Exemples de pratiques adoptives en Europe et en Extrême Orient. Une étude comparative (XVIe-XVIIIe siècles)

Adoption is an ancient and global institution, of which we find evidence in many societies with different meanings and functions. Given the transversality and multiplicity of forms of adoption, a comparative study may be the key to identifying the affinities and peculiarities of the different ways in which a child was taken into care. By comparing the adoption practices widespread in the 16th-18th centuries in some European countries, such as Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Moldavia, Wallachia, Russia, and in two Eastern countries, China and Japan, this contribution aims to bring out and compare some of the ways in which a child or an adult was transferred from the family of origin to the adoptive family; the legal consequences of these transfers, as well as the motivations, which could be dictated by the need to guarantee an heir, to boost the family’s economic activity, to secure help, but also by the emergence of an emotional bond and the desire to have a child.