Holding On: Adoption, Kinship Tensions, and Pregnancy in the Marshall Islands

Abstract

In the Marshall Islands, the idea that children belong to the kinship group as a whole exists in tension with an understanding of children as closely tied to their birth family. This tension is simultaneously created and overcome by linguistic and strategic practices in which adoptive and birth parents alike attempt to gain and keep children. Their efforts to "hold on" challenge recent trends in the anthropological study of kinship, specifically deconstructions of the importance of things-such as pregnancy-that appear biological. I argue that both criticisms and defenses of kinship as biology have overlooked how the physical process of reproduction creates interactional constraints on negotiations for children. These negotiations also create multiple potential parents as legitimate, thus producing the ambivalence and tensions that underlie Marshallese experiences of adoption. Rather than simply destructive, however, these tensions and ambivalences are also constructive-it is through their struggle to hold on that parents bind children to themselves. [adoption, kinship, possession, pregnancy, interaction, Marshall Islands] L .Ō MN . AK EO IN BEBA IN Ilo M .ā aer kajjioñ in dāpijir bwe er wōt ren bok kun . aer ajiri jiddik ro. Jet ien, m . akūtkūt in lale ajiri ak ajej ajiri emaroñ bar kōm . m . an bok ikōtaan baam . le ko, einwōt ilo aer leto-letak kōn won eo lukkuun m . oolin nejin ajiri eo, ro m . oolin jinen ak jemen ke ak ro rekar kokaajiriri im karūttolok ajiri eo. Bok im inepata ko ikōtaan baam . le ko kake kokaajiriri im karūttolok ajiri eo ej juon katak eo ekāāl an Anthropology ro -ke biology im bōro . ro reaurōk im rejjab maroñ bar aurōk. Rebōd ilo aer jab mel . el . e ke ilo tōre eo juon ajiri ej l . otak, rej bar kwal . o . k kakien im mālimñan kōnono ko.Ñe armej ro rekōn . aan bōk ajiri jiddik ro rej aikuj ba naan ko me rejim . we. Akō jet ien rūtto ro me rekōn . aan kokaajiririki rejjab maroñ ba naan kein. Pepe ko l .ō mn . aki bwe emaroñ jabrewōt emaroñ kokaajiririki ajiri eo ekōm . m . an bwe en bar einwōt wōr bok im kota kōn won eo enaj kokaajiriri ajiri eo. Bōtaab bok kein rejjab nana wōt bwe rej kajjioñ in dāpij ajiri eo bwe bok in ej bwe rūtto ro rej kōm . m . an bwe ren lukkuun einwōt nejier. [Kaajiriri, nukwi, m . weiuk, bōro . ro, bwebwenato, M .ā jel] RESUMEN En las Islas Marshall, la idea que los niños pertenecen al grupo de parentesco en su conjunto existe en tensión con un entendimiento que los niños están estrechamente unidos a su familia de nacimiento. Esta tensión es simultáneamente creada y superada a través de prácticas lingüísticas y estratégicas en las cuales padres adoptivos y biológicos por igual intentan ganar y retener los hijos. Sus esfuerzos de "retener" retan recientes tendencias en el estudio antropológico del parentesco, especialmente deconstrucciones de la importancia de las cosas-tales como embarazo-que parecen biológicas. Argumento que tanto criticismos como defensas del parentesco como

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