9 - Fostering

Summary

Children who, as a result of misfortune or design, come to live with people other than their parents, are frequently fostered by their mother's female relatives. This is especially true of girls fostered in crisis and constitutes one more indication of the structural importance of uterine kinship, which acts as a safety net for the casualties of a discriminatory social system which tends to work to the advantage of men, though favouring some men more than others.

The arrangement which places children with their mother's kin also avoids the conflicts over inheritance which might break out if a child were fostered by an agnate. Such conflicts might be of two forms, those between the rightful heirs of a man and his foster-child agnate, or those between a person fostered in crisis and his agnateguardian who might attempt to steal his inheritance. Both these situations might arise in fostering but the threat to kinship rights would be greater if adoption were possible.

In this chapter I discuss the meaning of fostering and the prohibition on adoption, the reasons why children are fostered, and their distribution among kin and others.

The importance of the category ‘others’ leads me to deal with the social situation of foster-children. The foster-child's disadvantages complement the need of many women to improve their position in the women's status-system by acquiring ‘false kin’ and clients, among whom are children.