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- Title
Alternative Readings: The Status of the Status of Children Act in Antigua and Barbuda.
- Authors
Lazarus-Black, Mindie
- Abstract
The article explores law's role in the construction of personal and group identity and in relation to gender hierarchy in Antigua and Barbuda. More than 80% of the people of Antigua and Barbuda are born out of wedlock. In 1986 Antigua's Parliament passed new family laws to enable men to acknowledge legally their illegitimate children, to prevent discrimination against children whose parents have not wed, and to allow acknowledged children to inherit from their fathers' estates. The article explores several questions on the interpretation and application of the Status of Children Act by legal professionals; the extent to which legal proclamations and judicial processes alter people's commonsense understanding of family; the extent to which social norms and everyday practices remake the meaning and practice of law. The article explores law's role in the construction of personal and group identity and in relation to gender hierarchy. It has been found that Antigua's new kinship codes are both emblematic of a distinctly postcolonial kinship order and indicative of new tensions between certain powerful institutions--schools and, churches--which previously enjoyed ideological support from the state.
- Subjects
ANTIGUA &; Barbuda; CHILDREN of unmarried parents; GROUP identity; FAMILIES; GUARDIAN &; ward; LEGAL status of children
- Publication
Law & Society Review, 1994, Vol 28, Issue 5, p993
- ISSN
0023-9216
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/3054021