<![CDATA[The keluarga piara (community-based foster family) tradition is a culturally embedded kinship practice in Waer Village, Central Maluku Regency, Indonesia, through which local families voluntarily accept newcomers into their households. This practice not only provides temporary accommodation but also represents a form of culturally based hospitality that fosters social acceptance, emotional closeness, and family-like relationships. Despite its long-standing existence, studies examining how foster families establish and maintain relationships with foster children after the co-residence period remain limited. This study aims to analyze the construction of the keluarga piara tradition as a household-based accommodation model grounded in hospitality values and to identify the strategies employed by foster families to maintain relationships with foster children after the co-residence period ends. This study employed a qualitative approach using the grounded theory method. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, participant observation, and documentation involving nine purposively selected informants, consisting of four foster families and five foster children. Data were analyzed through the stages of open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. The findings reveal that the keluarga piara tradition is built upon social acceptance, personal care, kinship terms of address, and the involvement of foster children in household and productive activities, fostering trust, a sense of belonging, and emotional attachment. These relationships are sustained through continuous communication, reciprocity, return visits, and emotional commitment. This study concludes that the keluarga piara tradition functions as a mechanism for establishing long-term family relationships based on hospitality, reciprocity, and social acceptance, while enriching the discourse on culturally grounded hospitality.]]>
