Doctoral Dissertation Research: Moral and Ethical Foundations in Adoptive Kin Relations

博士论文研究：收养亲属关系的道德和伦理基础

• 批准号: 1918093
• 负责人: Mike McGovern
• 金额: $ 2.17万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-08-01 至 2020-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1918093&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Moral; Ethical

Ethnographic evidence has repeatedly established that shared genetic material is not a universal foundation for relations of kinship; kin relations cannot be biologically or culturally predetermined in any general sense. One of the clearer sites for examining the complexities of human kin relations is with the social relations between non-consanguine adoptive kin. In some cases, for example, prospective parents express adoption as a religious experience, as opposed to a humanitarian endeavor or simply a wish to add to their existing families. This project, which trains a graduate student in methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, explores the relationship between religion and transnational adoption. The findings of this research will be disseminated in such a way to aid researchers and policy-makers to better understand how kin relations and religiosity are constituted. The project itself also contributes to broadening the participation of individuals traditionally underrepresented in science.Christine Chalifoux, under the supervision of Dr. Michael McGovern of the University of Michigan asks whether religious calling is the foundation for Evangelical nuclear families who choose to adopt children, and what role this has in the practice of transnational adoption. This research will be centered in Uganda, an ideal natural laboratory for studying changes in transnational adoption as rates were rapidly rising until the Children Amendment Act made it significantly more difficult for foreigners to adopt children. Despite increasing obstacles, which include residing in Uganda for over one year in order to legally adopt an eligible child, some devout Christians remain committed to the adoption process in this particular country. In investigation whether their religion is inspiring them to live away from their family and in more austere conditions than in the United States or other Western countries, this project will examine how faith is being used to form families at an orphanage in Kampala. This project will use ethnographic methods, including participant observation, life history collection, and formal interviews, in order to comprehend the religiosity of adoption. Doing so will enable an understanding of adoption beyond the current debates that situate it as morally right or wrong, offering new insight into the future of the practice. Archival research will also be used explore how this context emerged as one sought out by Western missionaries, and eventually a place from where they chose to adopt children. These insights inform debates about the intersection of religion, kinship, transnational adoption, and the lived worlds of Christians beyond often-superficial portrayals in the media and academic literature.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

人种学证据一再证明，共同的遗传物质并不是亲属关系的普遍基础；亲属关系在任何一般意义上都不能由生物学或文化决定。研究人类亲属关系复杂性的一个更清晰的地点是非血缘收养亲属之间的社会关系。例如，在某些情况下，未来的父母表示收养是一种宗教体验，而不是人道主义努力或仅仅是希望增加他们现有家庭的成员。该项目旨在培养一名研究生的经验、科学数据收集和分析方法，探讨宗教与跨国收养之间的关系。本研究的结果将以这种方式传播，以帮助研究人员和政策制定者更好地理解亲属关系和宗教信仰是如何构成的。该项目本身也有助于扩大传统上在科学领域代表性不足的个人的参与。在密歇根大学迈克尔·麦戈文（Michael McGovern）博士的指导下，克里斯汀·查利福（Christine Chalifoux）提出了一个问题，宗教呼召是否是福音派核心家庭选择收养孩子的基础，以及这在跨国收养的实践中扮演了什么角色。这项研究将以乌干达为中心，乌干达是研究跨国收养变化的理想的天然实验室，因为在《儿童修正法》使外国人收养儿童变得更加困难之前，跨国收养率一直在迅速上升。尽管障碍越来越多，其中包括为了合法收养一个合格的孩子而在乌干达居住一年以上，一些虔诚的基督徒仍然致力于在这个特定国家的收养进程。为了调查他们的宗教信仰是否激励他们远离家人，在比美国或其他西方国家更艰苦的条件下生活，该项目将研究坎帕拉一家孤儿院如何利用信仰来组建家庭。本项目将采用民族志方法，包括参与观察、生活史收集和正式访谈，以了解收养的宗教虔诚度。这样做将使人们对收养的理解超越目前将其定位为道德上的正确或错误的争论，为实践的未来提供新的见解。档案研究也将用于探索这个背景如何成为西方传教士所寻求的，并最终成为他们选择收养孩子的地方。这些见解为关于宗教、亲属关系、跨国收养和基督徒生活世界的交叉的辩论提供了信息，而不仅仅是媒体和学术文献中肤浅的描绘。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。