Description:
Ruth Goodenough stresses the role of sterility in adoption in the Truk lagoon, while Marshall reports a higher rate of adoption for Namoluk despite greater fertility and argues that adoption rates are best understood as expressions of behavior fundamental to kinship relations. Ritter finds both sets of factors to be important in adoption on Kosrae in the eastern Carolines. Frequency of adoption on Pingelap atoll shows a clear response to rates of childlessness, and the rate of adoption has declined sharply with removal of demographic pressures. [adoption, demography, kinship, Micronesia]