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On moving children: The social implications of Andean child circulation
Author(s) -
LEINAWEAVER JESSACA B.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.2007.34.1.163
Subject(s) - circulation (fluid dynamics) , kinship , indigenous , ethnography , context (archaeology) , inequality , sociology , social inequality , economic growth , political science , geography , anthropology , economics , ecology , mathematical analysis , physics , mathematics , archaeology , biology , thermodynamics
In this article, I draw from ethnographic research in Ayacucho, Peru, to describe how rural‐to‐urban migrants move children between houses as part of a common survival and betterment strategy in the context of social and economic inequality. Such “child circulations” produce and strengthen kinship and are an important part of local family‐making efforts. My investigation of child circulation grounds a critical assessment of Peru's globalized adoption system, which implicitly denaturalizes the parenting of poor, indigenous Peruvians.