Sex, Law, and Sovereignty in French Algeria, 1830-1930 / Judith Surkis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Surkis, Judith, Author.

Series:

Corpus Juris: The Humanities in Politics and Law

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women--Legal status, laws, etc--Algeria--History.

Women.

Muslims--Legal status, laws, etc--Algeria--History.

Muslims.

Domestic relations (Islamic law)--Algeria--History.

Domestic relations (Islamic law).

Islamic law--Algeria--History.

Islamic law.

Algeria--History--1830-1962.

Algeria.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (354 pages).

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

During more than a century of colonial rule over Algeria, the French state shaped and reshaped the meaning and practice of Muslim law by regulating it and circumscribing it to the domain of family law, while applying the French Civil Code to appropriate the property of Algerians. In Sex, Law, and Sovereignty in French Algeria, 1830-1930, Judith Surkis traces how colonial authorities constructed Muslim legal difference and used it to deny Algerian Muslims full citizenship. In disconnecting Muslim law from property rights, French officials increasingly attached it to the bodies, beliefs, and personhood.Surkis argues that powerful affective attachments to the intimate life of the family and fantasies about Algerian women and the sexual prerogatives of Muslim men, supposedly codified in the practices of polygamy and child marriage, shaped French theories and regulatory practices of Muslim law in fundamental and lasting ways. Women's legal status in particular came to represent the dense relationship between sex and sovereignty in the colony. This book also highlights the ways in which Algerians interacted with and responded to colonial law. Ultimately, this sweeping legal genealogy of French Algeria elucidates how "the Muslim question" in France became-and remains-a question of sex.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

NOTE ON TRANSLATION AND TRANSLITERATION

INTRODUCTION

1. BODIES OF FRENCH ALGERIAN LAW

2. POLYGAMY, PUBLIC ORDER, AND PROPERTY

3. MAKING THE "MUSLIM FAMILY"

4. CIVILIZATION, THE CIVIL CODE, AND "CHILD MARRIAGE"

5. SPECIAL MOEURS AND MILITARY EXCEPTIONS

6. CONVERSION, MIXED MARRIAGE, AND THE CORPOREALIZATION OF LAW

7. THE SEXUAL POLITICS OF LEGAL REFORM

8. COLONIAL LITERATURE AND CUSTOMARY LAW

EPILOGUE. Sex and the Centenary

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 06. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9781501739507

1501739506

9781501739514

1501739514

OCLC:

1089839922