Suzanne Lallemand, giving birth to thought – Libération

“Journal des africanistes” dedicates its June issue to the anthropologist specializing in parenthood in the West and beyond.

In 1981, Suzanne Lallemand, associated with Guy Le Moal, wrote in “Un petit sujet” (Journal of Africanists), a landmark article: “In the field of childhood […]another source of information could be the study of kinship; in fact it involves the intergenerational relationships of the child to the ascendants, of the grandson to the grandfather, of the nephew to the uterine uncle.” These are the emblematic lines of this collective review that show to what extent Suzanne Lallemand’s texts have provided a foundation of knowledge and understanding that have pertinently illuminated the realities of parenthood, both those of exotic societies and those of the current West. In the June issue, more than ten researchers pay tribute to Suzanne Lallemand – it is impossible to name them all. An interesting article by Doris Bonnet, “When sterility questions the nature of family ties”, continues, on the theme of “to create a family by fostering children”, the anthropologist’s major book, The Circulation of Children in Traditional Society. Loan, Gift, Exchange (l’Harmattan, 1993). The author had inventoried different forms of child mobility beyond Africa itself: when, for example, a couple is lacking descendants, what transfer or childbearing strategy is then at play? Is it part of filiation or alliance? A question dear to anthropologists… The Cameroonian women studied by Doris Bonnet make