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AN INTERPRETIVE STUDY OF ADOPTION

The Interplay of History, Power, Knowledge, and Emotions

MARTHA BAUMAN POWER

Although there are similarities between adoptive families and biological families, there are very real differences, the significance of which are only beginning to be understood. In this article we draw upon transcripts from a three-year interpretive study of the ongoing interactions of 10 families who were in the process of adopting children with special needs. We develop new understandings of adoption, not as a structural and, therefore, static phenomenon which has normalization as its final outcome, but as an ongoing process of interactions that is mediated by history, power, knowledge, and emotions. The interplay of these components makes adoptive families necessarily different from biological families and the adoption process potentially very difficult. We argue that adoptive families need to emulate, not a biological family, but an adoptive family that is able to integrate these four components into the taken-for-grantedness of everyday life.

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Vol. 17, No. 3, 326-348 (1988)
DOI: 10.1177/089124188017003005


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