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Publicatie

Adoptiefeesten cultuur, liefdadigheid en gemeenschapsvorming bij Vlaams-Ethiopische adoptiegezinnen

Tijdschriftbijdrage - Tijdschriftartikel

Ondertitel:Adoption feasts culture, charity and community building in Flemish-Ethiopian adoptive families
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews, this article analyses festive gatherings of Flemish parents with children adopted from Ethiopia as sites for community building, charity work and culture work. On the one hand, it reads the festive gatherings as ways of celebrating the non-normativity of adoptive families and ways of aiming to contribute to a more inclusive citizenship. It argues that the adoptive parentsU+2019 organizations and gatherings can be seen as U+201Cintimacy groupsU+201D developing their own visible and positive cultures that can leak into broader public spheres and have the capacity to enhance the public recognition and normalization of adoptive families in society at large. On the other hand, the article points to the risks of reifying and reproducing difference and inequality. It points to the problematic entanglement of the festivities (and of adoption) with narratives of philanthropy and rescue, which risks to reinforce a neocolonialist imagery of white people saving black people. It also interrogates the way in which the parentsU+2019 U+201Cculture workU+201D connects the black children to an alleged U+201Cbirth cultureU+201D of which they often have no memories, a practice that seems to be motivated by essentialist discourses of race, identity and culture, and fits within a discourse that lacks a critical awareness of power inequalities and white privilege.
Tijdschrift: VOLKSKUNDE
ISSN: 0042-8523
Issue: 3
Volume: 117
Pagina's: 247
Jaar van publicatie:2016
BOF-keylabel:ja
IOF-keylabel:ja
Auteurs:National
Authors from:Higher Education
Toegankelijkheid:Closed