Difficult Attachments

Anxieties of Kinship and Care

By: Kathryn E. Goldfarb (Editor), Sandra Bamford (Editor)

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Hardcover | 11 October 2024

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Hardcover
274 Pages

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16.1 x 24.2 x 2.4

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Anthropologists have long considered kinship as the basis for social solidarity. Indeed, the idea that kinship is grounded in positive sociality has found its way into most anthropological accounts and has served as an orienting framework directing decades of scholarly research. But what about when it is not? What about instances when kinship is anything but ‘warm and fuzzy’ but is characterized, instead, by neglect, violence, negative affect, or a lack of nurturance and care? In the three interlinked sections of this volume, the view that kinship is about “solidarity” and “care” is challenged by exploring how kin relations are not only about connection and inclusion but also about disconnection, exclusion, neglect, and violence. Kinship relationships that feel “positive” and “good” take a great deal of perseverance and work; there is nothing “natural” about kinship ties as being based on positive sociality. In these chapters, the contributors take seriously the contingency of kinship relations (the moments when kinship breaks down or is a source of suffering) and how this prompts scholars to develop new theoretical and methodological perspectives.

Industry Reviews

"Difficult Attachments brilliantly theorizes the necessity for kinship studies to move beyond cultural and theoretical ideals about kinship to encompass kinship's everyday realities. In the space of this expanded vision, this groundbreaking volume offers rich accounts of the complexities of lived experiences of kinship: the contingencies as much as the unconditional solidarity, the violence and conflict as much as the love and nurturance, and the hierarchies of power as much as the mutuality of being." -- Susan McKinnon, * co-editor of Vital Relations: Modernity and the Persistent Life of Kinship *
"This arresting and highly welcome collection provides a long-overdue, sustained scrutiny of the so-called 'negative' aspects of kinship. Envy, disappointments, dislike, disconnection-as well as more extreme manifestations documented here-are, the authors argue, constitutive of kinship rather than its negation. Decentring kinship ideals from its definition and analysis, these rich and provocative essays demonstrate the productivity of writing against the grain, and chart new pathways for kinship studies." -- Janet Carsten, * co-editor of Marriage in Past, Present and Future Tense *

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