Two points I wanted to make:
a) In my personal experience which may indeed be limited. I have seen adopted
children in Goan families in the 21st century. They are treated with tremendous
amount of love. No one will ever guess that these children are adopted. There
are two in my own extended family. They are adopted which means by todays
prevailing laws they have full right to inheritance, as indeed my adopted
family members have inherited -much to the chagrin of blood relatives. They
have also married either by way of proposal or having fallen in love and have
(naturally) pretty large families of their own, perhaps to make up for lack of
blood relatives whilst growing up.
b) Some of the poskens of yesteryears were mulattos or of mixed African-Goan
heritage (this is not to be mixed up with mestizos although there must have
been those too). These mulattos might have been sired by the African troops
occassionally stationed in Goa. They were taken in by Goan families and looked
after. They are now completely assimilated into mainstream society to the
extent that you wouldn't even recognise their African heritage, unless you knew
the history.
Take care,
selma
