Signe Howell

• Howell, Signe Lise (2019). The Interface between Kinship and Politics in Three Different Social Settings, In Sandra Bamford (ed.),  The Cambridge handbook of Kinship.  Cambridge University Press.  ISBN 978-1-107-04118-9.  Part VI Kinship and the Nation-State.  s 658 - 674
• Howell, Signe Lise (2018). The Kinning of the Transnationally Adopted Child in Contemporary Norway, In Gill Rye; Victoria Browne; Adalgisa Giorgio; Emily Jeremiah & Abigail Lee Six (ed.),  Motherhood in Literature and Culture: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from Europe.  Routledge.  ISBN 9781138648173.  Chapter 8.  s 111 - 124
• Howell, Signe Lise (2017). Different Knowledge Regimes and Some Consequences for ‘Sustainability’, In Marc Brightman & Jerome Lewis (ed.),  The Anthropology of Sustainability:Beyond Development and Progress.  Palgrave Macmillan.  ISBN 978-1-137-56635-5.  Chapter.  s 127 - 143
• Howell, Signe Lise (2017). Different Knowledge Regimes and Some Consequences for ‘Sustainability’, In Marc Brightman & Jerome Lewis (ed.),  The Anthropology of Sustainability:Beyond Development and Progress.  Palgrave Macmillan.  ISBN 9781137566355.  Chapter 8.  s 127 - 143
• Howell, Signe Lise (2017). Rules without rulers? Comment on Sahlins, Marshall. 2017. “The original political society.”. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory.  ISSN 2049-1115.  7(2), s 143- 147 . doi: 10.14318/hau7.2.018
• Howell, Signe Lise (2017). Two or three things I love about ethnography. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory.  ISSN 2049-1115.  7(1), s 15- 20 . doi: 10.14318/hau7.1.004
• Howell, Signe Lise (2016). Battle of cosmologies: The catholic church, Adat, and ‘Inculturation’ among Northern Lio, Indonesia. Social Analysis: The International Journal of Anthropology.  ISSN 0155-977X.  60(4), s 21- 39 . doi: 10.3167/sa.2016.600402
• Howell, Signe Lise (2016). Seeing and knowing: Metamorphosis and the fragility of species in Chewong animistic ontology, In Kaj Arhem & Guido Sprenger (ed.),  Animism in Southeast Asia.  Routledge.  ISBN 9780415713795.  Part 2.  s 55 - 72
• Howell, Signe Lise (2016). The Relationality of Species in Chewong Animistic Ontology, In Bjørn Enge Bertelsen & Synnøve Kristine Nepstad Bendixsen (ed.),  Critical Anthropological Engagements in Human Alterity and Difference.  Palgrave Macmillan.  ISBN 978-3-319-40474-5.  Chapter 2.  s 43 - 63
• Howell, Signe Lise (2016). Transnational Families: Changes in Adoption and the Diffusion of Western Norms, In Shalini Randeria (ed.),  Border Crossings.Grenzverschiebungen und Grenzüberschreitungen in einer globalisierten Welt.  vdf Hochschulverlag AG an der ETH Zürich.  ISBN 978-3-7281-3140-9.  Del 2.  s 155 - 178
• Howell, Signe Lise (2015). Antropologi - et verneverdig fag?. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift.  ISSN 0802-7285.  (2), s 178- 184
• Howell, Signe Lise (2015). Politics of appearances: Some reasons why the UN-REDD project in Central Sulawesi failed to unite the various stakeholders. Asia Pacific Viewpoint.  ISSN 1360-7456.  56(1), s 37- 47 . doi: 10.1111/apv.12081
• Howell, Signe Lise (2014). "No rights - no REDD": Some implications of a turn towards co-benefits. Forum for Development Studies.  ISSN 0803-9410.  41(2), s 253- 272 . doi: 10.1080/08039410.2014.901241
• Howell, Signe Lise (2014). "The Best Interest of the Child":Global Governmentality and Transnational Adoption. Beiträge zur Afrika - Forschung.  ISSN 0938-7285.  40, s 137- 150
• Howell, Signe Lise (2013). Divide and Rule: Nature and Society in a Global Forest Programme, In Kirsten Hastrup (ed.),  Anthropology and Nature.  Routledge.  ISBN 978-0-203-79536-1.  Kapittel 9.  s 147 - 166
• Howell, Signe Lise (2013). Metamorphosis and Identity: Chewong animistic ontology, In Graham Harvey (ed.),  The handbook of contemporary animism.  Acumen Publishing.  ISBN 978-1-84465-711-7.  Part 2. Dwelling in Nature/Culture.  s 101 - 112
• Howell, Signe Lise & Lillegraven, Anja L (2013). Cash, Culture and Social Change: Why don't Chewong Become Entrepreneurs?, In Eldar Bråten (ed.),  Embedded entrepreneurship: Market, culture, and micro-business in insular Southeast Asia.  Brill Academic Publishers.  ISBN 978-90-04-25028-4.  Chapter 13.  s 275 - 297
• Howell, Signe Lise (2012). Cumulative Understandings:Experiences from the Study of Two Southeast Asian Societies, In Signe Lise Howell & Aud Talle (ed.),  Returns to the Field.  Indiana University Press.  ISBN 978-0-253-22348-7.  Del 2, Chapter 6.  s 153 - 180
• Howell, Signe Lise (2012). Knowledge, Morality, and Causality in a 'Luckless' Society: The Case of the Chewong in the Malaysian Rain Forest. Social Analysis: The International Journal of Anthropology.  ISSN 0155-977X.  56(1), s 133- 147
• Howell, Signe Lise & Talle, Aud (2012). Introduction, In Signe Lise Howell & Aud Talle (ed.),  Returns to the Field.  Indiana University Press.  ISBN 978-0-253-22348-7.  Introduction.  s 1 - 22
• Howell, Signe Lise (2011). Antropologiens uutholdelige letthet. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift.  ISSN 0802-7285.  (3-4), s 167- 178
• Howell, Signe Lise (2011). Sources of Sociality in a Cosmological Frame: Chewong, Peninsular Malaysia, In Thomas Gibson & Kenneth Sillander (ed.),  Anarchic Solidarity, Autonomy, Equality , and Fellowship in Southeast Asia.  Yale University Press.  ISBN 978-0-938692-94-2.  2.  s 40 - 62
