4. Experiencing Father’s Kin and Mother’s Kin: Kinship Norms and Practices from the Perspective of Foster Children in Northern Benin

This chapter examines patterns of kinship norms and practice, and the meanings of growing up with matrikin and patrikin, from the perspective of former and present foster children in a rural context in northern Benin. It analyses the biographical narratives of 29 persons, living in F?e villages, between the ages of about eleven and seventy, who either were in the past, or are today fostered by relatives. The chapter compares the narratives of all persons who grew up or are growing up with a relative from the mother's side and generation with the narratives of all those who grew up or are growing up with a relative from the father's side and generation. It aims at showing how normative kinship notions and personal narratives with regard to the experience of fostering are interrelated. Keywords:F?e village; foster children; kinship norm; kinship practice; matrikin; northern Benin; patrikin