Kelly Hacker and Dr. Charles Nuckolls, Department of Anthropology

In his studies of kinship (1984), David Schneider put forth the theory that kinship is not inherently biologically-based, but is rather a symbolic and flexible understanding of the relationship between individuals. Inter-caste adoption in India, where a husband and wife adopt an unrelated child born to parents of a different caste, presents itself as an interesting testing ground for this theory, as both biological unrelatedness and a difference in caste must be overcome in the creation of kinship between adoptive family and adoptee.

My study investigated how inter-caste adoption affects the way that five adoptive families from the Jalari fisherman caste in Andhra Pradesh, India conceptualize caste and kinship. Through my research, I found that inter-caste adoption encourages the adoptive families to adapt their culture’s more limited conception of the institutions of caste and kinship to greater emphasize the importance of social rearing and the socialization process, thereby giving meaning to their own experiences of raising an unrelated child born to a different caste. Specifically, I argue that the Jalari-caste adoptive families consider social rearing to be a crucial element in determining kinship, regard caste as a learned social identity that is changeable, and use the adoption festival to officially bestow caste and kinship on the adoptee.

In the case of inter-caste adoption, there is a conspicuous lack of a shared substance that unites the individuals into a cohesive kin group. The inter-caste adoptee and the adoptive family do not share blood or genetics. Inter-caste adoption shifts the focus from the kin group as a linked whole to the individual members and the basis of the relationship between them. How the five adoptive families construct that basis shows that they understand kinship as a way to categorize relationships based on closeness by taking the social rearing process as its determining factor; this allows for the establishment of legitimate non-biological-based kinship relationships.

The emphasis that the Jalari adoptive families place on social rearing reflects their understanding that blood is not the most important element of kinship. Instead, the feelings of love and closeness that develop as they raise the child are the essential ingredients for establishing kinship with the child. The Jalari adoptive families attempt to legitimize their relationship with the adoptee in the community’s eyes by patterning it after biological-based models of kinship.

Having adopted a child from outside their own caste, the Jalari adoptive families must consider the very nature of caste–what it means to belong to one rather than to another, its permanency, and its transmission. Anant’s 1967 study found that each caste’s particular socialization processes affect their children’s personality patterns to a large degree. Furthermore, Anant found that if “there is a change in the process of bringing up…a child, his personality…does not show the pattern peculiar to his own caste” (1967:386). Inter-caste adoption constitutes such a change in upbringing, which is supported by the data collected from interviews and observations among the adoptive families. The adoptive families understand caste to be a learned social identity that is changeable and that is acquired through socialization practices that occur in the home.

Caste is a categorization that is composed of the many rules and restrictions that differentiate individual castes from one another. Ultimately, it defines who and what one is and vice versa. The Jalari community, in the tradition of the wider culture of Hindu India, practices caste as a hereditary element of one’s identity. But those Jalari families who have adopted non-Jalari children experience caste differently. Based upon their own experiences with inter-caste adoption, the adoptive families understand caste to be a changeable element of one’s identity, as evidenced by their assertions that their children, though born to other castes, are now Jalaris.

Inter-caste adoption has a number of implications for the Jalari adoptive families’ constructions of caste. These families consider social rearing in cases of adoption as an alternate and equally legitimate means of transmitting and inheriting caste identity, because caste is a learned social identity that draws on the culture of the caste to impart a commonality to all members. It is most effective when the adoptee is adopted at a young age and is able to grow up within the caste culture and begin internalizing the caste-specific identity as soon as possible.

When a Jalari couple in this village adopts a child from outside the Jalari caste, they often hold an adoption festival, known as an undilu bhojanam. The festival ritually recognizes the connection between caste and kinship within the context of the child-parent relationship in cases of inter-caste adoption. The Jalari adoptive families understand the adoption festival to officially bestow caste and kinship on the adoptee in the community’s eyes.

The common meal is the essential element of these rituals at the adoption festival. The change in caste is accomplished through the sharing of bodily essence, which is transmitted by touching the communal food. Additionally, it officially bestows kinship status on the inter-caste adoptee, incorporating him or her into the adoptive family’s kinship network. Prior to the adoption festival, rumors and gossip typically abound in the village that the couple is raising a child who is not their own. There is a degree of stigma attached to adoption, because the other villagers typically do not view that child as belonging to the adoptive parents and being their “own.”

The families’ narratives that I collected in the course of my research vividly describe how the adoptive families’ experiences with the complexities of inter-caste adoption actively shape their perceptions of caste and kinship. The significance of this study lies in the light it sheds on the subjective nature of caste and kinship. The adoptive parents understand kinship to be a social phenomenon, rather than a biological one, established by actively and consciously opening their home to the child and by positioning themselves in a parental relationship with the adoptee, which entails both caring and providing for him or her. Furthermore, as the first study to investigate inter-caste adoption, my research takes the preliminary steps towards addressing the gap in the anthropological literature and establishes a basis for further research to be conducted.

As an initial foray into inter-caste adoption, the purpose of this research was aimed at establishing a preliminary basis for further fieldwork. A general understanding of the cultural practice was gained, but the finer points of inter-caste adoption and its many implications are still unknown. Further research is needed among other castes and should incorporate the viewpoint of the adoptees themselves. These further studies would be valuable in developing a fuller understanding of inter-caste adoption.

References

• Anant, Santokh S. 1967 Child Training and Caste Personality: The Need for Further Research. Race & Class 8(4):385-394.
  Schneider, David M.
• 1984 A Critique of the Study of Kinship. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.