• Howell, Signe Lise (2011). The Uneasy Move from Hunting,Gathering and Shifting Cultivation to Settled Agriculture:the Case of the Chewong(Malaysia)The Uneasy Move from Hunting,Gathering and Shifting Cultivation to Settled Agriculture:the Case of the Chewong(Malaysia), In Graeme Barker & Monica Janowski (ed.),  Why cultivate? Anthropological and Archaeological Approaches to Foraging-Farming Transitions in Southeast Asia.  McDonald Institute.  ISBN 978-1-902937-58-8.  Chapter 7.  s 95 - 105
• Howell, Signe Lise (2011). Whatever happened to the spirit of adventure, In Holger Jebens & Karl-Heinz Kohl (ed.),  The End of anthropology?.  Sean Kingston Publishing.  ISBN 978-1-907774-05-8.  s 139 - 154
• Howell, Signe Lise (2010). Global Governmentality: The Case of Transnational Adoption, In Kamari Maxine Clarke & Mark Goodale (ed.),  Mirrors of Justice. Law and Power in the Post-Cold War Era.  Cambridge University Press.  ISBN 9780521195379.  Chapter 4.  s 87 - 106
• Howell, Signe Lise (2010). Norwegian Academic Anthropologists in Public Spaces. Current Anthropology.  ISSN 0011-3204.  51, s S269- S277 . doi: 10.1086/652907
• Howell, Signe Lise (2010). Whatever happened to the spirit of adventure?. Paideuma: Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde.  ISSN 0078-7809.  56, s 189- 205
• Howell, Signe Lise (2009). Accelerated Globalisation and the Conflicts of Values Seen Through the Lens of Transnational Adoption: A Comparative Perspective, In Monica Heintz (ed.),  The Anthropology of Moralities.  Berghahn Books.  ISBN 978-1-84545-592-7.  Kapittel 5.  s 81 - 102
• Howell, Signe Lise (2009). Adoption of the Unrelated Child: Some Challenges to the Anthropological Study of Kinship. Annual Review of Anthropology.  ISSN 0084-6570.  38, s 149- 166 . doi: 10.1146/annurev.anthro.37.081407.085115
• Howell, Signe Lise (2009). La voix du sang: adoptés et immigrés dans les discours sur la biologie et la culture. Ethnologie Française.  ISSN 0046-2616.  (2), s 331- 341
• Howell, Signe Lise (2009). “Return Journeys and the Search for Roots: Contradictory Values regarding Identity.”, In Diana Marre & L.R. Briggs (ed.),  International Adoption: Global Inequalities and the Circulation of Children.  New York University Press.  ISBN 978-0-8147-9102-8.  Part three.  s 256 - 271
• Howell, Signe Lise & Marre, Diana (2009). Discours sur la destinée et adoption internationale, I: Enric Porqueres i Gené (red.),  Défis contemporains de la paranté.  L'École des hautes études en sciences sociales.  ISBN 978-2-7132-2221-4.  Kapittel 9.  s 197 - 216
• Melhuus, Marit & Howell, Signe Lise (2009). Adoption and Assisted Conception: One Universe of Unnatural Procreation. An Examination of Norwegian Legislation, In Jeanette Edwards & Carles Salazar (ed.),  European Kinship in the Age of Biotechnology.  Berghahn Books.  ISBN 978-1-84545-573-6.  Kapittel 9.  s 144 - 162
• Howell, Signe Lise (2008). Global styringsmentalitet og begreper om rettferdighet motstridende forståelser av barn og transnasjonal adopsjon. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift.  ISSN 0802-7285.  19(2/3), s 122- 135
• Howell, Signe Lise (2007). "Imagined Kin,Place and Community:Some Paradoxes in the Transnational Movement of Children in Adoption", In Marianne Elisabeth Lien & Marit Melhuus (ed.),  Holding Worlds Together: Ethnographies of Knowing and Belonging.  Berghahn Books.  ISBN 978-1-84545-250-6.  Kapittel 2.  s 17 - 37
• Howell, Signe Lise (2007). "Relations with the imagined child: the emotionality of becoming an adoptive parent in Norway.", In Helena Wulf (ed.),  The Emotions: A Cultural Reader.  Berg Publishers.  ISBN 978-1-84520-368-9.  Kapittel.  s 179 - 198
• Melhuus, Marit & Howell, Signe Lise (2007). Race, Biology and Culture in Contemporary Norway: Identity and Belonging in Adoption, Donor Gametes and Immigration, In Peter Wade (ed.),  Race, Ethnicity, and Nation:Perspectives from Kinship and Genetics.  Berghahn Books.  ISBN 978-1-84545-355-8.  Kapittel 3.  s 53 - 73
• Howell, Signe Lise (2006). Changes in Moral Values About The Family: Adoption Legislation in Norway and the US. Social Analysis: The International Journal of Anthropology.  ISSN 0155-977X.  50(3), s 146- 163
• Howell, Signe Lise & Marre, D (2006). To kin a transnationally adopted child in Norway and Spain: The achievement of resemblances and belonging. Ethnos.  ISSN 0014-1844.  71, s 293- 316
• Howell, Signe Lise (2004). Quién soy, entonces? Perspectivas de los adoptados transnacionales acerca de la identidad y la etnia, I: Diana Marre & Joan Bestard (red.),  La adopción y el acogimiento. Presente y perspectivas.  Departament d'Antropologia Cultural i Historia d'América i África.  ISBN 84-475-2864-2.  Kapittel 8.  s 197 - 221
• Howell, Signe Lise (2004). �The backpackers that come to stay: New challenges to Norwegian transnational adoptive families �, In Fiona Bowie (ed.),  Cross-cultural approaches to adoption.  Routledge.  ISBN 0415303516.  Kapittel.  s 227 - 242
• Howell, Signe Lise (2003). Kinning: the creation of life trajectories in transnational adoptive families. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.  ISSN 1359-0987.  9(3)
• Howell, Signe Lise (2003). The house as analytic concept: A theoretical overview, In S Sparks & Signe Lise Howell (ed.),  The House in Southeast Asia.  Routledge.  ISBN 0-7007-1157-0.  s 16 - 34 Show summary

