Family belonging and class hierarchy: Secrecy, rupture and inequality as seen through the narratives of Brazilian adoptees

Abstract

In this article, I analyze interviews with members of a newly-founded association for adopted persons, as well as the cursory pleas listed on its internet site, in order to reconstruct notions of family belonging as they have evolved in interaction with legal directives over the past decades in Brazil. My findings suggest a line of continuity between the secrecy traditionally associated with adoption, the confidentiality decreed by state adoption services, and adoptive parents’ strategies to guarantee their child’s full inclusion in the family. They also raise questions about the political nature of the adoption process, highlighting dynamics of inequality that, despite the advance of democratic reforms and evolving family sensitivities, continue to have considerable weight.