, and Opening Adoption
Chapter 3. From Drifting to Permanency - Adoption Policy and Practice
Chapter 4. Taking (Care of) the Children-Adoptive Parents in the Twenty-first Century
Chapter 5. Opening the Confines of Kinship - Twenty-first Century American Child Placement

Additional information

NLS9781571813244
9781571813244
1571813241
A Sealed and Secret Kinship: The Culture of Policies and Practices in American Adoption by Judith S. Modell
New
Paperback
Berghahn Books, Incorporated
2002-05-01
232
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
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