  Through this rapid examination of some of the potentially rich interpretative harvests that the house offers social scientists, historians and others, I have focused primarily on anthropological concerns. A major advantage of the house as an analytic focus is, as stated above, the fact of its materiality. It is the numerous insubstantive concepts that are generated from it which presents such opportunities for enhanced knowledge about any one society. However much the abstract concepts are deconstructed, the house itself remains. In other words, the house consists of much more than bricks and mortar (or wood, bamboo, straw and thatch), but it does also consist of those elements. By using the house as an analytic concept anthropologists can to some extent avoid the pitfalls of definitions and hence, engage in more meaningful comparative research. Houses are built everywhere, homes are created everywhere, sociality is constructed everywhere in terms of relationships somehow grounded in birth, marriage, living together and death. The background to organizing the conference on which this collection of essays is based was precisely to examine the analytic potential of studying the multiple meanings of the house. The authors amply demonstrate the fruitfulness of analysing the house as built environment, as expressing gender and social organization, as expressing relationships between people and the state and, last but not least, the relationship between the house and economic change in particular local settings in Southeast Asia. In studying the house as a multifaceted category, one may approach the complexities of social life in the region and seek new and enhanced understandings of profound social and cultural phenomena and processes. I wish to conclude, however, by insisting that despite a recent interest in the analytical and interpretative potential of the house, much remains to be explored. The house as the object of the anthropological gaze, let alone the historical, the political and the economic gazes will, I suggest, yield hitherto unsuspected new insights into old concerns.

