Paper short abstract:

In the light of different family configurations, I take new notice of the voices of birth families who lost their children in “irregular” adoptions in Brazil during the 1990s. I conclude that our old concept of kinship still keeps us away from the extremes of biological and cultural determinism.

Paper long abstract:

It is clear that adoption and kinship studies have become a politicized field recently. In Latin America, it is not difficult to find examples of adoptions made possible not because of the relinquishment of children by poor birth parents, but due to the violation of their rights. Through the perspective of the "partisan use of kinship plasticity" (Fonseca 2011), I take new notice of the voices of birth families who lost their children in "irregular" domestic and international adoptions in Brazil during the 1990s. These voices include those of female domestic workers pressured by their employers to give up their children for adoption if they want to keep their jobs - with the employers acting as intermediaries in the procedures. In the light of the roles of "blood ties" and the circulation of children in these situations, I reconsider theories within the history of the anthropology of kinship and conclude that the our old concept of kinship, which includes both biological and social attributes, still keeps us safely away from the extremes of biological and cultural determinism.