Empire's Children

by Saada, Emmanuelle; Goldhammer, Arthur

• ISBN13: 9780226733081
• ISBN10: 0226733084
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-03-02
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

Europe's imperial projects were often predicated on a series of legal and scientific distinctions that were frequently challenged by the reality of social and sexual interactions between the colonized and the colonizers.When Emmanuelle Saada discovered a 1928 decree defining the status of persons of mixed parentage born in French Indochina-the métis-she found not only a remarkable artifact of colonial rule, but a legal bombshell that introduced race into French law for the first time. The decree was the culmination of a decades-long effort to resolve the "métis question": the educational, social, and civil issues surrounding the mixed population. Operating at the intersection of history, anthropology, and law, Empire's Childrenreveals the unacknowledged but central role of race in the definition of French nationality. Through extensive archival work in both France and Vietnam, and a close reading of primary and secondary material from the Pacific islands and sub-Saharan and North Africa, Saada has created in Empire's Childrenan original and compelling perspective on colonialism, law, race, and culture from the end of the nineteenth century until decolonization.

Author Biography

Emmanuelle Saada is associate professor of French at Columbia University.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Le Métissage: A Colonial Social Problem
An Imperial Question	p. 13
A Threat to the Colonial Order	p. 43
"Reclassifying" the Métis	p. 67
The Law Takes Up the "Métis Question"
Nationality and Citizenship in the Colonial Situation	p. 95
The Controversy over "Fraudulent Recognitions"	p. 121
Investigating Paternity in the Colonies	p. 147
Citizens by Virtue of Race	p. 171
The Force of Law
The Effects of Citizenship	p. 207
Identities under the Law	p. 223
French Nationality and Citizenship Reconsidered	p. 243
Conclusion	p. 257
Notes	p. 261
Bibliography	p. 307
Index	p. 329
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