• Howell, Signe Lise (2002). Community beyond place: Adoptive families in Norway, In  Realizing Community.  Routledge.  s 84 - 105 Show summary

  In this chapter I wish to pursue these people's realities and argue that a sense of belonging is vital for human satisfaction. It is, however, possible to belong to many different communities and according to different criteria of belonging. My argument will be that, whereas a large proportion of adoptive parents establish a sense of community amongst themselves, the majority of adopted children do not. Place becomes one important marker of belonging, but it is not by any means the only one, nor necessarily the most important. Moreover, I shall argue that looks need not be a major determining factor when it comes to inclusion or exclusion, but rather cultural attitudes to the significance of looks. This raises questions of degrees of experience of being outsiders and the motivations for belonging, as well as attitudes at large in the dominant society. A related aspect, which I cannot deal with here, is the degree to which exclusion from, or inclusion in, a collectivity may ultimately be regarded as a question of power ? not least a power to define the operative criteria in any given setting.

• Howell, Signe Lise (2002). Nesting, eclipsing and hierarchy. Processes of gendered values among Lio. Social Anthropology.  ISSN 0964-0282.  10(2) Show summary

  Androgynous persons and objects are `hierarchising' (i.e. they order relations asymmetrically). Non-androgynous persons and objects are not. According to my argument, androgyny itself imparts value because of the inherent ability to eclipse nested terms. This makes possible a movement between modes of sociality. Constituting a social context in a male or female mode of sociality is a hierarchical process by which one or the other gender eclipses its opposite and stands forth as superior. However, the superiority lasts only as long as is pertinent, and the mode reverts to a different one once new situations arise. The demands of the context determine the relevant constitution of relatedness between participants. I am suggesting, therefore, that the semantics of a context activates the appropriate gendered mode for relating. This does not occur by separating male and female aspects of the androgynous unit. Rather, relevant activities and actions of participants, and the appropriate employment of significant androgynous items, result in the male or female quality eclipsing its opposite and constituting the mode. Certain objects, certain activities, certain ways of being and acting have strong gendered connotations which are released in certain contexts. I have detected a pattern that indicates that female sociality is constitutive on occasions of fertility - human, agricultural, ancestral - while male sociality is constitutive on occasions of expressive communication, between humans, between humans and ancestors or spirits (Howell 1995a; 1996a). But because of the androgynous nature of priest-leaders, the orchestrators of public and collective events, it is less important what biological sex the main officiates have than that they can constitute the appropriately gendered mode. Hence it is not possible to make a general gendered opposition between maleness and femaleness, each associated with its own activities and sociocultural domain because, not only do these overlap, but their relative value is not constant. Maleness is not, for example, the ultimate superior value standing for the whole which encloses its opposite at all times - except when, on an inferior level, femaleness may be seen to enclose maleness (cf. Dumont). Rather, maleness and femaleness represent separate qualities, but either may stand forth as superior without a corresponding shift in levels. The hierarchical nature of such occasions can usefully be thought of in terms of nested terms, of process of eclipsing, and of relations between relations.

