Fixing families of mobile children: Recreating kinship and belonging among Maasai adoptees in Kenya

Abstract

Among the Maasai of southern Kenya, child circulation in the form of adoption is widespread. It persists despite increased family nuclearization and pervasive sedentarizing discourses depicting ‘modern’ family life as small, settled and nuclear. Through the perspectives and experiences of 10 families having undergone adoption, this article examines the processes by which parents and children attempt to recreate kinship and foster belonging. Emphasis on children’s sentiments and actions not only demonstrate children’s active role in the making and unmaking of kinship but also their resistance to development ideals of family and residential fixity.