The Red Thread, a metaphor for a family bond
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https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0189-7230
Abstract
In transnational adoption processes, especially in families who adopt children of Asian origin, the legend of the red thread has become a recurring narrative device to give meaning to the family bond. Reimagined in the context of adoption, this metaphor helps to give meaning to the relationship between parents and children by inscribing it in a logic of predestination that precedes the encounter and the administrative process of assignment. Based on ethnographic research in the Basque Country using in-depth interviews, this article analyzes the contemporary uses of this narrative and its effects on the construction of kinship. It shows how the red thread operates simultaneously as a device for legitimizing the adoptive bond and as a mechanism that can reproduce biogenetic imaginaries and silences around origins. Finally, the article proposes reinterpretations that shift the notion of destiny towards a processual and everyday conception of kinship.
How to Cite
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Red thread, transnational adoption, bond, kinship
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