[Fa'a'mu and Fanau. Various traditional aspects and current problems of adoption and donation of children in French Polynesia].
The old polynesian custom of giving a child persits. One child in three or four is asked for and adopted (Fa'a'amu). It was not officially recognized, which had no disadvantage as it was between Maoris and inside enlarged polynesian families. But quick acculturation and urbanization, social and economical changes of the past ten years have changed all that. The contradiction between french law and tahitian traditional customs exposes these fa'a'amu children, with no legal statute and without judicial protection, to many drawbacks. First in their tahitian families because they get no family allowances. On the other hand some Europeans wishing to adopt children take often advantages, though it is illegal, of the generosity of the prolific tahitian women (no contraception in Tahiti) who seldom refuse giving children to a European, without understanding clearly that complete adoption (european model) cuts every tie with the biological family (Fanau). The illegal appropriation of these children sometimes leave them deprived of statute and legal protection in Europe (or America, or even Japan?). We have here an exemple of what happens when two cultures meet, whose customs and values are totally different.
D000069:Acculturation; D000300:Adoption; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D003469:Culture; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D007878:Legislation as Topic; D011114:Polynesia
Fa'amu et Fanau De quelques aspects traditionnels et problèmes actuels de l'adoption et du don d'enfants en Polynésie francaise