Description
Book SynopsisIn Transfers of Belonging, Erdmute Alber traces the history of child fostering in northern Benin from the pre-colonial past to the present by pointing out the embeddedness of child foster practices and norms in a wider political process of change. Child fostering was, for a long time, not just one way of raising children, but seen as the appropriate way of doing so. This changed profoundly with the arrival of European ideas about birth parents being the ‘right’ parents, but also with the introduction of schooling and the differentiation of life chances. Besides providing deep historical and ethnographical insights, Transfers of Belonging offers a new theoretical frame for conceptualizing parenting.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Figures List of Abbreviations Glossary Introduction Baatombu Peasants National and Regional Embeddedness Social Relations Kinship Terminology Fieldwork and Methods Field Research Thick Participation Childhood Studies Norm, Practice, Emotion 1 Theoretical Approaches and Concepts on Child Fostering A Structural-functionalist Perspective: Parenthood and Social Reproduction Bearing and Begetting: Birth Parenthood Status Entitlement: Legal Parenthood Nurturance, Training and Sponsorship: Social Parenthood Delegation of Parenthood: Types, Reasons and Functions Discussion A Structuralist Perspective: The Circulation of Children Discussion Other Perspectives The Turn to the Actor Transfers of Imagined Belonging 2 Parenthood in Rural Borgu Birth Parenthood An Open Secret Birth Giving Birth in the Health Centre Rites of Transition Everyday Practices Acquiring Knowledge Yearning Happy Foster Children Conceptions of Parenthood Motherhood Fatherhood Child Fostering Decisions Transferring a Child Possible Foster Parents Same Sex Kinship Hierarchy Order of Siblings Reasons for Child Fostering Kinship Cohesion Preventing Regressive Behaviour in Children Social Parenthood Supports the Hierarchies Children as Workers Childlessness Crisis Fostering Women’s Interests Child Fostering, Gender and Marriage Exchanging Children and Women Conflicts Avoidance and Indirect Communication Open Conflicts Self-reliance Foster Parents Running Away Arguments against Child Fostering Kinship Conflicts Schooling A Bad Investment 3 Child Fostering in the Twentieth Century Precolonial Times Everyday Realities Violence and Gifts Oedipus in Africa? Colonial Changes End of the Raids New Conceptions Sero Toro Tuunku and his Foster Son New Life Courses Christian Missions The Introduction of Schools State Policy The Post-colonial Period Urban Baatombu Households Expansion of Educational Facilities Between Town and Village: A Conflict Child Fostering in Urban Areas: Cotonou and Parakou Urban Households Mobility and Education Household Composition Fostering and Education Belonging Well-being Exploitation? Generations Child Fostering in the Villages of Tɛbɔ, Kika and Yarɔ Frequency of Child Fostering Birth Rate and Child Mortality Gender Schooling and Fostering Family Relationship between Children and their Foster Parents On the threshold of the 21st Century: Two Conflicts Rafa Djamila Conclusion Appendix Names and Interviews Interviews Cited References Index
