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For decades, social scientists have assumed that “fictive kinship” is a phenomenon associated only with marginal peoples and people of color in the United States. In this innovative book, Nelson reveals the frequency, texture and dynamics of relationships which are felt to be “like family” among the white middle-class.
List of contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
PART I: TRUE LIFE STORIES
Chapter 1: The Texture and Dynamics of Like Sibling Bonds
Chapter 2: The Limits of Like Sibling Bonds
PART II: ONE-ACT PLAYS
Chapter 3: Guest Teens: Learning Boundaries
Chapter 4: Host Families: Inclusion and Exclusion
PART III: FAIRY TALES
Chapter 5: Unofficial Children: If the Shoe Fits
Chapter 6: Informal Parents: Promises Broken, Promises Kept
CONCLUSION: RECONSIDERING KINSHIP
APPENDICES
Appendix A: Information about Respondents; Cast of Characters
Appendix B: Studying Fictive Kinship and Informal Adoption
About the author
Margaret K. Nelson is the A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Sociology Emerita at Middlebury College in Vermont. She is the author of Parenting Out of Control: Anxious Parents in Uncertain Times and the co-author, with Rosanna Hertz, of Random Families: Genetic Strangers, Sperm Donor Siblings, and the Creation of New Kin.
Summary
For decades, social scientists have assumed that “fictive kinship” is a phenomenon associated only with marginal peoples and people of color in the United States. In this innovative book, Nelson reveals the frequency, texture and dynamics of relationships which are felt to be “like family” among the white middle-class.
