The thesis asks whether the current legal and policy frameworks surrounding social kinship creation offer a useful means of preventing the harms of origin deprivation, identifies areas that might be in need of reform and evaluates a means by which such reforms might be achieved. It argues chiefly that origin deprivation may result in psycho-social harm: a wide range of research underpins this proposition by highlighting the harmful aspects and adverse consequences of being deemed genetically kinless. Under the 'clean-break' model of created kinship, triad children may also suffer discrimination at the level of domestic law and policies and via court proceedings on information release or kin contact. As 'veto victims' relinquished children may be permanently 'infantilized' by the hierarchy of rights that seem to exist within social kinship triads. Doctrinal analysis of the jurisprudence on genetic identity 'rights', from a variety of jurisdictions (closed and open-record, veto-bound and 'blood-tie as paramount' where social kinship bonds have been overturned) suggests judicial deference for family sanctity, which has blurred the definitions of child welfare paramountcy. Devices such as balancing exercises have frequently favoured parental interests such as privacy or new family autonomy. A revised statutory welfare checklist for decision-makers, aimed at focusing greater attention on the unique, lifelong vulnerabilities of relinquished or removed children. The aim of the checklist is to frame origin deprivation as an exceptional rather than normative event and thereby minimize the frequency with which it occurs.

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This thesis constitutes an ethnographic exploration of the ways in which conversion to Pentecostalism contributes to redefining some of the principles of kinship in a patrilineal society. It looks beyond notions of individualism often emphasised in studies on Pentecostalism, in order to focus on people’s relationships. In doing so, it explores how relational ruptures brought about by conversion are accommodated along cultural continuities. This study takes place in Pobe and Ikpinle, two semi-rural towns, in a pluri-ethnic and pluri-religious setting with a majority Yoruba population, close to the Beninese border with Nigeria. Studies of Pentecostalism in Africa have emphasised kinship and family relations as one of the areas where, upon conversion, the Pentecostal command to “break with the past” and with “tradition” is most strongly expressed. Ruptures in these areas have been explained as the result of the influence of Pentecostalism in shaping individualist modern subjectivities. However, the ethnographic material presented here reveals that, although discursively these ruptures are often articulated as radical, in practice they do not always appear as such. Converts still depend on and cultivate their social relationships with their kin. Through a process of breaking and re-making, Pentecostalism opens a space for redefining forms of relating, through a selective reappropriation of certain cultural norms and values. The thesis also looks at some of the dilemmas that Christian notions of kinship bring about in this context, and the specific ways in which Pentecostals - compared to members of other Christian denominations - deal with them. This thesis draws on anthropological studies and debates on funerals, time, descent, marriage, gender, ethics and moral dilemmas, in order to explore how the Pentecostal project of “breaking with the past” shapes different aspects of people’s kinship. It aims to contribute to the literature on the anthropology of Christianity by exploring the complexities of this form of religion, as it appears in one of its denominational variants in a pluri-religious setting.