Second-Class Daughters (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781316514719)

A legacy of the transatlantic slave trade, Brazil is home to the largest number of African descendants outside Africa and the greatest number of domestic workers in the world. Drawing on ten years of interviews and ethnographic research, the author examines the lives of marginalized informal domestic workers who are called 'adopted daughters' but who live in slave-like conditions in the homes of their adoptive families. She traces a nuanced and, at times, disturbing account of how adopted daughters, who are trapped in a system of racial, gender, and class oppression, live with the coexistence of extreme forms of exploitation and seemingly loving familial interactions and affective relationships. Highlighting the humanity of her respondents, Hordge-Freeman examines how filhas de cria艫o (raised daughters) navigate the realities of their structural constraints and in the context of pervasive norms of morality, gratitude, and kinship. In all, the author clarifies the link between contemporary and colonial forms of exploitation, while highlighting the resistance and agency of informal domestic workers.

Author: Elizabeth Hordge-Freeman
ISBN-10: 1316514714
ISBN-13: 9781316514719
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 03/17/2022
Pages: 288
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.31lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.81d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 08/01/2023