Children and the politics of cultural belonging

"This book explores the debate over communal and cultural belonging in three 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"-- "Providing families for children in need is unquestionably a worthy goal. Adoption conjures soft-focus images of abandoned and vulnerable innocents welcomed into families who can love and nurture them. People who choose to engage in stranger adoptions - adoptions that do not involve kin or stepparents - are typically motivated both by a desire to become a parent and by a wish to do good in the world. The families thus created are, in fact, miraculous, and these families often work hard not only to provide for a found and chosen child but to give back to the communities from which the child originated. The uplifting story of family creation enabled by adoption, however, tows a darker story of marginalization and loss in its wake. Historically, adoption in the United States was not simply about providing care for needy children; it was also explicitly driven by the desire to move children from unsuitable to suitable families"--