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36 Law & Soc'y Rev. 397 (2002)
Inequality near and Far: Adoption as Seen from the Brazilian Favelas

handle is hein.journals/lwsocrw36 and id is 407 raw text is: Inequality Near and Far: Adoption as Seen from the Brazilian Favelas Claudia Fonseca Focusing on child circulation among the urban poor in Southern Brazil, this article considers the parallels and divergences between local practice, national legislation, and global policy involved in legal adoption. Following a brief eth- nographic account of child circulation among working-class families in Porto Alegre, Brazil, the analysis focuses on adofdo d brasileira (clandestine adoption) as one of the ways in which the Brazilian poor bypass legal bureaucratic proce- dures in order to adjust the State apparatus to their needs. Finally, the compar- ative analysis of Brazil and North America centers on the evolution of adoption law and policies. Our approach highlights the variant experiences of family and legal consciousness according to class and national identity, while at the same time considering the political inequality implied in the hierarchization of different cultural repertoires. in a recent book on international adoption, the social worker responsible for describing the situation in Brazil underlines the superior quality of overseas adopters. Brazilian nationals, judging from the number of children returned to the court, lack a seri- ous attitude toward adoption. The author mentions factors such as poor financial conditions and unstable family structures that may explain this lack of seriousness, but, in her opinion, the real motive (and key to a solution?) lies in the fact that Brazilians don't pay anything for the adopted child: In contrast, expenses for foreigners are huge, and the adoptive ties turn out to be strong and lasting (Silva 1995:126). These comments serve as a springboard for the subject of my article: Brazilian adoption practices, placed within a globalized context. They speak of a problem that is central to my con- cerns-the so-called gap between law and actual behavior.' I would like to thank Chantal Collard and Frangoise-Romaine Ouellette for their thoughtful suggestions to this article, as well as the Anthropology Department of the Universit6 de Montreal, which provided an amicable setting for my sabbatical year. Direct all correspondence to Claudia Fonseca, PPG Antropologia Social, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Bento Gon alvez 9.500, Porto Alegre (91.500), RS, Brazil (e- mail: claudiaf2@uol.com.br). I For a critical overview of the gap studies of the 1970s, see Sarat & Silbey (1988). Law & Society Review, Volume 36, Number 2 (2002) © 2002 by The Law and Society Association. All rights reserved.

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