• Howell, Signe Lise (2002). "We People belong in the Forest", In Geoffrey Benjamin & Cynthia Chou (ed.),  Tribal Communities in Malay World.  Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore.  s 254 - 271 Show summary

  Most Chwong have chosen to return to the forest. They have chosen to resume their traditional way of life according to the edicts and values of their ancestors. In making such a move, they have activated their existing knowledge about kinship,descent,cosmology, place and locality. However, this has been supplemented by newly acquired knowledge and goods that are now deemed useful and/or pleasurable. But it has meant leaving behind the daily use of consumners durables(mototbikes,television sets, and smart clothes) and disirable foodstuffs (sugar,biscuits,rise) which they have become accustomed to, while not cutting odd all ties with the outside world.

• Howell, Signe Lise (2001). Creative responses o alien forrces: "relgions", "government", "tradition" as co-exisiting modes of sociality among Northern Lio, Indnesia, In John Liep (ed.),  Locating Cultural Creativity.  Pluto Press,London.  ISBN 0-7453-1702-2.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2001). Feltarbeide i vår egen bakgård: noen refleksjoner rundt nye tendenser i norsk antropologi. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift.  ISSN 0802-7285.  12(1-2)
• Howell, Signe Lise (2001). Issues about gender arising out of Lio kinship terminology, In Catherine Alès & Cécilie Barraud (ed.),  Sexe relatif ou sexe absolu?.  Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme, Paris.  s 229 - 241 Show summary

  Anthropological analyses of gender have tended to seek an idealized version of a clear-cut gender order in any one society. With reference to ethnographic material collected from the northern Lio in eastern Indonesia, I argue that people's subject position, as well as their biological sex, determine their gender. The subject position of people as social persons in specific social contexts may constitute them as male or female actors. However, in other contexts, the subject positions of the same individuals may highlight other aspects of their social personhood. This means that gender may be of constituting importance on some occasions, but of little, or no, relevance on other occasions. This means that the social significance of sex and gender may under certain circumstances be of much less relevance to people concerned than whatever happens to be the overriding purpose of an occasion, healing a sick person, reducing the impact of an earthquake, accumulating gold owed, a matrilateral affine, etc. In this paper, I will focus on kin and affinal terminology and their usages as another entrée to ascertain the social expression of gender.

• Howell, Signe Lise (2001). Recontextualizing Tradition, In  Locating Cultural Creativity.  Pluto Press, London.  ISBN 07-45-31702-2. Show summary

  While most Lio appear to have incorporated Catholicism and 'Indonesianism' into their personal and social identities, I argue that these are subordinated to their sense of being Lio, as this is predicated upon adat.("tradition")However one chooses to view the situation, it is clear that operating three separate discursive practices leads to a reduction in the political and religious autonomy of the Lio village domains. Uniformity of perceptions about reality has been lost.. Any rapid change that affects a cosmology must necessarily affect people's orientation in their world and thereby their relationship to the world and to each other. Dramatic challenges from outside have meant that many details in adat itself have altered more rapidly than might otherwise have been the case. Nevertheless, underlying traditional principles continue to mould practice,and constitute existential meaning for the Lio people. Adat is recontextualized, not creolized. The cultural creativity performed by the various social categories of the Lio people has been, precisely, to rind a viable balance between renouncement, readjustment and continuation of values and practices. My example is not presented as a unique instance of cultural creativity by weak and strong groups respectively. Rather, I wish to suggest that it may exemplify a more general social phenomenon,namely that in situations of rapid social change,different motivation generate different strategies within,and among,the groups ivolved.

