Family Law

Children and the Politics of Cultural Belonging

By Alice Hearst
Cambridge University Press October 2012

Specifications

ISBN-13
9781107017863
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Publication
October 2012
Format
Hardback , 211 pages
Jurisdiction
International ? Countri(es) for reference only

Details

Conversations about multiculturalism rarely consider the position of children, who are presumptively nested in families and communities. Yet providing care for children who are unanchored from their birth families raises questions central to multicultural concerns, as they frequently find themselves moved from communities of origin through adoption or foster care, which deeply affects marginalized communities. This book explores the debate over communal and cultural belonging in three distinct contexts: domestic transracial adoptions of non-American Indian children, the scope of tribal authority over American Indian children, and cultural and communal belonging for transnationally adopted children. Understanding how children 'belong' to families and communities requires hard thinking about the extent to which cultural or communal belonging matters for children and communities, who should have authority to inculcate racial and cultural awareness and, finally, the degree to which children should be expected to adopt and carry forward racial or cultural identities.

• Raises questions about the nature of cultural belonging and identity rights • Brings the concerns of communities into the debates over adoption and foster care • Explores the debate over communal and cultural belonging in three distinct contexts

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
vii
Introduction
1
1       Children, Law, and Belonging
13
Attaching a Child to a Family or Community
17
The Unanchored Child
27
Disrupting Family and Group Identity
30
Children's Communal Belonging, Rights, and the Law
34
Children's Identities and Group Rights to Cultural Integrity
38
2       Community, Identity, and the Importance of Belonging
41
Belonging to Family, Community, and Nation
48
Voluntariness, Involuntariness, and Exit
51
Belonging and the Limits of Law
54
Securing Communal Values via Generational Ties
57
3       Rainbow Dreams and Domestic Transracial Adoption
61
The Assimilative Roots of Domestic Adoption Policy
68
Eclipsing the “As If” Family
73
Legislating Transracial Placements
74
Race, Culture, and Racial Culture
83
Multiracial Children and Navigating Identity
88
Innocence, Incorrigibility, and the Rhetoric of Rescue
89
Transracial Adoption and Communal Connections
95
4       Reclaiming the Diaspora and American Indian Children
102
Federal Policies from Eradication to Self-Determination
107
“Kill the Indian…and Save the Man”
113
Resurrecting Tribal Identity
120
Reclaiming Indian Children
123
Defining the Indian Child and “Indianness”
132
Sinking into a Jurisdictional Bog
142
5       Transnational Adoption in a Shifting World
146
The Global Migration of Children
153
Belonging, Roots Trips, and Cultural Connections
162
Emerging Human Rights Discourses
167
The Hague Convention and Private Law
179
The Collision Course in Transnational Adoption
183
Conclusion
186
Index
195

About the Author

Alice Hearst
Smith College, Massachusetts

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