Reciprocity and Retribution: Negotiating Gender and Power in Fin-De-Siècle Paris

Abstract

Drawing on 251 cases of “crimes of passion” from the fin-de-siècle assize court of the Seine, this article analyzes the terrain of conflict in domestic partnerships among the working poor of Paris. Read in an ethnographic light, the copious testimony in such cases from the couples, their friends, and their neighbors reveals that men and women owed each other reciprocal but incongruous obligations concerning money, sexual fidelity, and household services. When one partner failed to uphold his or her end of the implicit domestic bargain, the other partner could use violence as a form of retributive punishment that was legitimate in the eyes of the community and the court.