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"In May 2014, a couple posted the above advertisement in the Diâario de Parâa, a newspaper based in Belâem, Parâa, Brazil, to find a babâa (nanny) for their baby. The publication of an ad of this nature in a mainstream newspaper reflects the pervasive practice of "adopting" young girls into families for the purpose of exploiting them as unpaid domestic workers (Belträao 2016).1 The listing sparked an uproar among prominent social activist groups in Brazil that marshaled social media platforms to denounce what was viewed as the couple's poorly veiled effort to exploit child labor under the guise of adoption"--
List of contents
Introduction: 'An iron chain around your soul'; 1. Adopting modern slavery: Pathways into and discourses of criação; 2. 'Quase da família' (almost family): Affective ambiguity and family theater as strategies of domination; 3. Prisoners of love: Affective captivity and ruptures in the family ideology; 4. The depths and debts of gratitude: The moral code of criação; 5. Family bonds and bondage: Intra-generational relationships and the persistence of Criação; 6. Home sick: Health and disability among adult filhas de criação; 7. Freedom to 'live her liberty': From existence to resistance among filhas de criação; Conclusion: The last of our kind: Onward to freedom.
About the author
Elizabeth Hordge-Freeman is Associate Professor of Sociology, Senior Advisor to the President and Provost for Diversity and Inclusion, and Interim Vice President for Institutional Equity at the University of South Florida. She received a Fulbright grant to Brazil and Ruth Landes Memorial Fellowship to conduct this research. Her first book, The Color of Love, won three book awards, including two from the American Sociological Association (Sections on Emotions and Bodies and Embodiment).
