Circulation of Children

Leinaweaver Jessaca B. Leinaweaver

Description

In this vivid 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.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• Perú
• Peru

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 26 novembre 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822391500
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Circulation of Children   

A book in the series lat i n a m e r i c a ot h e rw i s e : la n g uag e s, e m p i r e s, nat i o n s

Series editors: wa lt e r d. m i g n o lo ,Duke University i r e n e s i lv e r b lat t , Duke University s o n i a s a l d í va r - h u l l , University of Texas, San Antonio

The Circulation of Children:

Kinship, Adoption, and Morality in Andean Peru

Jessaca B. Leinaweaver

Duke University Press Durham & London2008

∫2008 Duke University Press

All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper$ Designed by Jennifer Hill Typeset in Dante by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.

Duke University Press gratefully acknowledges the support of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Manitoba, which provided funds toward the production of this book.

LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-Publicationdata andrepublicationacknowledgmentsappearonthe lastprintedpagesofthisbook.

1

2

3 4

5

6

7

Contents a

About the Series Acknowledgments A Note on Translation

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

Glossary Notes Bibliography Index

vii ix xiii

1

21

37 61

81

105

134 154

163 165 195 213

About the Series a

LatinAmericaOtherwise:Languages,Empires,Nations is a critical series. It aims to explore the emergence and consequences of concepts used to define ‘‘Latin America’’ while at the same time exploring the broad inter- play of political, economic, and cultural practices that have shaped Latin American worlds. Latin America, at the crossroads of competing imperial designs and local responses, has been construed as a geocultural and geo- political entity since the nineteenth century. This series provides a starting point to redefine Latin America as a configuration of political, linguistic, cultural, and economic intersections that demands a continuous reappraisal of the role of the Americas in history, and of the ongoing process of global- ization and the relocation of people and cultures that have characterized Latin America’s experience.OacrehtesiwaL:atLAinrime,riseEpmeg,sgnau Nationsa forum that confronts established geocultural constructions, is rethinks area studies and disciplinary boundaries, assesses convictions of the academy and of public policy, and correspondingly demands that the practices through which we produce knowledge and understanding about and from Latin America be subject to rigorous and critical scrutiny. Jessaca B. Leinaweaver’s study analyzes children’s mobility, from foster- ing to adoption to commercial tra≈c, in Ayacucho, Peru. Worldwide, chil- dren’s mobility is clearly a√ected by the desires and needs produced by capitalist economies and by increasing disparities between rich and poor at

viii

a

A B O U T T H E S E R I E S

both local and international levels. Children’s mobility in Peru is also inti- mately connected to European and North American desires for children that reproduce relations of benevolence and paternalism. In Peru today, children’s movements are grounded in traditional and historic communal practices of the Ayllu, but they also interact with the moral codes that structure Euro-American families. This ethnography situates the choices made by Andean families within a broader framework of structural, cul- tural, and demographic transformations, and documents the social creativ- ity involved, on the part of both kin and state representatives, when arrang- ing the care of children whose social networks have been attenuated under the pressures of poverty and social inequality. TheCirculationofChildren:Kinship,Adoption,andMoralityinAndeanPeru should be read not only by anthropologists interested in kinship in the Andes but also by scholars and students interested in globalization and in the continuing commodification of human lives. It will also be useful for those concerned with ethics, human rights, and the human consequences of an economic philosophy that preaches development and progress as the ultimate horizon of human happiness.

Acknowledgments a

It’s become commonplace to say, under this heading, how many people have contributed to improving this work and how impossible it is to give each one the sincere thanks they are due. I cannot improve upon this frequently printed sentiment; this is a book that would not have seen the light of day without cooperation, support, encouragement, and construc- tive criticism from countless individuals. I name some of you here, and to those who I have not named because of space or confidentiality restrictions, I want you to know that I am immeasurably appreciative, and hopefully not tooingrata. Errors or infelicities in this text are all my own, and are stub- bornly present despite conscientious suggestions for improvement from one or more listed below. I am grateful to everyone who has read some or all of this work, in one form or another, and shared their comments with me. This book began life as a dissertation for the Department of Anthropology at the University of Michigan (Leinaweaver 2005b), an intellectual environment which I prized for the support among graduate students, the generosity of faculty, and the interdisciplinary cross-pollination that characterized my years there. Powerful examples of these qualities can be found in the Adoption, Infer- tility, and Gender reading group at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Research on Women and Gender, whose members I sincerely thank for a spirited discussion of my arguments and material in 2006, and the Univer-