Changement de nom, changement de paternité et de sexualité

Abstract

The replacement of “patronymic” by “name”, in January 2005, is the result of a long process, which since the late 19th century, has gradually abolished the privileges reserved for the paternal function. It is interesting to note that, during this process, the most important laws that confirmed the division of parental responsibilities between spouses of a couple were enacted in the 1970s, at a time when, following the generalization of the contraceptive pill, other laws both granted young teens free access to condoms, and young women permission to voluntarily interrupt pregnancy. Equality of man and woman in marriage as well as the separation of procreation and sexuality were thus jointly ratified, allowing the question to arise: is there a link between change in paternity and change of sex? A comparison of patri- and matrilineal kinship systems studied by anthropologists tend to show that procreation and sexuality are indeed separated when the representative of the law of the filiation group (role of the maternal uncle) and the representative of the law of exchanges (role of the father) are different. This change of law was no stranger to a change in pedagogy, which from the beginning of the 1980s gave birth to support groups open to parents in educational associations. Integrating children into society was no longer just a question of relying on the group but also on networks of exchange.