A Question of Legitimacy: Recuperating the Matronym in 19th-Century France

A Question of Legitimacy: Recuperating the Matronym in 19^th-Century France interrogates the linkage between the matronym and illegitimacy. In France, a matronymic was possible only beyond the bounds of marriage, and thus outside of legal legitimacy, reflecting the cultural irrelevance of the female line. The absence of the father’s name bastardized or de-legitimized the child and socially marginalized the mother. In contrast, the matrilineal Touareg (nomadic Berbers living in French West Africa and Algeria) privileged the maternal line at the expense of the paternal, terming themselves “son/daughter of the mother.” The suffragist Hubertine Auclert lauded Touareg matrilineality, linking it to Touareg women’s relatively high status. She and other social critics including the utopian Suzanne Voilquin and the jurist Raoul de la Grasserie challenged France’s denigration of the matronym.  My paper will examine the concept of illegitimacy, and the social, economic, and political implications for those carrying its mark.