• Howell, Signe Lise (2001). Self-consciou kinship: some contested values in Norwegian transnatioal adoption, In  Relative values: New directions in kinship studies.  Duke University press. Show summary

  Transnational adoption is so common in Norway that most people have some personal knowledge of it. With an increased public focus on genetics and reproductive technology, which leads to an increasing biologization of discourses about personhood, the public gaze on adoption is correspondingly being biologized. Yet this is a contested domain, and an uneasy set of paradoxes and ambivalences are noticeable in the discourse and practice surrounding transnational adoption. This is largely resolved by the parents through creating a cognitive boundary between contexts. Sometimes biological and sometimes cultural models are foregrounded. Overall, a refocusing from biological to nonbiological children, from their own bodies to social relations can be observed. The shadow of biology, however, always looms in the background, making most discursive practices hybrid.

• Howell, Signe Lise (2000). "En vanlig familie": Utenlandsadopsjon i Norge, et stadig voksende fenomen, I:  Blod - tykkere enn vann? Betydninger av slektskap i Norge.  Fagbokforlaget.  ISBN 82-7674-555-5.
• Howell, Signe Lise (1999). "Biologizing and de-biologizing kinship: Some paradoxes in Norwegian transnational adoption", In Anne-Lise Rygvold & Barbro Sætersdal (ed.),  Mine - Yours - Ouers and Theirs: Adoption, changing kinskip and family patterns..  Oslo, University of Oslo, Department of Special Needs Education.  s 32 - 52
• Howell, Signe Lise (1999). "Den vanlige familie: norske adoptivfamiliers verdier og ønsker". Verdens barn : medlemsblad for Verdens Barn / Norsk Koreaforening.  ISSN 0800-3521.  11(4), s 5- 6

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• Howell, Signe Lise & Talle, Aud (ed.) (2012). Returns to the Field. Indiana University Press.  ISBN 978-0-253-22348-7.  275 s.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2006). Chewong Women in Transition: The Effectss of monetization on a hunter-gatherer society. Centre for Orang Asli Affairs.  ISBN 983-43248-0-4.  30 s.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2006). The Kinning of Foreigners: Transnational Adoption in a Global Perspective. Berghahn Books.  ISBN 1-84545-184-8.  255 s.
• Sparks, S & Howell, Signe Lise (red.) (2003). The House in Southeast Asia. Routledge.  ISBN 0-7007-1157-0.
• Howell, Signe Lise & Melhuus, Marit (red.) (2001). Blod, tykkere enn vann? Betydninger av slektskap i Norge. Fagbokforlaget, Bergen..  ISBN 82-7674-555-5.
• Howell, Signe Lise & Melhuus, Marit (red.) (2001). Blod-tykkere enn vann. Fagbokforlaget.  ISBN 978-82-7674-555-9.  243 s.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2000). Blod - tykkere enn vann? Betydninger av slektskap i Norge. Fagbokforlaget.  ISBN 82-7674-555-5.  239 s. Show summary

  Hva handler slektskap om og hvilken betydning har slektskap i dagens Norge? er spørmålene adressert av en rekke studenter og forskere i sosialantropologi. Temaer inkluderer: odelsrett, nyere reproduktiv teknologi, internasjonal adoptsjon, kirkegårder, organtransplantasjon,. familiebedrifter og lesbisk foreldreskap.

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• Howell, Signe Lise (2008). Cosmological knowledge and indigenous theory of causation: Personhood, power and morality of Chewong (Malaysia) and Lio (Indonesia).
• Howell, Signe Lise (2008). Norwegian academic anthopolgists in public places.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2008). Norwegian academic anthropologists in public places.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2008). 'The Best Interest of the Child' Global governementality and transantional.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2008). Transnational families: the gløobaløisation of adoption norms and the kinning of strangers.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2008). Whatever happended to the spirit of adventure?.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2006). Change and continuity closely observed: A Malaysian minority in a global world.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2006). Chewong through time: perceived opportunities, coercions and/or choice.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2006). Imagined kin, place, and community: the conflict between 'the naked child' and the psychological pull of origins.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2006). "Some changes in moral values concerning childhood as expressed in adoption legislation". Show summary

  Signe Howell er professor ved Sosialantropolgisk Institutt, UiO, og har i de senere år foretatt forskning på utenlandsadopsjon som en del av klassisk antropologisk slektskapstudie og som en manifestasjon av globalisering. Hun har publisert en rekke artikler rundt temaet, og boken "The Kinning of Foreigners: Transnational adoption in a global perspective" blir publisert i løpet av våren 2006.

