Duke University Press Log

Adoption and Kinship

Sunday's L.A. Times features a story about the ways in which western ideas of adoption clash with traditional African kinship systems.  According to the article: "There's no word for adoption in [the] Swahili language. It is common for Africans to send orphaned or impoverished children to live with richer relatives. . . . Unlike in adoptions, the child remains in regular contact with the parents."
    Duke author Jessaca B. Leinaweaver, in her forthcoming book The Circulation of Children:  Kinship, Adoption, and Morality in Andean Peru (October 2008), delves into similar issues of kinship and adoption in Andean Peru.  Her in-depth ethnographic analysis reveals child circulation to be a meaningful, pragmatic social practice for poor and indigenous Peruvians. 

Driftless Nominated for NY Photo Award

Danny Wilcox Frazier's Driftless has been nominated for a prestigious New York Photo Award. The winners will be announced on May 16.

Hunt Family Feud in Vanity Fair

This month's Vanity Fair features an article on the family of H. L. Hunt, the Texas oil magnate. Some of Hunt's children and grandchildren are currently feuding over his vast fortune. Duke recently published the autobiography of Swanee Hunt, diplomat, philanthropist, and political activist. Swanee is one of H. L. Hunt's daughter's from his third marriage to Ruth Ray. She writes about growing up in the rich, eccentric family. Her father kept multiple families at once (he was "married" to Lyda Bunker and Frania Tie at the same time). Swanee and her sisters and brother are not part of the current legal wrangling, which involves Hunt's descendants from his marriage to Lyda Bunker.

Finnstrom in Sudan Tribune

Sverker Finnström, author of Living with Bad Surroundings: War, History, and Everyday Moments in Northern Uganda has co-written an article about the complicated and precarious peace process in Northern Uganda for the Sudan Tribune.   Finnström and his co-author Ronald R. Atkinson focus on what will happen (particularly to the widely-displaced Acholi people) if/when a peace agreement is finally reached:  "As we wait for the current situation to be resolved, and a final agreement signed, we would like to stress that successfully implementing the agreement will be an arduous, grassroots project that will require the sustained attention and support of the outside world. A so-called “post-conflict situation” can often be more violent than a conflict itself, and we need to be prepared, emotionally and practically, for problems and setbacks."

More on Hawaiian Sovereignty

The Associated Press reports that a group of Native Hawaiian activists, the Hawaiian Kingdom Government, have occupied Iolani Palace, the former home of Hawaiian royalty, and taken over the grounds. For background on the Native Hawaiian rights movement and history, check out our pathbreaking book by Noenoe Silva, Aloha Betrayed. And you can look forward to two forthcoming books, Hawaiian Blood by J. Kēhaulani Kauanui and Native Men Remade by Ty P. Tengan. Noenoe Silva will be speaking at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. later this month.