Adoption has long been shrouded in secrecy. This has led to the fabrication of many fantasies for adoptees in order to cope with the unknown.

An immaculate conception was a recurring fantasy as the father is scarcely mentioned in early adoption records. The unwed mother assumed all responsibility for her ‘shameful’ condition. The father was regularly known only by his initials: P.F. Putative Father. 1

PUTATIVE; adj., Assumed to exist or to have existed.

As the unwed mother was seen as a FALLEN WOMAN, so an adoptee could feel like s/he fell from the sky. There was also a common belief in young adoptees that they were HATCHED. 2 The buried subject of their biological heritage led them to believe that their lives started when they were adopted, instead of when they were born.

The Old World cuckoo, with the cuckoo-clock voice (…) lays its eggs in the nests of other birds. Each female seems to have certain preferred bird species for victims. The foster parent may hatch and raise the youngster, which has a spot on its back that is markedly sensitive for some days. If an egg or nestling comes in contact with this spot on the cuckoo's back, the young cuckoo rises up so that the egg or nestling then topples out of the nest! (…) 3

Note the attribution of the word VICTIM to the foster parents: likewise the cuckoo bird is often referred to as a CRIMINAL. The language which shapes the study of birds often reveals society’s own biases. The mythology around birds, especially 'brood parasites' like the CUCKOO BIRD and the cowbird, and the study of their social groupings and nesting habits often surface throughout the history of geneology, marriage and adoption.

1 GONE TO AN AUNT'S — REMEMBERING CANADA'S HOME FOR UNWED MOTHERS, Anne Petrie, McClelland & Stewart Inc.: Toronto, 1998 (p.113)

2 THE STRANGER WHO BORE ME — ADOPTEE & BIRTHMOTHER RELATIONSHIPS, Karen March, University of Toronto Press: Toronto, 1995 (p.33)

3 THE FAMILY LIFE OF BIRD, Ralph S. Palmer in The Book of Knowledge Volume 14 (p. 5139)

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