• Howell, Signe Lise (2006). The best interest of the Child: a slogan with global ambitions.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2006). The resilience of culture? Some insights from longitudinal fieldwork.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2006). Transnational adoption: An example of global governmentality.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2005). Attitudes to foreigners in contempory Norway.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2005). Changes in moral values about childhood as expressed in adoption legislation.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2005). "I'm Korean on the outside and Norwegian on the inside" Some patterns in the constgruction of personhood among transantionally adopted childern.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2005). Imagined kin, place and community: Some paradoxes in the transnational movemetn of children in adoption.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2005). The meaning of"home" in transantional adoption discourses and adoptees' perspectives on identity and ethnicity.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2005). The significance of sociality in Chewong construction of 'landscape'.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2005). The war of cosmologies: The Catholic Church on Flores.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2005). To kin a foreign child in Norway and Spain: Notions of resemblance and the achievemetn of belonging.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2004). A question of difference: transantioally adoptees and immigrants in Norway.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2004). Eksporter ideen om "barnets beste". Apollon : Forskningsmagasin for Universitetet i Oslo.  ISSN 0803-6926.  (1), s 8- 9
• Howell, Signe Lise (2004). Noen paradokser i norks utenlandsadopsjon.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2004). Place and body: Adoptees' perceptions of identity.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2004). Public Understanding of Genetics and Governance in Europe. Show summary

  THe Public Understaning of Genetics: A cross-cultural study of the "new genetics" and social identity European Commission Fifth Framework Perogramme: Quality of Life Management of Living Recources

• Howell, Signe Lise (2004). Public Understanding of Genetics: Public Understanding of Genetics and Family in Europe. Show summary

  THe Public Understaning of Genetics: A cross-cultural study of the "new genetics" and social identity European Commission Fifth Framework Perogramme: Quality of Life Management of Living Recources

• Howell, Signe Lise (2004). Public Understanding of Genetics: Race and etnicity in Europe. Show summary

  THe Public Understaning of Genetics: A cross-cultural study of the "new genetics" and social identity European Commission Fifth Framework Perogramme: Quality of Life Management of Living Recources

• Howell, Signe Lise (2004). The Dynamics of Peace.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2004). Transantioanl Adoption, a challenge to "blood is thicker than water".
• Howell, Signe Lise (2004). Unrelated kin and the creation of virtual imagined place and community: Some paradoxes in the transanational movement of children in adoption.
• Howell, Signe Lise (2004). Who am I then? Adoptees' perspectives on idnetity and ethnicity.
• Howell, Signe Lise & Ulfsnes, Kari-Anne (2002). Hvem er adoptivsøkerne, slik de presenterer seg i adopsjonssøknader?. Verdens barn : medlemsblad for Verdens Barn / Norsk Koreaforening.  ISSN 0800-3521.  14(1), s 7- 11 Show summary

  Artikkelen oppsummerer funn fra en undersøkelse av arkiverte adopsjonssøknader hos adopsjonsforeningen Verdens Barn, hvor formålet var å få et bilde av adoptivsøkernes bakgrunn og motivasjoner. Konklusjonen er at adoptivsøkere ikke skiller seg vesentlig ut fra befolkningen forøvrig.

• Howell, Signe Lise (2001). Tilbakereise til India; resultater fra en spørreundersøkelse. Adopsjonsforum.  ISSN 0802-7617.  26(4)
• Howell, Signe Lise (1998). "Autobiography and Writing".
• Howell, Signe Lise (1998). "Bioteknologiens etiske,juridiske og sosiale aspekter".
• Howell, Signe Lise (1998). "Bureaucracy,Policy and Ritual Practice".
• Howell, Signe Lise (1998). "Chewong cosmology", In  Encylopedia Malaysia,"Peoples and Cultures.".  Editons Didier,Kuala Lumpur..
• Howell, Signe Lise (1998). "Cultural Concept of Personhood".

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