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The transfer of belonging : Theories on child fostering in West Africa reviewed

Title data

Alber, Erdmute:
The transfer of belonging : Theories on child fostering in West Africa reviewed.
In: Alber, Erdmute ; Martin, Jeanett ; Notermans, Catrien (ed.): Child Fostering in West Africa : New Perspectives on Theory and Practices. - Leiden ; Boston : Brill , 2013 . - pp. 79-107 . - (Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies ; 9 )
ISBN 978-90-04-25057-4

Abstract in another language

Since Esther Goody's pioneering work, scholarly attention has been paid to different kinds of child fosterage in West Africa. Compared to other regions in the world, the existence and different functions of child fosterage in Africa are well documented. While Goody and her pupils set the tone for English-speaking structural-functionalist debates well into the 1990s, scholars from France, especially Suzanne Lallemand, developed a structuralist approach to the subject of fosterage and adoption. To this day, not least because of the language barriers, there has been no attempt to bring these different approaches together.
In this chapter, I discuss both approaches, 'British' and 'French', as well as some new impulses from recent kinship studies. The first aim of this chapter is to summarize and reflect on the already existing debates on the topic. My second aim is, by combining key elements of the existing approaches, to outline some aspects of a new theoretic thinking that regards fosterage as a transfer of childrens' belonging that involves the relation between children and different kinds of parents. By doing so, I would like to contribute to the creation of a new theoretical framework in studies of child fosterage. I also discuss some research desiderata and future research questions.

Further data

Item Type: Article in a book
Refereed: No
Keywords: child fostering; Westafrika; Kindspflegschaft; Eltern; Kinder; Adoption; Heirat; Theorie; Verwandtschaft; Benin; Ghana; Kamerun; Mobilität; belonging; Zugehörigkeit; Kap Verde; Recht; Geschichte; Anthropologie
Institutions of the University: Faculties > Faculty of Cultural Studies > Chair Social Anthropology > Chair Social Anthropology - Univ.-Prof. Dr. Erdmute Alber
Faculties
Faculties > Faculty of Cultural Studies
Faculties > Faculty of Cultural Studies > Chair Social Anthropology
Result of work at the UBT: Yes
DDC Subjects: 300 Social sciences
Date Deposited: 10 Feb 2015 07:12
Last Modified: 06 Jun 2019 08:17
URI: https://eref.uni-bayreuth.de/id/eprint/5114