Desde o gabinete...



Estou aqui na faculdade, no meu gabinete, preparando aulas para a semana. Leio um texto da minha colega e amiga Susana Viegas, e apeteceu-me partilhar uma passagem que, julgo, abre um pouco as janelas (pelo menos relativizando) das discussões recentes sobre família, adopção, etc...

«(...)Bodenhorn argues that, in the context of the Iñupiat [of Alaska] this notion of the revocability of kinship is related to the fact that children are considered autonomous beings who may 'choose' their own parents - an idea that Bodenhorn shows to be consistent with the frequency of adoptions amongst the Iñupiat, and with the Iñupiat notion that children get born by themselves and not as a direct result of a couple's procreative act (Bodenhorn 2000: 139-41). One consequence of the revocability of kin ties amongst the Iñupiat, Bodenhorn argues, is that kinship is regarded as a context in which relations need to be re-enacted daily, depending directly upon 'the work of being related - rather than the labour of giving birth or the "fact" of shared substance' and, as a result, 'permanence [of kin ties] lies in the ever-present potential for revivifying dormant relations' (Bodenhorn 2000:143)». (Viegas 2003: 23)